Ecosse and Beyond: 25 July, Monday afternoon: Gavin Maxwell

After the Fairy Pools, I drove back to Kyleakin – where, before the bridge, the ferry from Kyle of Lochalsh, arrived. There is a Bright Water Visitor Centre there, I couldn’t work out why as it is not that near “Camusfearna” or Sandaig which is where Gavin Maxwell kept his otters and wrote the book “Ring of Bright Water”.

I never got to see what the Visitor Centre had to offer the visitor. It advertises itself as a 2-parter, the second part you have to book. Before I paid my £1 entry fee I asked about the other bit and was told that there was a trip at 2 pm – it was 1.40. So I bought a ticket (£6!), drove over the bridge (no toll), parked at where the toll booth used to be and walked back to the island, Eilean Ban, in the middle of Loch Alsh (from which the big bit of the bridge takes off) just in time for the trip – and the solving of the mystery as to why Kyleakin has a “Bright Water Visitor Centre”.

Eilean Ban

Loch Alsh: Kyle of Lochalsh on the left, Kyleakin on the right.

Gavin Maxwell bought two islands when the lighthouses thereon became redundant. One was Isle Ornsay on the Sleat peninsula, across the bay from Sandaig (I’ll come to where that is) which he wanted but they made him buy Eilean Ban which he didn’t particularly want at the time. However he lived there for the last 18 months of his life. The house at Sandaig burnt down and one of the two otters he had at the time died in the fire. He and he remaining otter moved to Eilean Ban. It died within weeks of him.

Teko’s grave on Eilean Ban

The “cat house” on Eilean Ban – they kept injured wild cats there.

He could see the phone box next to the pier through his telescope on his desk from his house and, so, when his phone rang he could see who was ringing him. He didn’t always reply and, once, he said to whoever was ringing him that he wouldn’t send the boat to pick him up until he stopped picking his nose.

His desk is on the right

Skye Bridge & a Stevenson Light – there are only with walkways, the other is on Mull and only has 3 piers, this has 4

Inside the light (not in use now)

From the walkway around the top – the house is just beyond the bridge on the right – you can see the chimneys

This is a not very good picture of where the nuclear submarine ran aground, i.e. having just come under Skye Bridge heading north. The channel is very clearly marked, but maybe not under water. Was the submarine underwater at the time?

Same view with bridge and lighthouse….

That excellent trip didn’t finish till 4 and the Visitor Centre closed at 4. I would try tomorrow morning.

I then drove down to Arnisdale. I had been there when I did a week’s walking based at Doune on the Knoydart penisula (excellent).

The road ends at Arnisdale

Arnisdale

Knoydart

To get there is up over another mountain, not as dramatic as getting to Applecross, but once you pass Glenelg it feels worse as it is quite high up and feels as if it is on a ledge between another mountain and the sea and the road is both narrow and is subsiding. I was about to glibly say that Arnisdale hadn’t changed since I was there but, as with all remote parts of Scotland, there is a lot of building going on – is this for real dwellings or for holiday homes? Anyway whichever, the building industry for small builders seems to be thriving in places. I drove back to Sandaig and, as it was about 6 by this time was able to park.

Sandaig from the road

I had been warned that the Forestry Commission was doing a great deal of logging and that the path down to the shore was difficult to find. I didn’t find it but walked down the logging track.

Since the house burned down there is only the memorial stone to Maxwell on the site of the house – nothing of the house is left. There is a tree to the north where the otter which died in the fire is buried.

The Memorial Stone is to the left of the left-hand telegraph pole and the otter, Edal is buried under the lone fir tree

I wasn’t particularly moved by it but that may have been because of the ghastly mess the Forestry Commission is making – they are actively trying to discourage people from going down there. Thinks: is it the Forestry Commission or is it the estate owners?