Friday 16th -- Lagg Distillery

We start the day -- after a good breakfast and a bit of a rest -- with a walk to the Lagg Distillery. It's new, just months old Deb tells me. A fifteen minute walk from our hotel. Uphill along the road. A pleasant walk but warm. Weather forecast is for heavy rain. In our corner of Arran we have cool sunshine. I'm soon down to a shirt, carrying my light jacket.

The road is a narrow two lanes and winding. Maybe half a dozen cars pass. Either side are stone walls or hedges, sometimes trees, fields beyond that. Crops, grazing land, a few sheep, lots of cows and calves. A stone cottage, a farmyard, a larger stone farmhouse. Less than a km away, the sea.

All very pleasant. Idyllic English... Scottish countryside.

We reach the distillery. There are some interesting words about Arran: geology, people and whisky. (Arran is divided by the same fault line that splits highlands from lowlands. Little local boats are wherries. People lived in small groups called clachans.) We don't pay for a tour, we do stay for coffee.

Deb has an ad for New Orleans style dinner tonight, we book.

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We set off back towards the hotel -- and turn off along a "cart track" to "Cleats Shore". We're passed by a car. Which reaches the gated end. Then does a multi-point turn to go back again. We go through the gate, the track continues.

The track leads down to the sea. There's a large stone "wall", a natural pile of rock. Apparently it's quite common on Arran for rock to have been forced up to look like a stretch of wall.

There's a stone and concrete shed, used by cattle for shelter, by the look of the "mud" floor. We're within a few metres of the sea, almost down to sea level.

We walk a bit further, to the beach. Large stoney pebbles down to the water. We know it's a beach because there are seagulls. The large British type, with their distinctive calls. Most of the birds, though, are different, we have decided that they are shearwaters.

We continue walking parallel to the sea but staying in the grassy (and sometimes muddy) field. And there are pigs! Three adults and half a dozen large piglets. I like pigs, there is something so unattractively appealing about them :-) These pigs are behind a single line electric fence, very effective for an animal with a sensitive snout.

We zigzag up the hill, through paddocks, past cows and calves. There is a stone structure... It looks like an incomplete bridge, just the first couple of metres.. heading out into thin air. Or a tunnel mouth... with no tunnel. Where it could be a tunnel is... perhaps... a fireplace inside a very small room with no front wall. It's not a ruin, it looks almost intact. We have no idea what it is.

Out of the cow paddock into a sheep paddock. Up to a gate -- and out of the paddocks, back to the cart track. A very pleasant walk!

Back to the road, back to the hotel. We have a late lunch (soup and a roll) at the Velo Cafe, a part of our hotel to attract passing cyclists. There's a strong cycling theme, with books, pictures, videos of cycle races. Then we go back to our room and rest.

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A bit later we get in the car and drive, in the direction away from the distillery. We are thinking of coffee and cake but there are no nearby cafes. We do find a couple of caches and some great views, then we turn back.

The cheese factory and shop is closed, possibly for good. We park at a primary school to look for a "cheese" named cache... a pleasant walk through woods. There are some pretty decorated stones along the way, probably done by the primary school children.

Walking back from the cache we see a path leading directly to the hotel... Deb follows that path, I go the slightly longer way to get the car.

Coffee and victoria sponge cake at the Velo then more resting in our room.

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Evening. We drive to the distillery for dinner. A set menu with a "deep south" theme. It's delicious, there's plenty of it.

We sit next to Irene and Ray from Toxeter (I think those are the names) (home of JVC Machinery) in Staffordshire. A delightful couple :-)  They are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. They walk nearly every Sunday in the Peaks District, near their home. He repairs, makes like new, old tractors. As a hobby.

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Then we drive home -- and it's the first time on this holiday that we have been out after dark! Back to the hotel. Coffee. Blog... And sleep.

====    Dr Nick Lethbridge  /  Consulting Dexitroboper
             Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." … Blazing Swan Survival Guide

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dying for you to read my blog: notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au :-)
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