Tony and the Wildflowers

We awoke to another morning of low cloud and mizzle, not a day for going up high.  We passed the time up to lunch processing photos and reading.  I put a load of washing in the garage utility room and got around to posting yesterday's blip.

After a lunch of bacon sandwiches we were in danger of going stir crazy so it was into the car and six miles up the single track road to Achmelvich Bay.

The last time we visited Achmelvich it was BC (before children) and BM (before marriage).  I was a young probationer teacher and Tony was a mature student at our teacher training college. School and college had broken up for summer and Tony was instructing at Loch Eil Outward Bound School near Fort William.  He was leading their Skye Treks, taking groups across country from the centre on ten day expeditions to Skye, Glenfinnan to Glen Brittle.  When his time there was drawing to a close, I got on the bus north to Fort William where we had a couple of days at the Centre before setting off on our holiday around the North West coast, camping and climbing Munros.  

The weather previous to our holiday had been pretty rough, in fact one of Tony's Skye Treks was ten days of rain.  Imagine motivating soggy walkers to get up and put on soggy gear and keep walking in those conditions!  
However, when we set off the sun shone as we took the road to Ullapool, trucks full of herring passing us on the road as the embargo had been lifted and fishing trawlers were berthed at Ullapool unloading their catches which were being loaded into anything that would take them.  The seagulls were having a feast day!

The previous bad weather meant that campsites were quiet.  When we arrived at Achmelvich along the single track, there were just a few small tents above the beach and toilets in a mobile trailer, that was it.  Today there are new builds going up on the approach and everywhere around.  A caravan site with toilet blocks, a chippie and shop take up the hillside on one side of the beach.  Pods for the 500-ers have been erected and a large public carpark with toilets.  Signage everywhere.  It unnerved us.

We had decided to take the coastal path to a ruined corn mill at Port Alltan na Bradhan and were soon away from the bay and into a landscape rich with wildflowers.  Tony had just downloaded an app and was busy making use of it and taking photos of the many species.  I'll try to list some of those we have identified at the end.

We reached the ruined corn mill which still has several large grindstones scattered around and from there walked down to the machair above the beach.  It was a small, craggy bay with the stream falling steeply down through sharp crags.  We did wonder how the owners of the cornmill built it and carried the grindstones to such a remote spot.

Retracing our steps we walked down to the beach but didn't stay long.  We had enjoyed the walk and the wildflowers along our route but the magic of the bay had gone for us.

Better on black

Flowers
Spear Thistles
English Stonecrop
Monkey Flower
Tufted Vetch
Marsh Ragwort
Marsh Lousewort
Tormentil
Buttercups and Daisies
Harebells
Field Gentian
Common Marsh Bedstraw
Wild Carrot
Bog Asphodel
Sneezewort
Thyme
Bedstraw
White and Red Clover
Eyebright
Lady's Bedstraw
Yarrow
Birdsfoot Trefoil
Selfheal
Red Bartsia
Yarrow
Ling
Bell Heather
Knapweed
Melancholy Thistle