Wild Scotland

The organisation called Scottish Natural Heritage has recently produced a map showing areas of the country which have been given the designation of 'Wild'. On Skye, there are two such areas. One, not surprisingly, is the Cuillin. The other, I was delighted to see, is Duirinish.

The 'Wild' status adds no special protection to the land, in the way of a Conservation Area or National Park, but at least the special nature of the land has been noted by a respected national organisation, which might be of help should someone come along with the idea of building a windfarm on it, or using the land in some other damaging way.

Duirinish is the name of the north western peninsula of Skye, and here at Roskhill, we live at the eastern 'neck' of the peninsula, where it joins the rest of Skye. Our view from The Barn windows is of the Duirinish hills and eastern coast. The highest point in Duirinish is Healabhal Bheag, but the peninsula consists of many, many acres of hilly wilderness moorland largely surrounded by high, sheer sea cliffs, with those facing the south west rising to over 1000 feet in places and stretching for some 15 miles.



(Click the - button to zoom out)

The eastern border of the peninsula - between Loch Dunvegan and Loch Bracadale (where we live) is thinly populated today, and in years gone by, attempts were made by man to inhabit and farm the more sheltered parts of the coastal fringe. But virtually no roads have ever been built on the peninsula, and with access by sea being hampered by those cliffs, man has never made much impact on the land.

The whole of Duirinish is accessible on foot however, though few enough people ever visit to have created paths in more than one or two places. Duirinish became my favourite place on Skye back in 2009, when I first started exploring its beinns, braes and bealachs. The coastline is spectacular, but the inland moors are vast, open and empty windswept areas of grasses, heather and moss. The sea is visible from almost everywhere, and trickling burns flow down the hillsides, though there are few freshwater lochs. Trees are absent too - the westerly aspect being too frequently blasted by gales and storms for anything to grow to any height. Walking for a day in Duirinish, one will probably see a number of Red Deer, a couple of Golden Eagles, a scattering of other moorland birds, but no people.

In our bustling and overcrowded little United Kingdom, it is a total joy to experience a natural wilderness of such awesome beauty. To have it on our doorstep is quite simply our little bit of Heaven on Earth. I am hopeful that the 'Wild' designation will help to preserve the land in its 'wild' state for evermore.

Below are just a few of the dozens of photographs I have taken in Duirinish... (click on any picture to view larger, as a gallery)

The SW coast looking towards MacLeod's Maidens sea stacks

Lorgill - one of the few beaches in Duirinish, and the location of a former settlement, which was largely deserted in the 1860s

Stacks and arches on the east coast

Valley of the Osdale River - Healabhal Bheag on the left

Looking towards Loch Bracadale and the distant Cuillin mountains, from one of the hilltops

Grassy moorland on the west of Duirinish, overlooking The Minch. That's South Uist on the horizon.

Deer on the run - I was not quiet enough arriving on this hilltop!

Allotment news - Brassica seeds planted

The diary aspect of this blog is useful for me to keep tabs on when I have done certain jobs, and keeping a record of what I've done in the allotment is especially useful.

Looking back at last year, I see that I am later this year at getting started on planting. The reason is that although we had a dry and sunny early spring, we were getting frost every night, and the ground was very cold. Things are warming up now though, and today I have planted the broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower seeds. They have gone straight into 3" pots this year, rather than being started seed trays, which I hope will help the plants by disturbing them less often, and help me by cutting out one of the transplanting tasks. The pots are all lined up on newly erected shelves in the shed window - pity I don't have a greenhouse...

Just for the record, the seeds I will be growing this year are:

• Potatoes - Maris Peer
• Broccoli - Autumn Spear
• Brussels Sprouts - Crispus
• Cabbage - Kilaxy
• Carrot - Maestro
• Cauliflower - Clapton
• Cauliflower - Romanesco Early
• Onion (sets) - Hercules
• Swede - Invitiation
• Broad Bean - Masterpiece
• Runner Bean - St George

I also have a packet of mangetout peas - Oregon Sugar Pod - which I think were a free gift or something, but I'll see if I have room for them somewhere. Finally, I plan to try to grow a few salad leaves, though I think success there will depend on how much heavy rain we get!

Shopping on Skye

Shopping on Skye is just one more thing for an incomer to come to terms with. There are sufficient shops on Skye from which to obtain most of life's essentials, but the shops are small, so choice is rather limited and prices tend to be a bit steep. Here's the only proper supermarket in Portree....

 and this is Portree town centre and main shopping street....

This means that to do a 'big' supermarket shop, or to browse around a number of large shops, a trip to Inverness is required. Inveness has many more shops and services than one might expect for a town with a population of only 72,000, but it is by far the largest town in the Highlands, and serves the population of an enormous area of Scotland. Here are the two retail parks in Inverness (there are huge food supermarkets in both of these). 

...of course, I generally spend a while wandering round B&Q... AND I get a 10% discount on Wednesdays for being over 60...!

From Roskhill Barn, Inverness is a journey of some 125 miles, which takes about three hours driving (through some stunning scenery, I might add). So that's six hours driving, there-and-back. You can therefore imagine that adding in several hours of wandering round shops turns a trip to Inverness into a long and tiring day.

Sometimes, Sue and I do the trip together, but that means Cupar has to come too, so more often these days, we go separately, and it was my turn for a trip this week. We plan carefully. The useful retail parks are on the outskirts of the town, but there is a traditional town centre with a smart indoor shopping mall as well as pedestrianised high street. A long shopping list is created, and then a plan is made of which shops to visit in which order - to avoid too much driving around. My little van comes into its own on occasions such as this  On this particular trip, I came back with a very mixed load, which included a dozen pillows, some timber, a bale of potting compost, a couple of sacks of dog food, some plants for the garden at Loch View and a significant quantity of food and household items from the supermarket.

Mint Sauce!

Further south in the UK, you might see lambs in the fields as early as Christmas. On Skye, we have to wait until April. We have sheep in the field outside the Barn here at Roskhill most of the year now (it's our field, but they're not our sheep...!!) and new lambs are arriving daily.

But could I get them to look at the camera...???