This week has been a particularly sad one, on Tuesday morning my wife phoned me to tell me that our elderly cat Pumpkin had died overnight. It wasn't entirely unexpected but his sudden decline was still a shock and it has left us with a wee ginger space in our lives that is going to be very hard to replace. 

Last weekend was looking iffy due to the high avalanche risk throughout most of the Highlands. Rather than than sit it out, I thought I'd check the various blogs and forecasts out there and find something doable, even if it was just a low level plod. Most higher areas looked like a slog through powder was the only way to get about, however the North West was looking pretty good. There had been considerably less snow falling up that way so I felt that it was worth a look. If nothing else the views would be good - the forecast was for very little wind and cloud cover negligible.







And so....



Ben Mor Coigach from the road, a good start!

Cul Mor from Stac Pollaidh





Stac Pollaidh was our chosen hill, conditions were friendly with little of the avalanche risk further South. We started off in full winter kit but this was rapidly discarded due to the mild conditions on the hill!



The views to the North were something special, Suilven has to be one of my favourite hills, I used to be able to see it from my bedroom in Lewis. The mountains of Coigach and Assynt seem to erupt from the surrounding moors and tower over the surrounding countryside, none of them are Munros but to be honest they all have the feel of bigger mountains.


Cul Beag and Loch Lurgainn.


So it was definitely worth the trip!

Crazy, crazy conditions up here just now. Avalanche warnings are widespread across the Highlands and the risk of triggering a slide is considerable on even easier angled ground. Just this afternoon two skiers were caught in a huge avalanche at the Glen Coe ski area. If you are planning on heading out to the hills then take a look at the SAIS forecasts for the latest updates on conditions. Personally I'll be heading North West for a wander round Stac Pollaidh and hopefully conditions will be clear enough for some great photos. I'm toying with a wee winter traverse of the ridge but we'll see how it goes. My winter climbing techniques are rusty to say the least!

So... Otters.

Quiet, solitary, shy animals. Difficult to spot and still a reasonably rare sight on our rivers......?

Our most recent resident of Inverness would appear to think otherwise. I got an excited phone call at 4pm this afternoon from my friend Calum saying that he was a watching a wild otter hunt for fish all of a few meters away from where he was standing. Calum is a wildlife guide based on the Black Isle so I presumed he was out in the wilds somewhere up to his waist in snow, freezing his bollocks off. But no, he was in Inverness town centre, looking out over the River Ness just across the road from Johnny Foxes!

The Ness flows through the town centre and is flanked on both sides by roads, shops, hotels and pubs. There is a constant buzz of traffic and the roads beside the river are busy with traffic and pedestrians. It's not exactly my idea of a typical Otter habitat!  However when we got down to the River... there it was. I think we stood there for about an hour watching it catch fish and frolic in the water. Incredibly it seemed utterly oblivious to the fact that it was in the middle of a bustling city centre. It would occasionally roll on to its back and idly float along while gazing up at the locals who were gawping at it, but other than it didn't seem unduly bothered by the noise.

We watched it long enough to discover that it seems to have a holt along the riverbank so I wander whether it's here to stay for a while? According to wikipedia their range can be around 11 miles so this would easily include the entire River Ness and into Loch Dochfour and Loch Ness.  I've no idea how often they change holt or whether they'll have more than one in their territory. So who knows whether he/she will be a regular site in town, but I hope so!



It was incredible to watch and a real privilege to watch one of our iconic British mammals hunt and play so freely in front of us. The pictures aren't great because my camera is really struggling to take close ups. New camera please! I suppose the one thing we can take from this is that it proves the River is clean and has enough food to support a predator like an Otter. I've also noticed an increased amount of seals heading up the river in the last few months. Before you'd see one every month or so but I've seen at least one in the river almost every week since before Christmas.

Someone on the UK Climbing forum has started a thread about old characters they used to see around their village or town. Lewis had more than its fair share of the weird and wonderful.

