Bay of Lochielair

The wind was almost too strong to stand up this morning and it was inordinately difficult to hold my phone steady to photograph the sea.

There is a long list of ships which have come to grief in stormy weather here  - most famous is the Edward Bonadventure -an English ship returning to England with a cargo of treasure including jewels and furs which were a gift from the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible to Queen Mary Tudor. Also on board was a Russian Ambassador who had been charged with establishing trade relations with England. The ship was blown off course and smashed to pieces on rocks somewhere between Kinnaird Head and Troup Head - probably in the vicinity of Rosehearty. Over a hundred sailors, including the Captain Richard Chancellor drowned. The Russian Ambassador Osep Napeya survived but the treasure was never recovered.