The Isle of Rum

I have always been fascinated by the isle of Rum, south of Skye. It was cleared of indigenous people in the 1820s, upon which it became a private shooting estate. In the 1890s, it was acquired by Sir George Bullough of Accrington, Lancashire, who proceeded to build a folly, Kinloch Castle. When his time on this earth was finished, his remains were interred in a mausoleum at Harris - no, not in the Outer Hebrides, but a location in the southwest of Rum. Incidentally, the original design was not to Sir George's liking - because guests apparently likened it to a lavatory (see https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2994255), so he had it dynamited. By road, for want of a better description, it is 8 miles. It took me 3 hours to walk from the castle; it takes a vehicle 1½ hours. I refer to the photographs. Sir George's wife, Lady Monica, passed away in 1957, and her remains were taken down that same hard road and interred beside her husband. I include pics taken along that trip. The late John Love wrote a book about Rum's history and called it "A Landscape without Figures". You can see why.

 

 

9.13 am

A clock.

Its hands pointing at a little after 9.13
This was in the morning
The morning of 21st October 1966

The clock looks a bit battered.
It looks grimey.
Encrusted with black soot... 

The clock stopped permanently at the above time, when it was engulfed in an avalance of coal dust, which had come crashing down from a 111 ft high spoil heap, outside the Welsh mining town of Aberfan.

The collapse claimed the lives of 116 children and 28 adults.
109 of the children were killed when their primary / elementary school was engulfed.

Lest we forget

Blogoversary #21

A sunsplashed photograph of the village of Kyleakin in Skye, 75 miles south of Stornoway. It dates back 21 years, when I was based there for a week or so. Although I had set up a blog some ten days before, it was in Kyleakin that I commenced to blog my activities on a daily basis. 

On October 8th, 2004, I went on a hillwalk in southern Skye, to reach the beach of Camasunary. I post a photograph I took 12 days later.



Twenty-one years of blogging has seen me change blogs a few times. I first posted in Northern Trip, which I had to close after AOL ditched its blogging service in October 2008.

I wrote in Atlantic Lines for ten years, before opening A Cobbled Road seven years ago. The change always appears to have happened in October, for some obscure reason.

Anyway, over the years I have encountered some great people through AOL, and what we came to call J-land (journals land). Since 2004, some seventy bloggers have passed away; they are remembered in Silent Keyboards - Jland Angels, originally set up by the late Jeannette Oatley. 

Apart from blogging about my own exploits, I have about 70 blogs on my account related to local history and other matters. I hope you have enjoyed reading thus far, and will stay with me for this journey. Here's to year 22.