One individual in particular used to be a family friend and due to far too many drugs and a mental breakdown ended up being a tad 'eccentric'. I remember taking my wife on a tour of the West coast of the Island and telling her about 'Kenny Leather' (he used to run the leather shop 'L for Leather' just off North Beach Street in Stornoway) she refused to believe the rumours that he'd set up his own golf course on the grounds of his old crofthouse in Shawbost. I proved her wrong when we walked past his house and the man himself was on his Sit On Lawnmower giving the green a fresh mow. Granted it wasn't the most traditional of courses, more a pitch and putt, but it was undeniably somewhere you could get a wee round in!



Another character was 'Domhnall Ban' (Fair Donald) who used to live in a Black House down the road from me in South Dell, Lewis. A born and bred Niseach he'd been in the Second World War and would head out Guga hunting every year. This was in the early Eighties, he had no electricity or gas in his 'Taigh Dubh' and I think his only running water was from a stand pipe by the back door. He wore the uniform of your average elderly Leodhasach - an orange boiler suit with a tweed suit jacket.

He probably saved my life! I think I was about 8 and I had been playing in the ruins of an old house in the village. In amongst the rubble I found a large bullet shape metal object with a brass cap at the top. It had arabic writing on the brass section. I thought it was very cool and rolled it the half mile down to my house in the village. Intrigued I decided I was going to take it apart to see what was in it. I was eight, it was treasure! I spent a happy half hour attempting to twist the brass top off, when that didn't work I took a screwdriver to it and tried to prise it off. Still no joy so I bashed it with a hammer a few times. Nuthin' doing! Getting bored I kicked it down the road to my friend Robin's house to see if he could help.

As I was making my way down the road Domhnall intercepted me and asked 'De a seo a bhalach?' (whats this young man?). 'I found it, its mine' was my cheeky reply. He bent down to inspect the rusty and now slightly dented object by my feet, 'Mo Dhia!' he exclaimed and looked up at me, his eyes were now bug eyed and he'd gone very pale. "Where did you find it"? So I explained where I got it and helpfully told him how my investigation as to it's nature had gone.

'Amadan! It's a bomb!'

He hid it in the hatch of his black house and called the police. The bomb squad later disposed of it on Barvas beach, apparently it made quite a big bang.

It's a true story! It was in the local newsletter which if I recall rightly used to be called the Ness News? I think I've still got a copy of it kicking it about somewhere.

So thinks Deirdre Mackay, councillor for East Sutherland who had a rather misguided, not to mention ill informed rant, against all things Gaelic. In a tirade at a community council meeting in Brora she claimed that Gaelic was for the elitist few,  a costly 'luxury' that we could ill afford and criticised the proliferation of Gaelic posts. The original article was published in the Northern Times and can be seen here.

A couple of things seemed to have escaped Ms Mackay's notice; the actual cost of supporting Gaelic uses up less than 1% of the total budget of the Highland Council, in fact according to Arthur Cormack of Bord na Gaidhlig it's closer to 0.07 % of the budget!

My initial reaction to the article was one of dismay, more so when my eight year old daughter read the piece over my shoulder and asked 'daddy, why doesn't she like us?' I wonder whether people like this realise the impact they have on others when they sound off in this manner.

In response to the article, the Northern Times ran a poll to ask whether people thought Gaelic funding was a waste of money. The overwhelming response seems to be 'No'. What was heartening was the online response to the article. Out of 97 comments the vast majority were speaking out against Councillor McKay. The few that supported her seemed to be intent on trotting out the same tired old arguments that were  at best anecdotal and at worst utterly false, quite often disregarding the facts that had been presented by other posters.

Arthur Cormack has repeatedly tried to engage in an open discussion with the Councillor and her father Councillor Rosie of Wick who is also fiercely opposed to all things Gaelic (conveniently ignoring the fact that next years Mod will bring a much needed  boost to the economy this autumn). Frustrated by this he resorted to posting an open letter to them on the FootStompin forum. In short he picks apart each one of her arguments and shows how they are utterly without substance. He refutes her claim that there are a proliferation of Gaelic posts within HC:

"..you criticise the “proliferation” of Gaelic development posts. Where are these posts, Cllr MacKay? The Highland Council had one Gaelic Development Manager but that post is currently vacant. To my knowledge it has a Gaelic Early Years Officer and a Gaelic Development Officer. I am not aware of other Gaelic posts having been created by the Highland Council that would have resulted in Lawrence Jamieson, whom I know, losing his job. What are these posts you claim were being created? And in any case, don’t people in jobs who speak Gaelic contribute to the Highland, Scottish and UK economies in exactly the same way as the millions working in English, through the taxes they pay?"

