Isla, Pladda, Alisa Craig and the Dyke Swarm

We had planned to do a lengthy circular walk starting and finishing at Whiting Bay the highlight being the Dyke Swarm on Kildonan beach. So torrential was the rain that we diverted to the Glenashdale Falls and the Giants’ Graves, the former were spectacular in full torrent. Soaked we returned to the Lamlash Sleephuts to change and have our picnic lunch in the cookhouse. However the weather changed completely and once in dry clothes we sat eating outside with our waterproofs steaming in the sunshine.

P was particularly keen to see the Dyke Swarm - extraordinary walls of black igneous rock formed when the basalt magma oozed out through the cracks in the earth’s crust as Europe and North America were pulled apart. We drove there instead and had a short beach walk where we met two young women working at the Auchrannie Resort and on their day off had come to look for the dinosaur footprint visible at low tide. They found it and we shared their excitement, extra.

Back to Lamlash via the remote and beautiful Sliddery road for J’s supper in the cookhouse, and Prosecco induced travel plans, much further afield for 2025.