Doors Open today

Another beautiful day – two in a row! Cloudless blue skies and warm sunshine!

Today was a Heritage and Conservation Day at St Conan's Kirk, an amazing church near Lochawe Village beside Loch Awe. It’s timed to coincide with Doors Open Day though not officially part of that scheme. As well as a standard guided tour they were offering a ‘Hidden Heritage’ tour, a fifteen minute look around parts of the church not normally open to the public – irresistible!

For those of you who don’t know about St Conan's, do read about it here. It’s built on a slope above the single track Glasgow-Oban railway line which follows the north shore of Loch Awe at this point, a quite fascinating building constructed largely in the first part of the 20th century, a mixture of every style known to man! It’s hard to imagine an architect standing at his drafting table coming up with such a hotchpotch of designs. It’s impossible to describe – you just have to see it for yourself!

We were taken up steps normally out of bounds, through doors usually closed and down into the crypt which is generally shut off to the public. I joined in with the ‘proper’ tour after ours was finished – here are the folk outside on the south side being told about the various features and ornamentation of the towers. I’ve been here a number of times, but it’s always best to have somebody describe it to you, seeing things which are so easily missed.

Unfortunately the part of Photoshop which straightens converging verticals isn’t working on my computer at the moment, so I’m ashamed to have to post a picture which has not been sorted!