Auchindrain

A bright and frosty start to our last full day. We decided to drive through Lochgilphead and back towards Inverary to visit the Auchindrain Museum. This is a very interesting place with both landscape and buildings being past of the museum. I particularly enjoyed seeing the whole in its setting within both the immediate landscape its the location within the West coast landscape where it would have been so typical of the way of living.

Auchindrain, or Achadh an Droighinn (Field of the Blackthorn Tree) in Gaelic, is the last surviving example of a joint tenancy township. This was the common type of settlement before crofting took its place with its individual tenancies. The township consisted of 'outbye' land where cattle were bred and raised cooperatively, and 'inbye' land where some crops were grown using the 'runrig' system of cultivation. Sometimes there were people who were not part of the join tenancy living within the community, and these cottars would most often be craft workers.

We had visited many years ago and had wanted to go again and this was the perfect sort of day to do it. With the bright blue sky and frost on the ground the Autumn colours looked wonderful and the buildings were shown at their best. Well behaved dogs are allowed to go round the township, so we could have Maeve the Deerhound with us. She was most interested in the sheep and hens but the thing that really caught her attention was a scarecrow that was in one of the 'inbye' areas. She wouldn't take her eyes off it until it was out of sight :-) Lunch in the visitor centre was very good too.

In the early afternoon we went round to Inverary and had a walk round. We added another calendar to the one we had bought in Tarbert on Monday to the ones we need for next year.

A drive back along Loch Fyne and then North the short distance to Kilmartin and our last tea and scone at the museum cafe. Then to end our day in favourite places we went to the car park opposite the standing stones at the South end of Kilmartin Glen and sat for a while and looked at the stones and read our books. Back to the house by taking the quiet road that runs parallel to the main road South and runs across the 'Moine Mor' (great moss) and comes out at Bellanoch on the Crinan Canal then driving along to Cairnbaan and going back along the towpath. We have enjoyed our time here as much as any time we have come before and this time have been so lucky with the weather !