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May 28th, 2007
08:00 pm - Exploring Islay
The weather over last weekend was beautifully sunny, though by Sunday afternoon I was heartily sick of getting out of the car to be frozen and nearly blown over by the force of the wind - mostly in areas exposed the Atlantic.
Saturday morning saw me escaping all the crowds starting to gather in Bowmore for the start of the week-long Islay Festival of Malt & Music, and driving around the other side of Loch Indaal, past Port Charlotte where the road becomes single lane with little passing places every so often. From thereon I was basically out with the ewes and lambs, sometimes over the fence, sometimes across the cattlegrate and wandering over the road, some even refusing to move for me. A few cows didn't want to move either.
Port Wemyss and Portnahaven are the tiny villages right at the south-western point of Islay, and here I found a few Highland coos too, but they wouldn't pose properly. There's a tiny island with a lighthouse across about 200m of water, and walking along the coastal path on the mainland there I suddenly heard a funny sort of noise - then noticed a group of seals sunning themselves over on the island.
When I stopped by the wee harbour at Portnahaven, just around the corner, I noticed quite a few people silently standing around. Then I noticed the seals. Here were over a dozen, quite close in and visible. Some were dozing on the rocks at the edge, but the others were lying on their backs sunbaking in the water - there must have been a slightly submerged rock ledge. They were swaying about with the motion of the water, waving their flippers in the air, and occasionally having a bit of a go at each other, with their funny noise halfway between a bark and a call. I realised some of the people were actually the BBC crew filming for Springwatch, hence everyone being so quiet.
I drove through the remotest of remote parts of Islay (so it felt) up along the south-western edge, with views of the blue, blue Atlantic popping up now and then, lonely white farmhouses, even a Croft Crafts place where the lady spins and knits their own sheep's wool, and told me quite a bit about wool and jumpers in Scotland.
In the evening I went to the Opening Concert for the festival, which turned out to be just singing in small choirs or solos, as the poet and dancers didn't turn up. As all the songs except 3 were in Gaelic I didn't actually understand much, but the music was quite beautiful. Then the deep pink end of a sunset reflecting in the loch when I came out.
Yesterday I sat by the beach to listen to a tape in the car for my MM, with sheep staring curiously at me, then went on to one of the distilleries which was supposed to have pipe bands marching into the gates. Unfortunately for me they seemed to have significantly (ie. totally!) changed the program, so I enjoyed the sun and froze in the wind while waiting for what never happened!!
Finding I couldn't get lunch there either without going into the actual distillery, I headed over the hills to the west coast again, which led past another distillery which has a cafe and it signs loudly proclaimed it to be open on Sundays from 10am-5pm. Except the gate was firmly closed. So I existed on 2 apples, a plum and a fruit bar from breakfast to (early!) teatime, as I would have had to drive back quite a few miles to find a shop.
Nevermind, the western beaches were beautiful, just freezing cold in the wind and actually hard to stand upright against it. Dropped in at the RSPB centre for a look (and using the toilets, hadn't seen any of them for a while!) and luckily found you could get a hot drink for a donation. Then across the road for a brief look in the bird hide (nothing exciting appeared), and walk through a little patch of pretty woodlands with bluebells and other pink and white wildflowers in abundance. Also happened to spot a nice deer with lovely velvety antlers through a gap in the bushes. He posed beautifully.
A drive up the side of Loch Guinart which is a very shallow sandy loch on the northern coast of Islay, hardly got out of the car as the wind was still buffeting the car. Then home for some food!
Last night I went to my first ceilidh. It was a Clootie Ceilidh - they serve clootie dumpling at the interval, which is a Scottish type of steamed fruit pudding. I was all on my lonesome, but not long after it started was joined by a nice group of people who were quite chatty, and took me under their wing. The scottish music is very toe-tapping, and it's quite fun to watch everyone dancing - or trying to dance and crashing into each other as may be!! Essentially it is the Scots version of barn dancing.
I don't know if the wooden floor in the hall was made especially bouncy, but when there were several couples bouncing around on it, you could see it moving up and down several inches, and the tables were starting to bounce too.
Eventually I even had a couple of dances - one of the men (in ~60's) partnered me, and it was quite fun, I picked up the steps a lot quicker than a few others in our set. So it was rather amusing too!!!
Today has been nice and sunny still, I've been at work even though all England and half of Scotland is having the Spring Bank Holiday. Went for a drive after work up to the north east coast, where the wee Strait of Islay separates Islay and Jura, but found there was really nothing there but the ferry terminal. Stopped in at Finlaggin, the ruins of a castle in the middle of a loch, where the Lords of the Isles once met to rule the Hebrides.
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