The Great Glen

This week we are doing a bit of a road trip around the Great Glen. We have a number of sites to mop up that are spread quite widely, so are spending a night in each of three different hostels.

Our first night was in Fort Augustus. After a long drive from Blair Atholl, we picked up two sites on the road to Skye, stopping to check out the impressive commando memorial en route.

The surveys went well - we had two full sites to complete and saw plantiful butterflies. The habitat was relatively flat and scrub free so the host plant surveys were also fairly painless and quick to carry out. It was a hot day and the scenery was stunning, but I was quite pleased to be off the hill and out of the sun.

In the evening, we treated ourselves to an hours cruise down Loch Ness. We didn't see Nessie, or any other wildlife for that matter, but it was a pleasant way to spend the evening. 

Then it was back to the hostel, which had good facilities but seemed to be party capital of the world ...! 

Glen Affric

Our second day on our tour of the Great Glen took us to sites in Glen Affric. This is a small valley to the west of Drumnadrochit. The team that previously visited reported it as the "site from hell" and a "midge infested nightmare". To be fair they did survey in poor conditions. We returned on one of the hottest days of the year. My butterfly transect was a few miles on from Dog Falls. I didn't see our target butterfly, the Scotch Argus, along the road or in the bracken infested woodland, but near the end of the survey I found a nice patch of Molinia grassland by the loch side, with a pair of butterflies dancing along the beach. Success! It was beautiful down by the water with views over the loch and surrounding hills. I did have to do a solo plant transect though, up through said bracken infested woodland which wasn't so much fun.  Still, I felt lucky to have seen the site at its best, and it was a day that was good for the soul. 

Wester Ross

After our grand tour of Skye, we had a few sites to pick up in the north west of Scotland. We spent a night at the bunkhouse in Kinlochewe and used that as a base for our next two sites.

The first of these was a lovely site to the north east of Gairloch.  The area looked a great place to walk, and our site was part way along a path that linked the A832 (at NG8577) and Loch Maree, finishing at Slattadale - definitely a walk to add to my to do list.

Although the site was very beautiful, it wasn't kind to us!  The first time we visited we got caught in the rain. It was over one kilometer walk to our site, and just as we arrived it started to rain. We managed to complete one plant survey before returning to the car in torrential rain with midges swarming. I somehow even managed to get rain in the dry bag of my rucksack - pretty much everything I owned was wet. Luckily the car keys stayed dry, and everything dried out overnight in the drying room at the bunkhouse.

We returned the next day to complete the site. I had one plant survey to do by myself, and failed to navigate the best way to the start point of the survey, meaning that I climbed up a hill completely needlessly only to find I actually should be at the base of a steep rocky cliff!  I got there eventually, and my transect then took me down the valley crossing a stream several times. I was glad to get back to the car and leave the site behind!

We chased the weather all the way to our next site but unfortunately wasn't able to complete as the next weather front was coming in rapidly. There was time for a quick lunch stop at Rogie Falls though, and I saw my first salmon leaping upstream. 

Isle of Skye

This week I was lucky enough to be chosen to survey some sites on Skye. With it now being summer holidays it seemed everywhere on the island was fully booked so we spent our first night camping at Sligachan in the heart of the Cuillins, and actually had a transect to do right next to the campsite.

The weather was not kind to us - putting up a strange tent in the rain was not fun. We spent the evening in the bar sheltering from the worst of the weather. It didn't seem to rain much during the night and I stayed remarkable warm and dry, though the campsite was a sodden mud bath. We got up early and struck camp before the rain started again in earnest.  We managed to get two sets of host plant surveys done in between the rain showers, though did mis-time one and watched as the rain came in a band towards us from the Atlantic and gave us a thorough drenching as we tried to do the quickest survey ever!

Luckily we managed to get a cancellation in a bunkhouse, though it was nearly an hours drive away on the mainland. It was nice to be able to try out and not worry about the tent leaking though - and a lot easier to cook dinner with proper facilities rather than a wobbly camping stove in the rain. 

Our final day on Skye was much kinder to us. After driving back onto the island we managed to finish off the outstanding host plant surveys and do a butterfly transect in good weather. We stopped at a great little place for lunch (the Blue Shed Cafe in the Elgol peninsula) and had a delicious bowl of butternut squash soup. 

The weather allowed us to appreciate some of the magnificent scenery a bit more, though there were still clouds in the top of the Cuillins. The colours were amazing too - purple heather, green hills, brown seaweed, blue sky and aquamarine sea - very beautiful. It is a shame that the weather only perked up as we were leaving the island!

Then it was back to the mainland for our final site of the day, a National Trust for Scotland reserve near Kyle of Lochalsh (Loch Sgalpaidh). The landscape was beautiful with scenic views over the loch, though it was hard going underfoot with slopes of Molinia tussocks. 

The day finished with the classic tourist attraction of Eilean Dolan castle - probably the most photographed castle in Scotland so we had to do it too.