Wandering around Ballachulish

True to my word, I didn't go on today's excursion. Instead I had a lovely day just literally wandering around the village of Ballachulish (pronounced Ball-a- hoolish)

First some snaps from the magnificent sunset last night over the loch...

Sunset at Ballachulish

Sunset at Ballachulish

 It was lovely to have relaxed start to the day again. I waved the bus off

Our bus and passengers

Then went for a little walk around the hotel. This is the view from my window when I wake up...

View from my window

So I spent some time just catching up with emails and reading the online paper, then wandered over to the local Tourist Centre which also doubled as a cafe. I popped into the Co-op (which is the Grocery store) and bought some tissues, as all this blossom is starting to trigger my hay fever a bit.

No wonder I'm sneezing!!!

There are a couple of walks on offer...
so I thought I'd start with the easy one, which was a tour of the old Slate mine.

Description of Slate mine

Apparently Ballachulish is famous for its slate and has covered the roofs of most for Scotland for hundreds of years.

More info about Slate mine

Views of the Slate Mine

Views of the Slate Mine

Views of the Slate Mine

In this next pic, if you look carefully you can see a little arch decorated in white and some chairs...??? It was set up for a wedding this afternoon. You may not be able to see it in the picture but the backdrop was absolutely beautiful!

Slate Mine setting for a wedding!

Another view of the spot for a wedding!

They built a little shed or "Cro" which was based on a shelter similar to where the men would shape the slate.

There was also a slate arch which was the remnant of the system used to transport the slate down the hill to the Loch where it was shipped off all over the world.

Slate Arch

Slate Arch

Info about the Slate Arch

More info about skill of slate crew

So after all that education I wandered back to the hotel to sit down and read the paper I had bought at the Co-op.

This pic below is of the back view of the hotel. Those slopey windows at the far end  are where my room is situated and you can see how it faces the view of the loch.

Back view of hotel

After a suitable rest time (!!!) and some lunch I decided to do another walk.

This time it followed the peninsula around and provided some beautiful scenery once more.....

Scenery around the Loch

This sign was very interesting to me... it's about the little island in the Loch called Burial Island and it was shared by the different clans who would share the maintenance of the island even when there was conflict between them....

Burial Island

closeup pic of Burial Island

Burial Island

The other interesting thing was the second item on that sign about Discussion Island where they would go to talk through their disputes.
Actually on the Slate Mine tour this morning, they mentioned a similar thing...

How to solve an argument

Seems a very civilized way of doing things....

The walk continued around the peninsula...

You could see the Ballachulish Bridge in the background across the Loch

Ballachulish Bridge

About Ballachulish Bridge

 At the foot of the Bridge is a little church called St John's and there's some info about that in the pics below. Also a connection to Iona. That little island has a finger in a lot of Celtic pies!!!

About the Church and the monks

More views...

Scenery around the Loch

Scenery around the Loch

Slate was used for many things in the town, including boat sheds...

Slate boat sheds

Slate boat sheds

A few more views to finish off...

Scenery around the Loch

Scenery around the Loch

Scenery around the Loch

The walk took me through some lovely trees

Trees on the walk

Past a bubbling little brook

Lovely little brook

By this time I was really thirsty, as the day has been very warm... up around 25 degrees, so I had a ....... SODA WATER!!!! at this little pub I found in another part of the village. (You were all waiting for me to say a beer!!!)

Lovely little pub!

But I'm going down to have a beer now 😃
It's 5.30pm and the mob aren't due back for another hour or so....

So glad I had a day off today - it turned out to be a really lovely day.