He also notes that Councillor MacKay is a member of the Labour party... ".. I believe you are a Labour councillor. Indeed I understand you are employed part-time by the Highlands & Islands Labour MSPs. It was one of those MSPs, Peter Peacock, who led the introduction of the legislation to the Scottish Parliament on behalf of the previous Labour administration"

And so on. I really do recommend that you read the article! 


So Ms Mackay, what now? Do you and others of your ilk continue to lambast Gaelic and shout 'No' at every opportunity, or do you open your eyes and ears and realise that supporting Gaelic is beneficial to us all. Economically and Culturally. Why be so ashamed of your own culture?

So 2010 is shaping up to be one of those winters to remember, we've currently got a decent layer of snow outside and apart from a couple of weeks during January it's been a constant presence since 18th December (the day we moved!)

The highlight so far has been the Sled Dog Rally in Aviemore last Sunday. For the first time since 1995 they were able to race the huskies on snow.

I think the pictures tell it better!

So Susan Boyle has released her version of the Rolling Stones classic 'Wild Horses' which to be fair isn't too bad, I can't deny that the lassie has got a damn good voice. However it's not a patch on the sublime cover done by The Sundays way back in 1992. This song was featured on the album 'Blind' which to this day remains one of my favourite albums.




It's one of these albums that I've returned to over and over again since it was first released. I was an angst ridden, spotty 16 year old when it first came out and I'd read a review in  Melody Maker (remember that?! ) eulogising about Harriet Wheeler's voice. Off I popped to Engebretsons garage in Stornoway to see if they had a copy. Decent record shops on Lewis were few and far between or just downright nonexistent. We had Woolies on the High Street but new releases seemed to arrive just after they'd finally dropped out of the top forty and there was an electrical shop on Francis Street that occasionally had more recent releases. But if you wanted anything other than the poptastic offerings of the charts then the place to go was Engebretsons garage on Sandwick Road. They sold everything from petrol to newspapers to videos to tapes and cd's. Their selection of music was always a wee bit more eclectic and it was a popular stop for pupils at the nearby Nicolson Institute. It was here that I bought my first copy of 'Blind' on tape and its been with me ever since. That is the music has been with me ever since! The original tape has long since been lost and I've moved on to CD and Mp3.




The whole album has a haunting quality to it, the chorus laden jangly guitars  join perfectly with Harriet Wheelers fantastic voice, it is one of those albums that manages to soothe frayed nerves after a busy day in the office. In my case it soothed injured pride and calmed me down after the usual verbal and occasional physical batterings from the school bullies.  In later years it was the soundtrack to sleepless nights where nothing but the opening bars to 'I feel' would take the edge off things after drink, drugs and suffering the consequences of not giving a damn about other people had taken its toll. Now as I'm older and more mature (stop laughing at the back!) it's an album that I can chill out to whilst crashed out on the sofa reading with daughter.



I feel fine...
don't wake me up yet
oh the young & the old they get everything
& it's my turn...


The perfect album? Well I like to think so!

EDIT: I've had to remove the photos as I've been told that Universal will get pissy with me for posting them.I thought they'd appreciate the free publicity...



My wife and daughter have just finished working on the set of the new Kevin Macdonald film The Eagle of Ninth. Based on the book by Rosemary Sutcliffe and set in the second century AD, it's about a Roman soldier who tries to recover the lost of standard of the Ninth Legion that disappeared in Scotland. The synopsis by Focus Features is as follows:

“The Eagle of the Ninth” is set in the dangerous world of second-century Britain. In 140 AD, twenty years after the unexplained disappearance of the entire Ninth Legion in the mountains of Scotland, young centurion Marcus Aquila (played by Channing Tatum) arrives from Rome to solve the mystery and restore the reputation of his father, the commander of the Ninth. Accompanied only by his British slave Esca (Jamie Bell), Marcus sets out across Hadrian’s Wall into the uncharted highlands of Caledonia - to confront its savage tribes, make peace with his father’s memory, and retrieve the lost legion’s golden emblem, the Eagle of the Ninth.”

