Rhuad Mhor revealed

The dogs and I had a super and cool walk this morning where i took lots of shots of a bee, already laden with pollen, visiting each florette of a foxglove and intriguingly once inside the flower it often turned completely upside down in order to take the nectar.

Then, this afternoon I went up to Loch Turret with a friend as we wished to see how low the water level was. Both dogs had to be on leads as there were plenty of sheep around but with two handlers they were very good. Normally a walk all the way round the Loch (possibly a 3 plus mile walk) is not achievable as in some places it becomes impassable due to swollen rivers cascading down the hillside or simply very boggy ground. Apparently the normal depth of the loch at its deepest is 79 feet, tapering to a mere 20 feet at the southern end where it is widest. However today the water level was the lowest i have ever seen it and we were able to walk along the large exposed shore line with no difficulty, except in some places where it became rather like quicksand close to the water's edge, although that didn't deter Cara from pottering in and out of the water. As we neared the northern edge of the loch we noticed the ruins of Rhuad Mhor, a former shooting/hunting lodge, revealed above the water. If you press "l" on the keyboard it should go large or you could look here. The Lodge belonged to the Murrays of Ochtertyre and stood beside a lochan fed by the numerous streams pouring water down from the surrounding steep hills. The lochan was enlarged in the 1960's when a large dam was built to form the reservoir that is now Loch Turret and normally the ruins of the shooting lodge lie completely submerged beneath the water.

The other interesting thing was that on the western shore, where we were walking primarily on large stones alternating with smaller pebbles which usually form the loch bed, we suddenly came across a dark area which was quite spongy to walk on even though it had large cracks on it from the recent dry weather. On closer inspection it was obvious that this area had been fairly heavily wooded and the resulting peat bog was interlaced with branches and other woody remnants.. Unfortunately we completely ran out of time to complete the circuit but have arranged to return on Wednesday - weather permitting - when we will start earlier and hope to complete the full walk.

The dogs are now happily exhausted!