This beautiful all wood boat was one of a fleet of 100 of high quality wooden offshore yachts taken as reparations from Germany after WWII. The Germans built them to get around the Treaty of Versailles which forbade them a Navy after WWI - this allowed them to keep up their seamanship. Every member of the Kriegsmarine would have learnt their stuff on one of these. The British government eventually sold them to civilians, in due course becoming classic yachts, still known as Windfalls.
Also pictured, looking out to the island of Jura off the Mull of Kintyre, Loch Craignish, and the most photographed cottage in Scotland.
Where I slept:Mheall Cottage (Loch Gilphead): Beautiful location near Crinan, great walks and neolithic sites to explore nearby, and the host has a Canadian Toller who loves to be involved in whatever is going on.
Where I ate:Crinan Hotel (Aberdeen) Fresh local seafood in.
I was joined for Part 2 of my Scottish Odyssey by James Lehmann, self-proclaimed Head of the Militant Wing of the Crinan Harbour Association Members and Mariners, and the host of Mheall Cottage.
First up, the biggest and most famous critter of them all - the Loch Ness Monster. I’m calling bullshit, I’m afraid. Such well-marinated wagyu on offer and not so much as a ripple on the pond.
Critters that were spotted include highland cows, deer, lambs, buzzards, mackerel, and a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever (an introduced species).
In this part of the country many fields are being returned to peat bogs. This involves clearing Norwegian pine forests that were planted after the war. Everywhere, tree stumps and piles of cut timber are slowly sinking into the bog while native species spring up in their place.
This corrects many decades of mismanagement born of necessity. The natural woodlands were cleared to grow crops to feed the British population when German uboats were squeezing international supply chains and food was scarce. After the war it seemed to make sense to replant the woodlands with a fast growing timber, hence the choice of Norwegian pine species. Not the best choice for the land and the local critters.
The mackerel were running and we caught some using traditional string lines and lures. From sea to plate in under 2 hours - delicious.
Where I slept:Mheall Cottage (Loch Gilphead): Beautiful location near Crinan, great walks and neolithic sites to explore nearby, and the host has a Canadian Toller who loves to be involved in whatever is going on.
Where I ate:Crinan Hotel (Aberdeen) Fresh local seafood in.
Local Hero is one of my favourite films. I first saw it as a 16 year old on a date. I had won tickets to see another film, the Meaning of Life, but forgot to bring them with me. Fuck I was embarrassed when I told my date outside Hoyts George Street, and I think that was the end of that.
The Ship Inn, Banff in Aberdeenshire is boarded up now, but they used its interior for the bar scenes.
Pictured, the stunning village of Pennan, used as the fictional village of Ferness, the descent to Loch Moidart where Mac and Oldsen run over a rabbit, and Loch Tarff, the view they wake to after spending a night in the car because of fog.
Then the aqueduct to Hogwarts, followed by the shores of Loch Shiel near the village of Glenfinnan, birthplace of Conor Macleod of the Clan Macleod in 1513, who is immortal by the way. Plenty of tourists in the car park by the aqueduct, slow and clumsy drivers, their reverse parking no better than that of a small child.
Down in Glencoe is the field where the Macleod’s fought the Fraser’s …”There is one called Conor among them.”
Just around the corner is the valley that David Craig and Judy Dench look down to Bond’s ancestral home at Skyfall.
The following is my favourite moment from Local Hero, where the spivvy Texan oil salesman, having been utterly captured by the beauty of the place he was sent to purchase for the purposes of building a refinery, reevaluates his life and priorities. Bear in mind this was 1983.
“Mac: I have a proposition for you, Gordon. I know I may be a bit tipsy, but I want you to consider this seriously. Okay?
Gordon: Okay.
Mac: Okay. I want to swap with you - everything. I want to stay here, run the hotel, do little bits of business. You can go to Houston. Take the Porsche, the house, the job. It's a good life there, Gordon. I pull down 80,000 a year, plus I have over 50,000 in mixed securities. I want you to have it all. There's nothing due on the car, it's pure ownership. And I won't let down your good name here, Gordon. I'll make a good Gordon, Gordon. What do you say, pal?
Gordon: What about Stella?
Mac: I was coming to that …”
Where I slept:Fife Lodge Hotel (Banff): Cosy and old fashioned. Inch Hotel (Port Augustus): Awesome views of Loch Ness. Mheall Cottage (Loch Gilphead): Beautiful location near Crinnan, great walks and neolithic sites to explore nearby, and the host has a Canadian Toller who loves to be involved in whatever is going on.
Where I ate:Amuse (Aberdeen) A great place for an overindulgent lunch.
Pembrokeshire Coast Walk (Fishguard to New Port) - 24.5km
After losing a couple of days to rain and flu I was going out today come what may. And what an absolute ball tearer it was, very strenuous with intermittent rain and powerful wind gusts by the cliffs.
This section lived up to its description of being remote and wild. Although, there was a very cute pub called the Old Sailor that did a very nice lunch and hot chocolate in a cove just before the largest ascent onto Dinas Head, site of Neolithic tombs far above the waves.
Due in Scotland tomorrow but I’m definitely coming back to walk more of this magnificent coastline.
Self-guided Tour Organised Through:Macs Adventures: Great accommodations and track notes.
Pembrokeshire Coast Walk (St David’s to Whitesands Beach) - 16 km
A nice relatively easy introduction today.
The scenery is stunning, like Cornwall but wilder and you really feel the presence of the Atlantic. It rushes through the narrows between St David’s Head and Ramsey island, Wales’ Scilla and Charybdis.
I spoke briefly with the owner of a very cute black Labrador bitch. He said “I’ve always had Labrador bitches. I won’t lie, I prefer the way they pee”. It could have been Uncle Brynn.
A tourism business appears to have mixed up its phobias and its phillias.
And when you come upon a Michelin Star restaurant when walking in remote parts …you take the shot.
You take the goddamned shot!
Self-guided Tour Organised Through: Macs Adventures: Great accommodations and track notes.
