Sunday 29 March 2009

Lochranza to the old salt works and Ossian's Cave

7th March 2009:

Today we were joined by Toosh and Neil for a coastal walk as the weather wasn't good enough to try a mountain walk. Toosh fulfilled his reputation as bird-spotter extroadinaire by spotting a male Hen-Harrier as soon as we got out of the car at Lochranza. We walked along the coast, via 'Hutton's Unconformity', a feature of interests to geologists as one rock strata inclines nearly vertically and is overlain by another one which is almost horizontal. This led Hutton to propose in the 18th century that the earth had developed over an immense period of time. Of immense importance maybe, but more interesting to me was the 'wee fairy bench' we saw erected at the fairy dell for the fairies to sit on - far more interesting than the inumerable other memorial benches on Arran!

After quite a scramble over boulders as the tide was in, we went into the pitch black of Ossian's cave and, by the light of a torch, could just make out the etchings on the wall. I tried not to think about a recent boulder fall we had noticed on the way and what would happen if another one took place whilst we were inside the cave! Even our sandwiches were outside!

We stopped for lunch at the old salt works, still clearly visible, before returning over the hill to Lochranza.


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