Beinn na Callich

The hill overlooking Broadford is called Beinn na Callich and I wanted it to be the first that I climbed on Skye since my move here. I picked up a couple of friends and drove the couple of miles to Old Corry where we started the walk, less than 5 minutes to drive – fantastic!



Colleagues had advised stick to the left, so that is what we did, crossing the boggy moorland then tackling the scree, keeping to the left. The rock was rough – this is Skye – and great for scrambling over. In T-shirts for the ascent, although the wind was blowing fairly strongly. The slope eased as we reached the summit, where the shelter round the trig point was welcome as the wind was now a wee bit chilly.

After some discussion we decided to continue around the horseshoe , first down and up to Beinn Dearg Mhor, then down a horrible steep scree slope – I think I’ve lost my sense of balance, had to take it slowly. Once at the bealach it was an easy ascent to Beinn Dearg Bheag, great views of Blaven.



A path followed the winding ridge back towards Old Corry, the sting in the tail was an extremely boggy descent to the moor, difficult with tired legs! A short stop by the river which we then followed back to the car. Just over 6 tiring hours but only 5 minutes to home and a cuppa!

Suffered from tender muscles for the next two days… I must walk more hills and take less photos!!!

Dreich

A dreich day today, no sign of the sun and no sunset visible. So the photo above is another from last nights fantastic sunset.

The tide was fully in when I arrived home. I watched a couple of herring gulls: an adult and youngster. The adult flew in with the youngster following behind. The youngster landed on a rock and started calling to it mother (?) who was not interested and kept hopping away to another rock. The young one kept whining, mum just didn't want to know and kept hopping away. This must've gone on for about 10 minutes, before mum swam off leaving her hungry chick behind.

Sunsets

Another beautiful sunset tonight, unfortunately the midgies thought so to and I’ve managed to aquire lots of bites. I thought that as the tide times changed it would be difficult to get good shots, but I seem to have been lucky in the two weeks that I’ve been here and there’s always been enough water in the inlet for a good reflection. I use EasyTide to keep an eye on the tide times.

Ardnish

Opposite my house is the peninsula of Ardnish, I wanted to explore it and take some photos of the cottage from the other side – with the tide in. To get there I walked west along the Lower Breakish road, at the end of the road there is a path which goes to Waterloo, which has a bridge across the river. On the other side there are lots of possible paths, I followed the inlet back east, damp underfoot – we’ve had a fair bit of rain recently, with the tide right in. A few birds around, hooded crows, heron, ducks, geese… must improve my identification skills.

One of the bays on the peninsula has lots of fossils, I saw a couple embedded in the rocks.

On the north side of the inlet, lots of seals lay on rocks, just out to sea. Looked like there were both baby seals and adults. Found a good path along the top of the peninsula but left it to walk around the coast. Great views to the Red Cuillin which seemed to be constantly in a shower cloud.



Spotted this clump of seaweed, thought that the colour was absolutely gorgeous.

Isle of Skye

Sunset, originally uploaded by ShirleyGrant.

Returned from my travels, I’m back in Scotland and back at work. I’ve moved to the Isle of Skye where I’ve rented a cottage for the winter. It’s in Lower Breakish which is a small village, the houses sit by the side of a tidal inlet called Ob Breakish. My living room window is close to the water and this evening as the tide goes out I’ve seen oystercatchers feeding in the seaweed, herons watching for fish, curlews with their long beaks, some ducks which I think are mallards, but all female – unless the males are in moult. I also watched an otter, swimming up the middle of the inlet and diving – for crabs/fish…? Further away are the Red Cullin with clouds on their summits, no sunset tonight but in the month that I’ve been on Skye I’ve seen lots.

In this blog I plan to put up some photos and write about the natural history of the area and the places I visit.