Campbells go to Campbeltown

Monday

Last night Thomas had sent me a PDF of a presentation he’d made all about the Neolithic age. They are doing it at school in History but this wasn’t homework. He wanted to research it and use his computer skills too. He’s quite a nerdy 7 year old. It used to be dinosaurs.

We woke to a wonderfully bright morning and as friend Linda reminded us, the area is famous for Standing Stones which would be of interest to Thomas too.

But first we had about 14 miles of twisty single track road to negotiate, reversing the van into a passing place when speedy vehicles appeared over the brow of a hill. It took 45 minutes to cover the 14 miles but at Tarbert we reached the A road for Campbeltown and it was quite speedy then. However there was no parking place anywhere near our first objective Ballochroy. We found a place a mile down the road so it was an u pleasant walk back along the road, busy with fast traffic. I made enquiries from a woman in her garden who said to take a farm track further along the road. A farmer was usually with his sheep in a pen and said one of his gates had been broken by visitors looking for the stones so not to climb over it, just open it. We found the 3 stones from where the setting sun at summer solstice can be seen over the Paps of Jura (Corbetts climbed by us a few years back). At winter solstice it sets over Islay we were told by another farmer on our way down. He was driving in his quad bike with a couple of collies.

We drove on in glorious sunshine, stopping for la picnic by a beautiful beach, to visit Campbeltown. It would be wrong for Campbell’s not to! It was very quiet with a few people walking about with masks round their chins. I had wanted to go to the museum which had some Stone Age artefacts that I thought I could tell Thomas about but the note on the door said that due to Covid it was closed. We walked round the back to look at the Linda McCartney memorial garden but it too was closed.

On the way back we stopped in a convenient lay-by to climb the steep track up to Beacharr Standing stone, the highest in Kintyre. It was stunning, opposite the island of Gigha. (I would have liked to visit Gigha but thought it was probably best not to go in Covid times. )

I managed 10,000 today steps but my foot objected for every one of them. There is no WiFi tonight so I’ll have to back blip. It is raining steadily. We can’t get radio reception either so it’ll be an early night with a book. ‘The Glass Woman’ by Caroline Lea. I think it must be a Harriet Gilbert recommendation as I have no idea why I’d have bought it!