Days long gone by

A dull day today, windy and wet, though both died down later on. Definitely a day to stay indoors, so I began on the next talk I've got in the diary.

This is a talk on gardens and photography for U3A and I've given it before, so with a bit of updating it should do the trick. At least I can show some bad photographs and explain how they could be better!

After lunch we went out to deliver the pictures and score sheet for our Frank Walton inter-club competition to a local judge. Our Photo Club is hosting the night early in March. 

Not a great Blip day - grey skies and dull light. On the way back we passed the Manor House Hotel on the south side of Oban Bay.  This was built in 1780 by the Duke of Argyll - Oban was a very small place back then. The first known house in Oban was built in 1715 and the distillery in 1794, so when the Manor House was built there wasn't much of a town to look out on. The ruins of Dunollie Castle would have been visible on the cliff to the north side of the bay - there has been a fortification of some sort here since the early Middle Ages. There's a record of it being first destroyed by fire in 686!

My extra today is of Swallow Rock, part of the cliff scenery along Gallanach Road to the SW of the town.  I have a lovely vintage postcard painted many years ago, showing it long before the council allowed someone to build a house on top of it! You'd think they might have refused permission to desecrate such a lovely clifftop!