Lighthouse

15.8C with bright spells and plenty of cloud. Light ESE breeze.

After lunch I drove round Low Askomill to the old shipyard and parked so Maeve the Deerhound and I could walk right out the North shore path as far as we could. I had classical music on the iPod Mini. It was fairly cloudy but still warm and most of the walk is flat and on a good path out past Baraskomel farm.

Towards the end there were some awkward little slopes with rough ground, gorse, and big boulders. Easy enough for me, but not so great for Maeve. We struggled a bit. Then, right at the end at Macringan's point, the path comes out onto bracken and a field with sheep before reaching the rocks of the point itself. Out at the point there is a great view up Kilbrannan sound and the East side of the Kintyre peninsula as far as Carradale with Arran on the other side of the sound.

Directly out from the end of the point and across the channel that boats and ships must use to enter and leave Campbeltown loch is Davaar island and the best and closest view of the lighthouse and the associated buildings I have had since we have been here.  It would be a good view of Ailsa Craig on a clearer day too. I sat on a rock and Maeve lay on the grass and we watched several yachts sail out from Campbeltown and out into the sound. There were a number of Gannets diving in the channel.

To get back the way we had come along we had to face the rough section again, and at one point I had to lift Maeve up onto a large rock set into the slope. The rock was about four feet high and she certainly wasn't going to jump up and wasn't keen on going up the steep slope at its side. She just stood and looked at it. Quite sensible I thought. She clearly remembered it from the outward trip when she had managed to get down at the side of it somehow. Once she was on top she could manage to get up the rest of the slope without difficulty. I won't be taking Maeve out past the rough section again although I'd like to get out there on a really clear day.

When we got back home we went round into the garden and I brushed Maeve thoroughly in case she had picked up any ticks in the bracken.

DMC-LX7 f/1.4 1/1600 sec. ISO-80 18mm (35mm focal length 99mm)