Dogs, stones, castles and boats.

Took myself off for a walk this afternoon, but unfortunately, though I need the exercise, my hip/knee/leg was so sore as to make walking a chore rather than a pleasure.

I'd parked at the Corran Halls and taken the back path which joins up with the old carriage drive to Dunollie Castle. This path runs along behind the hotels and houses on the Esplanade. I'm sorry to have to say it, but it's really a pretty disgusting mess, with literally hundreds of cans, bottles and other bits of rubbish littering the slopes below the houses on top of the hill. I later came back along the road and cut through the grounds of the Corran Halls to return to the car park and this is very dirty too - mostly bottles and cans, but I recognised some light fittings that had been torn out of the wall last summer and were still lying there. I don't understand how Oban can be advertised as a wonderful holiday destination - whatever do the tourists think? Maybe they don't notice. The council should treat it as priority - another letter to the Oban Times coming up!

OK, enough. I walked further along the drive and as the view opened up the sun began to shine though the sky was quite dark. Two ferries were approaching down the Sound of Mull - one distant, later proved to be the 'Isle of Mull' and one nearer, which turned out to be the 'Clansman'. Low clouds were hanging over the Morven and Mull hills - quite dramatic.

As you walk further along the drive you pass beside the Dog Stone. This free-standing stone is probably all that's left of an arch in the cliffs.
Celtic folk lore has it that the giant, Finn the Fingal of MacPherson, also known as Ossian, used to tie his legendary dog Bran to the stone - it must have been a whopper of a dog! These cliffs are conglomerate and very ancient. 400 million years - or was it only 40 million?

My Blip today is of the Dog Stone with Dunollie Castle in the background. As an extra I've used a picture of the 'Isle of Mull' coming in to Oban past the tiny Dunollie lighthouse, which is just beside the road to Ganavan.