47 years on

Back in 1967 I visited Scotland for the first time and took a boat trip from the esplanade in Oban to Grasspoint on Mull. Grasspoint was the little harbour where cattle from Mull and other islands where shipped - or swum - over to Kerrera, from where they were shipped - or swum - over to the mainland, and driven to the Central Scotland markets.

I remember sitting at trestle tables in a barn at Grasspoint, and seeing a man come out on to a balcony and look down on us. Our skipper told us that he was Winston Churchill's cousin, a fact which I believed at the time - and did until yesterday - to be a bit of tourist rubbish!

After visiting the lovely garden at Torosay Castle - open today for the last time this year - we drove down the long single track road to revisit Grasspoint after 47 years. A wonderful location for what is now a self-catering property.

When I investigated later on I found that the old drovers' inn of my Blip, derelict in 1946, was bought by Lionel Leslie, indeed a cousin of Winnie himself. Lionel was a sculptor, artist, author and poet and would have been only 67 at the time that I saw him! Does anyone else remember him?