24 October 2010

from Holy Island to the Isle of Iona

24 October 2010

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Sunday 24 October 2010--No rush to leave Plockton today. I was going to head south via the ferry from Armadale, on Skye, to Mallaig, but CalMac's winter schedule started today, with no departures on Sundays...except I called yesterday to be sure, and found out that they'd decided to run one after all, at about 4:30. I could get where I'm going much earlier by driving the long way around, but I don't feel like it. So I hang around the B&B for yet another morning, and then go have a look at Dubh-Àird, the beach on the other side of Plockton's tiny airport. It's a nice sunny day, and I linger for a while.

I cross the bridge onto Skye one last time, and stop at the Co-op in Broadford for fuel and supplies. I'm the first car at Armadale. It's a pretty ferry ride; Knoydart glows in the late afternoon light, and the whitewashed village of Inverie peers out shyly from its nearly hidden bay on Loch Nevis as we approach Mallaig. There's just enough daylight left to get a few photos on Camusdarroch Beach, where the beach scenes in Local Hero were filmed. I'm pretty sure I'm not really in the right spot--it's a long string of beaches, actually, and I don't have time to explore. The profile of An Sgurr, a distinctive ridge on the Isle of Eigg, is familiar enough, silhouetted against the setting sun.

I'd wanted to stay a night out on Ardnamurchan, a wild and lonely peninsula that comprises Britain's westernmost mainland point, but I wasn't able to find a room. Given the ferry thing, it's as well I'm in Acharacle instead. I arrive with light still in the sky, and the moon, just past full, rising. I can't say my lodgings are particularly charming, but they'll do, as will the pints of John Smith's.

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