Day 11 – at Kilchoan, Ardnamurchan

Friday 7th May

The mission of the day was to get to Ardnamurchan Point, the most westerly point on the British mainland, and see its lighthouse. I’ve taken a renewed interest in lighthouses since reading Sharma Krauskopf’s book (review coming next..). It’s a beautiful book to own, with fine photography, and a page or two on the history of each of the 30 or so lighthouses she selects. This American woman was so taken by the country’s lighthouses that she now lives in one of the remotest, on Orkney, which she purchased, and she has also made a film about the lives of the keepers. She brings attention to the engineers, all of them built by the same family between 1811 and 1937, the Lighthouse Stevensons; the grandson of the first of them was Robert Louis Stevenson.

The route first took us down to Bay MacNeil, less visited than Sanna Bay, but the same views of Skye and the Small Isles.

I stopped to chat with an elderly couple staying in a caravan just off the beach. Retired teachers also, originally from the Wirral, and spent a year living in Wanaka, so plenty in common.

The road up to the lighthouse itself is closed at the moment. I knew this, but hoped they’d let us in on foot. There is just some internal work to the buildings going on, no the boss said the site was closed. I managed to convince him though, telling him I was writing a book on Alan Stevenson. Alan was the son of the original Lighthouse Stevenson, Robert, so this is one of the oldest in Scotland, built in 1849.

Our snow showers had come early today, and after they were through the wind dropped, so it was a superb day.

I did laundry in the afternoon, and a quick rinse of the van. It was getting a bit cool to sit out just as the rugby started coincidentally.. (with Ben Haint in the background).