I type from Lochgilphead. A place that has certainly grown on me and a hidden gem.
I’m here for one reason or another. Claire is in Tobermory with Calum and Katie. Tonight they are in the town, on the seafront, looking at the parade of cars participating in the 2024 Mull Rally.
Sitting above the town is Druim Hill and Blarbuie Forest which makes for extensive walking and where you can disappear from people and buildings. I’ve walked through the Victorian planted forest, which was to hide the original asylum, now general Hospital, and have also explored the higher working pine forest via its access roads. Highly recommended.
Blarbuie Forest.
On walking from the hospital into town, you are met with traditional Scottish town architecture, and whilst not extensive, there is a range of shops and coffee shops, all of which sits adjacent to the top of Loch Gilp and the entrance to the Crinan Canal.
Speaking of the Crinan Canal, it makes for lovely walking, cycling or running with its high levees giving commanding views over the countryside. The canal was built to enable ships access from the Irish Sea into the Clyde, so avoiding a rounding of the exposed Mull of Kintyre. Claire and I have enjoyed walking the canal and watching an assortment of yachts using the traverse from Sea to Loch.
Loch Gilp.
Oban is roughly an hour and ten minutes north of Lochgilphead and Loch Gilp leads into Loch Fyne with Inverary being the next largest settlement at the top of lunch Fyne. All in all beautiful and interesting countryside with which to explore.
This part of Scotland is worth exploring for its coastline and settlements and numerous Lochs, with you being able to venture inland for wild camping.
I’ve not so much explored this part of the West Coast of Scotland, instead being more familiar with the Rough Bounds area around Arisaig. But I have been impressed and fascinated.
As an Englishman who has had a taste of countryside and metropolitan life, I can safely say I prefer it here. It’s not just the soft and smooth tones, punctuated with idioms, from the locals. It’s the mentality. One of acceptance, friendliness, understanding, and welcome. No one judges on success (whatever that is, and it’s always alluded me) or money or material wealth: it is more about being a part of something, and in practical terms stopping for a chat. You are valued for who you are, not what you have or claim to be.
I won’t miss England, and I don’t miss saying that.
Indigo levitating on Succoth Ward.