They've been filming near Achiltibuie over the last week and have had to endure some pretty wild weather, Friday's weather in particular threw everything it could to make proceedings as miserable as possible. They've kept at it though and I was impressed at the professionalism of the crew and the fact that everyone seemed willing to muck in and help when things got tough. The stars of the film (Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell) had no airs and graces about them and were more than happy to mingle with the extras - they also signed my daughter's book so she went home very happy!

The added cash to the local tourist economy has been well received with most of the local B&B's hosting cast and crew members. Local people have also been used as drivers and of course extras - hence my wife and daughter's involvement.

It's been a busy few days but the camaraderie has been fantastic and even the crappy weather failed to dampen people's spirits. We did hope to get another day on the shoot on Monday but they don't need quite so many Extras next week. The film comes out in summer 2010 and I for one am looking forward to it.


(If anyone knows the name of lady in the hat in the background here, pass on our thanks. She was absolutely brilliant with the kids! I didn't get a chance to say thanks before we left for home. She's one of the costume designers and is a nanny for Kevin Macdonald)

It seems that I'm writing two blogs, this one and the Cycle Around Scotland one. From now on I'm going to update this one with general non-cycling stuff and keep the other one as a diary for cycling trips and raising awareness of the 'big one' next year. This one has been neglected over the last year or so but I'm finding more things to write about, whether anyone reads it is a different matter entirely!

It's good!! Yes I know it's not out yet but apparently you can listen to it on their MySpace site. I don't have MySpace as I feel it's for children and the mentally deranged. But if you're of a dishonest nature you could always have a sneak peek on one of the many torrent sites out there.

Anyway I've listened to the whole album and it is very, very good. I know it's not always fashionable or 'cool' to like Coldplaybut I've been a fan since the start and have found that each album has got progressively better.

They've clearly tried to move away from their usual sound and Brian Eno has most definitely put his stamp on the album. At times the U2 similarities are glaring but fortunately this seems to sort itself out by the time the 3rd song kicks in. 'Strawberry Swing' could have been written by Tinariwen with African styled guitars weaving their way throughout the song. Stand out track for me is the current single 'Violet Hill' .....

I shall rectify this forthwith. I just need to think of something to write about...

Absolutely perfect! I couldn't have asked for a nicer day. I got a nice early start and drove North from Inverness with no real plan for the day. I wasn't convinced that the forecast was going to be accurate (it never bloody is up here!) so the predicted sunshine and blue skies were treated with a certain degree of scepticism.

They got it right! The drive was glorious and I stopped to get this photo of Beinn Dearg from the road at Loch Glascarnoch.




I decided to head a bit further North and drove past Ullapool to do climb Cul Mor, if you're into Corbett bagging then this one is the highest in the area. I'm personally not into Munro or Corbett bagging (not to mention the Donalds, Wainwrights and Grahams!) and tend to go to whatever hill suits my fancy.

I parked up at Knockan Crag and grabbed a bite to eat before heading up the hill. Already the views were promising to be pretty spectacular with a panorama taking in Beinn Mor Coigach,
Cul Beag, Stac Pollaidh and Cul Mor.





The walk up Cul Mor is fairly straightforward and only takes about 2 hours. The views are stunning though and it probably took me a bit longer as I kept stopping to take it all in. Suilven in particular caught my eye, standing alone like a great sphinx of the North West. Canisp lay just to the east and I could make out Quinag and Ben More Assynt further away. The hill was utterly deserted with not a soul in sight, unusual for what should be a popular, especially in this weather!








There was a bit of a breeze at the summit, I stood and gawped at the view for a while before deciding to head back a bit lower down to get a bit to eat. I didn't want to leave! The views were that good and the weather so utterly gorgeous that the thought of heading back down to civilisation didn't exactly fill me with joy. My peace was soon to be shattered though, with the arrival of the first people I'd seen all day. The sunshine seems to bring the best out in people, or maybe it's partly due to the fact that everyone you meet out on the hill has something in common with you - the love of being outdoors. We sat and chatted for half an hour putting the world to rights before parting ways.



