Bag, a deer.

Kinloch Castle on Rum was built as a shooting lodge. It is full of stuffed things that once flew, ran, crawled or swam.



Its shooting books record days of hunting. On September the third 1925, Sir George Bullough killed a 7 point stag weighing 14 stone and 4 lbs on Kilmory hill with a 0.303 inch rifle. He was assisted by his stalker MacLeod.

In search of the monkey eating eagle of Rum.

The island of Rum is a rum old place. Most people associate it with the sea eagle but there are other eagles to be found on the island. On one of his trips on his yacht, SY Rhouma, George Bullough visited Japan and became friends with the Emperor. The Emperor gifted him this bronze monkey eating eagle with two matching incense burners, each topped by lesser eagles. George packed them away in a nook somewhere on Rhouma and brought them back to Kinloch Castle as souvenirs of his Far Eastern travels.



They now fight for attention with his other amazing collection of bric-a-brac and gegaws in the castle's Edwardian front room.

PS several people have emailed asking why I have stopped posting about weekend trips. Unfortunately since I spent some time working in the Children's Hospital in Pakistan I have been bothered by recurrent chest infections. I have not been out for three weekends now and I had to cancel a trip to Skye this weekend. So you will just need to put up with shots from the back catalogue for a little longer. :o)

SY Rhouma

George Bullough, who built Kinloch Castle on Rum (or Rhum as he called it), also owned the Clyde built, 221 foot, twin deck, sailing yacht Rhouma. The name is supposed to be the feminine of Rhum. He sailed round the world in Rhouma. During a visit to Japan he became friendly with the Emperor.



He liked to fish for tarpon from the Rhouma and several adorn the walls of the corridors in the castle.



He gave the SY Rhouma to the British government to use as a hospital ship in the Boer War. He also paid for it to staffed by doctors and nurses. Her magnificent sixteen piece dining suite was removed to the castle. You can see the swivel points where the chairs were secured to Rhouma's deck but allowed diners to rotate the chairs for easy entry and exit.



The Rhouma's bell now sits silently on a table in the hall of the castle.

I thought sea kayaking was expensive....

Boreray enters digital age but is still isolated.

My very first post concerned a visit to Boreray. It is a beautiful island in a somewhat exposed position at the west end of the Sound of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. I also mentioned it in another post about clearing mink from the Western Isles.

Tonight I received an email from Jerry Cox who has been Boreray's sole resident since 1999. He told me about Boreray's website. I have no idea whether he has a satellite link to the internet like that on nearby Berneray or whether he has to leave Boreray and get access elsewhere. From the website, you can learn about the island and how Jerry makes a living from his croft which has a flock of St Kildan sheep. He also has a renovated croft house for rent. It has one of the most stunning views in the Hebrides. The only way of getting there is by kayak or Jerry's RIB. He warns "Please be aware that access involves a four-mile sea crossing in an open RIB with beach landing. Weather conditions may delay the start and/or finish of your stay!"



I would settle for a delayed departure.

Sea kayaking pubs: the Old Forge, Inverie

Sitting in the pub after our abortive Mull of Galloway trip, I reflected on more positive sea kayaking encounters with premises of a licensed nature. First to mind, came the Old Forge Inn at Inverie, Knoydart. Although it is on the Scottish mainland, there is no road in, so ferry or kayak trips are essential if you wish to sup their fine ales.





They do not seem to mind dripping dry suits.



These fine gentlemen, with whom we enjoyed passing a good part of a short winter afternoon in pleasant conversation, were dripping blood on the floor. They had just come off the hill where they had been gralloching deer. No one bothered about their drips either.

After some time, we made our way back down Loch Nevis to Mallaig where we arrived after nightfall.

Easdale islander initiative

The little island of Easdale (which I recently described ) has been cut off from its larger neighbour, the island of Seil for nearly a week. Winter storms have shifted the slate spoil at the mouth of its sheltered harbour. The open passenger ferry boat has been unable to access its jetty and islanders have been stranded on the mainland and schoolchildren have been unable to get to school. The local council were not making very fast progress to dredge the harbour but The Herald reports a story of great island initiative. Islander Mike Mackenzie bought a 12 ton JCB excavator on the mainland and had it shipped to Easdale on a landing craft. He then spent 36 hours excavating the harbour mouth himself and restored the islanders' ferry link. Wonderful!



Easdale has 60 permanent residents and 13 of these are children of school age or younger. The island is car free and the passenger ferry takes just 5 minutes to cross to Seil.



