Fancy a (Couple of) Shag(s)

Finished the trip the way we started, with a wonderful walk along the coast in the sunshine. We were in just the right corner, wandering south from Mealasta. We got as far as a tiny little secluded beach, complete with otter tracks.

It was a truly wonderful day out, and even the Heilan' Coos were sunbathing. Oh, and driving back to the cottage we saw a farmer herding some sheep with his collie. So far so normal... Except he was in a Vauxhall Astra, moving slowly along the singletrack, barking and whistling through the open window. Very odd.

Being the last night we went up the hill from the cottage to the 'Auberge' restaurant and mini-hotel. How on earth an Irish and French husband and wife team found their way to this little corner... Richard, the French half, is the chef, and after 11 years in Edinburgh went the opposite way from his brother (who owns and runs a restaurant in Madrid) and sought out a quiet corner of the world.

Nice meal it was too. Expensive, for sure, and backing onto a table of southerners who were staying there with one know-it-all who had been to the islands before, and the rest seeing Scotland as a whole as some sort of theme park.