Northern Bottlenose Whale

Before going into our winter berth in Greenock we spent a couple of nights at anchor in Glenan Bay, Loch Fyne, and were surprised and delighted to be sharing it with a Northern Bottlenose Whale.

The Northern Bottlenose is a deep water species, usually found off the Continental Shelf in depths of 1000m feeding on squid, so we were concerned as to its health and whether it had become tangled in rope or net, but the next day we could see that it was free of any fouling as we witnessed displays of tail slapping and spectacular breaching.

An uncertain postscript is that on October 7th a Northern Bottlenose was sighted off Greenock, tail slapping and apparently 'lost',  it must be the same animal and I fear for its future.

p.s. nothing heard subsequently so it must have made its way back out to deep water.

Easdale and Bonawe

When you think of industrial heritage Argyll isn't the first place to spring to mind, but the slate quarries at Easdale and surrounding islands and the iron smelter at Bonawe on Loch Etive led the way two hundred years ago.

This is one of the flooded slate quarries on Easdale, and everywhere you walk there is debris of dressing chips from the millions of slates exported all over world.

Easdale has found new fame as the host of the World Stone Skimming Championships, held every September, using the endless supply of perfect skimming stones.

On a trip up to the spectacular head of Loch Etive, it's well worth calling in at the Bonawe Iron Furnace, the well-preserved but not over restored charcoal smelting site, which worked from 1753 to 1876.