It looked like most folk had chosen a later start and the hill was pretty busy on the way back down. Each group seemed keen to stop for a blether so it took just as long to get down as it did to get up! A lovely way to spend the day and I think I'll head back up that way again next weekend.

It seems that I’ve been sucked into the world of web comics . I’ve always had a geeky side (hence the fact that I work in IT!) and have a fair sized collection of ‘graphic novels’ already. Webcomics have been something of an unknown for me though and the first one I was really aware of was Questionable Content . Written by Jeph Jacques it follows the lives of Indie Kids Marten and Faye and their slightly dysfunctional relationship. He’s done over 800 strips at this point and I’m making my way through the archives to catch up. It’s interesting to watch the artwork develop along with the relationships of the characters. It has a sit-com feel to it, but the humour is vastly superior to anything you’ll find on an episode of Friends and a touch more risqué too! Jacques obviously loves his music and various indie bands are name checked throughout without feeling contrived or pretentious.

I’ve added a list of webcomics that caught my eye over the last week or so. Read, Enjoy!

I'm a regular poster in UK Climbing and it has a thriving online and offline community, with members regularly getting together for climbing 'meets'. There's one every March in Glen Coe and seeing that it's just down the road from me I thought I'd go along with my daughter.



The weather was wet, windy and generally unpleasant so we didn't go too far, just a short walk along the West Highland Way from behind the Mar lodge in Kinlochleven. All the rivers were very much in full flow and the Blackwater dam had water from the Loch flowing over the top of it! Normally you can walk across it, not in this weather!



The wee one did well considering the dire weather, her efforts were rewarded with a hot chocolate at the Ice Factor in Kinlochleven. It was nice to meet the UKC folk a most of whom I'd never met before.

Fantastic weather today! Got a nice early start and there were no cars in the carpark which was a surprise. I had the whole hill to myself. There was very little wind and bright blue skies all round. I had views across to Ben Wyvis, Torridon, An Teallach and the hills of the far North. It was like a day in Spring, if it hadn't been a bit of a haze I'm fairly sure I would have got a clear view across to the Western Isles.

After the glorious sunshine on Saturday I hoped todays weather would be the same, unfortunately this was not the case. I got to the carpark by the Glascarnoch weather station at about 8am and was greeted with a downpour of biblical proportions. Typical!

Fortunately by the time I'd got my boots on the rain had eased to a light drizzle. The route I was taking follows Abhainn an Torrain Duibh before crossing Allt an Loch Sgeirich and heading up the slopes of Creag Dubh Fannaich and on to Beinn Liath Mor Fannaich.









This route is slightly longer than the usual way up the mountain, but I'm trying to get a lot fitter so wanted to push it a little. The way up to the base of the hill is an excruciating bog slog with little or no path to speak of. At one point I was close to going home as I stepped ankle deep into yet another quagmire and the rain lashed down. However I gritted my teeth and kept going. It was a busy hill, not with people but with wildlife.A couple of Dippers accompanied me on the initial walk along the river and there seemed to be an abundance of Ptarmigan on the way up, which was a surprise as I've never seen them outside of the Cairngorms! A flock of Snow Bunting seemed to busying their way the hill too. The highlight was the Mountain Hare that bounded past me just before the summit. I've never seen one before so that was a nice added bonus. I tracked what I thought was a Weasel for a hundred yards or so, the prints were very fresh, unfortunately no other sign if it though.



As I started to get higher the weather started to clear and I got some decent views of the Fannaichs, unfortunately the snow cover has deteriorated over the last few weeks and any winter climbing will be non-existent at the moment.



A steady pace took me over the top of Creag Dubh Fannaich and on up to Beinn Liath Mor Fannaich. Unfortunately it was very claggy so no photos. The weather seemed to deteriorate again near the top of the hill and considerable amount of snow was falling, once I touched the summit I decided to make a hasty retreat back down. Typically once I was half way down the weather cleared again. The views from the top would have no doubt been really good. If only I'd hung on for 10 minutes! I got a good look across to Beinn Dearg and Am Faochagach, very little snow across there too, although it did look like it had recieved a fresh dusting and the gully lines may have saved a bit of ice. It was difficult to tell from that distance though.