The harbour was built in the 18th century and its beautifully constructed walls are now protected by an architectural "B" listing. There is a great deal of interesting industrial architecture and heritage on Seil as it was once a centre for slate mining.



It is easy to kayak through the narrow harbour mouth and explore the sheltered jetties and inlets within.



The little harbour is dominated by the bulk of Dun Mor on Seil and by the initiative of the islanders.

Psalm 59 on Scarp

In a recent post I mentioned the remote island of Scarp off the west coast of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. After the failure of rocket mail its inhabitants were finally connected to the mainland by submarine telephone in 1947. It was destroyed by a storm in 1970 and the GPO refused to replace it. The islanders finally evacuated Scarp in 1971. By tradition they had left a Bible in each house. By the summer of 2006 the houses were in a sorry state after 35 years of winter storms. In one house pages of a bible had blown about the windowless room.



Some days later we met the gentlemen in the centre of the photograph on Canna in the Inner Hebrides. It turned out he had grown up on Scarp until his family emigrated to Glasgow. We had a book about Scarp Hebridean Island, Memories of Scarp. He was able to identify many of the individuals in old photographs reproduced in the book.

Wanted: Mink Men!

Mink on Bhacsaigh, Loch Roag.

For the attention of non vegan, unemployed sea kayakers! Scottish Natural Heritage seek persons with the following skills:

• Boat handling skills.
• Experience with firearms.
• Ability to walk over moorland between 8-20 kilometres per day.
• Good knowledge of the Western Isles.
• Experience of using working dogs.
  

Successful applicants will take part in the eradication of the mink from the Western Isles. Natives of North America, these relatives of the weasel escaped from fur farms in the 1960's and 70's. They have spread throughout the islands as they are strong swimmers and are ruthless predators of ground nesting birds. A programme of eradication was started in 2001.


Mink trap on Berneray.

I can proudly hold up my head and say that I have played a small but vital part in this public service. During 2004 we were camped on Boreray. In exchange for some fresh water, I did a favour for the island's sole resident Jerry. I transported a dead mink to North Uist so that he could claim his bounty. It was a very stinky minky.


Boreray, sea kayaking paradise.

Imagine you are at the edge of the sea on a day when it is difficult to say where the land ends and the sea begins and where the sea ends and the sky begins. Sea kayaking lets you explore these and your own boundaries and broadens your horizons. Sea kayaking is the new mountaineering.

Canna population grow again?

The rural idyll of Canna, which is one of the four "Small Isles" in the Inner Hebrides, is about to reverse a population decline. The National Trust for Scotland owns the island and is advertising for two new families to join the fifteen strong resident population. The Trust has received over 350 applications from all over the world!



Much of the island is surrounded by forbidding cliffs but there is a welcoming natural harbour at its SE corner and the interior of the island is surprisingly fertile and wooded. It has been inhabited for at least 7,000 years.



Being handy with tools is a necessary attribute for any incomer. The island's post office, telephone box and satellite telephone link are all powered by a genertator just along the road at the farm. It breaks down quite often.



Humans are not the only inhabitants who are returning to the isle. Manx shearwaters (pictured above off the north coast of Canna) have now returned to breed after the island's rats were exterminated in a similar exercise to that on Ailsa Craig.

Unlocked island doors.

For centuries the unlocked door has been a feature of the hospitality of remote Highland and Island communities. Perhaps it has grown from an inate trust in human nature, or the need to take shelter from the frequent and sudden deteriorations in the weather. Some unkind commentators have said the houses had nothing worth stealing. Whatever, it is an enduring sign of an alternative approach to life in remote communities that has survived to the 21st century.



The lovely little island of Colonsay which lies in the Inner Hebrides between Jura and Mull, is studded with dazzling white shell sand beaches. On the machair behind the beaches lives the corncrake which is one the rarest birds in Britain. It shares the island with some wild goats, descended from those who survived the wrecking of a Spanish warship from the Armada. There are also 100 human residents who do not lock their doors.

Unfortunately the island has just suffered its first crime in 7 years. A visiting workman from Glasgow sold a crofter a bag of wood. After the crofter left the house, the workman returned and stole £60 from the money tin. (There is no bank on the island.) Fortunately the loss was discovered on a day when there was no ferry. The workman was detained by the island's joiner who is also a special constable. The thief was escorted to the ferry the next day and was arrested by police on the mainland.

A resident said "We are a close-knit community and we won't change our lifestyle."