Ensemble c'est tout #Bettertogether

 

Come rain or shine #SpringinScotland

Life in Scotland in April: lunches outside, ice-creams in the park, no jackets for school, planting the garden.

Life in Scotland in May: snow, hail, high winds, rushing all the plants indoors so they don't freeze. 

These two unseasonal months were linked by the May bank holiday weekend - a day of glorious sunshine and a day of howling winter storms.

But first, a day of middling weather to visit Kilchurn Castle and St Conan's Kirk.

Kilchurn Castle is one of the most photographed Castles in Scotland (we helped the numbers) with stunning Ben Cruachan behind it as it sits at the head of Loch Awe with its still waters on 3 sides. It was built in the mid-1400s by Sir Colin Campbell of Clan Campbell fame. His descendants were then Campbells of Glenorchy (later Earls of Breadalbane) and were the most powerful of the numerous cadets of Clan Campbell. Kilchurn remained their powerbaye for 150 years and was eventually abandoned in the 1700s.

St Conan's Kirk is just a few miles away in the village of Lochawe and was built in the 1880s by Walter Campbell, for his mother who lived on the island opposite. A very beautiful kirk using a variety of styles and recycled parts from other old churches (such as a rose stone from Iona), it also had some fancy gargoyles.

On our sunniest day, we walked up to Cruachan Dam, a pumped-storage hydroelectric power station which discharges water from the Cruachan Reservoir into Loch Awe. We visited the pump generators and turbine hall inside the dam during the October holidays in 2019 when we camped near Oban, so it was nice to complete the circle. 

Cruachan uses cheap off-peak electricity generated at night to pump water to the higher reservoir from the loch, which can be released during the day to provide surges of power as necessary. 

They really, really wanted that gate kept locked.

 

Around the bottom:

And the howling storm/hail day? We spent an hour or two in a completely rain sodden and blustery Inverary Jail (made us feel very sympathetic for all those that might have been jailed there, often for very minor crimes such as stealing a pair of bloomers or seeking lodging in an outshed for a night) for a (very expensive) visit and to Inverary Inn for lunch. But we didn't take a single picture because the conditions were that.bad.

Testing in the time of Covid #coughcough

Our sweet little crevette got a cough. Ah yes, little kiddies do. But a cough in the time of covid means exclusion from nursery (for her) and school (for the others) and a PCR test undertaken forthwith.

All smiles from her, because she got a sticker.

All smiles from me, because I got a coffee in a coffee shop!!!