The Great Garden

I'd been hoping for a continuation of the wonderfully warm and dry weather until today as the ferry to Lismore has a Sunday timetable that fits in well with a day out to this beautiful island. There are only two return journeys, so we left on the first at 11am, planning to return on the second, and last, at 4pm.

I hadn't realised just how windy it was - northerly, I think, which doesn't hit our house as much as most of the other directions! We soon found out after leaving the harbour just how windy it was, with spray flying on board and only half a dozen folk on deck.

After the 55 minute journey which was surprisingly smooth considering the state of the sea, we arrived at the slipway at Achnacroish and set off to walk up the road to the Heritage Centre and cafe which is just over a mile away. Thanks to both having sore knees, hips or legs generally it was harder going than it might have been a year or two ago! The roadside banks were covered with primroses - I doubt if I've ever seen so many anywhere! Early purple orchids too were quite common, and huge clumps of common twayblade were just coming into flower. After lunch in the HC cafe we returned to the ferry slip by the coastal footpath, which has staggering views across to the mountains of the mainland and the snowy summit of Ben Nevis. My Blip today shows a ruined building just below the old Balnagown Mill, which itself is closed up though looks structurally intact. Although many of the trees here are now in leaf, ash is always late and the two above this ruin have hardly begun.

My extra today is Loch Baile a' Ghobhainn, just above the mill and looking beautiful in the bright sunshine.