If one can describe great weather as ‘a following wind’ this was how the gods smiled on Auchindrain’s first Food Fair over the weekend of 19th and 20th May.

In typical Auchindrain style, the event at the preserved farm township was a fusion of then and now, with traditional food production methods – like churning for butter and buttermilk and making griddle scones and clootie dumplings on a peat fire – blending their aromas with those of the here and now and the classics.

The scent of the lamb spit roast -  part of the buffet organised by Leanne Muldowney of Inveraray’s George Hotel – dominated the outdoors centre of the event up beside the wooden ‘Colt House’ that is a listed building in its own right.

Down inside the ultra-couth reception centre, with its gleaming and open stainless steel kitchen. Chef Andrew Maclugash performed a cookery demonstration – with mass tastings. He smoked a mackerel, made mackerel pate, oatcakes and nettle soup.

Andrew’s cheffing credentials are very interesting – you could say mouthwatering. He was a chef on the Hebridean Princess – and we know how high-end that is, travelling to all of the glorious nooks and crannies of the Scottish inshore and offshore coast with the ship. He then transferred to its sister ship and did the Carribbean side of the business. He now works on developing ‘ready meals’ for Waitrose, through a company contracted to deliver this service.

So when Helensburgh gets its new Waitrose, there will be a readymade Auchindrain connection through Andrew Maclugash’s impact on the ready meals available there.

Up at the buffet area, there were stalls and skills, with Jill Bowis spinning even more yarns than usual.

The sheep that provide the raw material looked curiously through the fence.

The stalls featured a Celtic art gift display, Paradise Kitchen preserves from the Isle of Seil, Pamela Airlie’s jewellery from Ford on Loch Aweside.

And the most spectacularly irresistible (we fell at first sight) collection of cup cakes from two Inveraray women who just do this as a favour for a select few special events.

Karol Chodorowski from Eastern Poland who is one of the two new members of staff, churned butter in the thatch-roofed Bel Pol’s cottage.

Sheena McAlister from the Campbeltown Heritage Centre made wonderful griddle soda scones and clootie dunplings over peat fires in one of the cottages.

Both were served – as were all of the stall holders, the buffet and the arriving visitors at the gate by the hard working and cheerfully good mannered 14th Midlothian and Bonnyrigg scout troop.

They laboured endlessly with buckets of water hauled around the long township to all who needed it. They helped the spinner and the Inverclyde Gaelic Waulkers and they guided visitor parking.

Their camp site down by the burn below the Colt House was a bright splash of alien colour – and some of them had managed to get permission to sleep in the box beds in a couple of the cottages that night.

As the last of the visitors dallied with the griddle scones, little groups of the 14th Midlothian and Bonnyrigg legion slid politely behind backs topping up the peat fires. They wanted to be sure of a warm night. They’d heard the stories of the troop’s 2011 experiences when, in dreadful weather one of their tents became a kite and the boys who slept in the cottages were colder than those in the tents.

Eva Paterson (Swedish, now a resident Scot, snaffled up by a smart Loch Fyneside farmer)  who runs the catering service at Auchindrain, was on hand to support the buffet operation and meet old friends.

Bob Clark, Auchindrain’s Development Manager was everywhere but made sure he got to the butter shortly after it emerged from the churn, He had earlier welcomed Argyll and Bute’s MSP, Michael Russell to the event.

Cathy Wilson of Islay’s Ailsapress, dropped in with visitors from near Munich who were going on to stay the night in Kilmartin – because Bayern were playing Chelsea and they could catch it live if they waited to take the Islay ferry the next morning. (Given the result, we’d better say no more on this topic.)

Storyteller, the magnificent Padraig MacNeil, told us about Stirling twinning with Galway in the west of Ireland and sending over the Wallace sword for the agreement between the two towns to be signed on.P{adraiog has been commissioned to write a poem to commemorate the marriage – in Scots and Irish Gaelic and on the Doric. He gave us a sneak preview in song and recitation . This will definitely be an event to witness.

Residents from across Mid Argyll and Cowal mingled with visitors from all parts – some maxing out with a parallel visit to the established Loch Fyne Food Fair running at the head of the loch.

There were people everywhere, the Auchindrain livestock attracted cameras and a wary eye to those horns. They had some visitors VERY attracted by the smell of the Lamb Rolls.

On the second day there was a shinty match played by the Camanach Cup winning Inveraray Club on the field which Karol had cut two days earlier; and Cowal’s Walking Theatre Company amazed and astounded its audience as it towed them around the township, anxious to miss nothing.

All in all, this was a major success for Auchindrain and its unsleeping team – and a very enjoyable (and well  fed) experience for everyone.

And if you want cute…

The finalists in this year’s greeting card retailing awards – affectionately known as ‘The Retas’ – have been announced and and the Card Shop at The Square Peg has been nominated as one of the top card retailers in Scotland.

All the finalists in all the retail categories emerged from a massive nationwide nomination process. Earlier this year, UK greeting card publishers, card reps and agents nominated the retailers that they felt to be the worthy winners in each of the categories.

The Retas awards, launched in 2005 by Progressive Greetings Worldwide magazine, recognise excellence across the whole retail spectrum, from independents on the high streets, to the mini chains, national multiples, garden centres, department stores and supermarkets.

It was no round hole for this Square Peg, which found the perfect fit, seeing off the competition to become a finalist in the Best Independent Scottish Greetings Card Retailer award.

Unsurprisingly they’re delighted. Jilly Wilson says: ‘We are particularly pleased and intrigued by this nomination because, although shops are able to nominate themselves for this award, we did not.

‘We are always finding new and beautiful cards for our shop and this makes it all worthwhile.’

The overall winner will be revealed at a spectacular ‘Hollywood Classics’ themed award event at London’s Dorchester Hotel on Wednesday 11th Jul, attended by almost 400 people.

Jilly Wilson may be surprised at the nomination but no one who uses the Square Peg as gift source of first resort, will share that emotion. This establishment is in what is arguably the best retail position in Lochgilphead and it knows how to use it.

It is endlessly surprising itself, with a clear sense of style and fun guiding its stock decisions – individualist, amusing and with an eye to quality. Its Card Shop is Mid Argyll’s and its visitors’ answer to a raft of needs, challenges and emergencies.

The Square Peg fully deserves its place in the finals – and to win. We look forward to news from the glitz of 11th July.

And congratulations don’t seem quite the thing. do they?

It has to be ‘Greetings’.

Ardfern’s fire engine and crew spent over five hours assisting the other engines – mainly ferrying water to the site.

The job was described as ‘Very Smelly’.

The Purbeck Isle was reported missing last night, triggering a major search involving the Royal navy, SAR, and two lifeboats, including the Lyme Regis lifeboat, named Spirit of Loch Fyne.

Earlier today, the sonar on a survey ship showed a wreck similar in size to the Purbeck Isle, some ten miles south of Portland Bill.

The Leacainn River has undermined the Shore Road in the village of Furnace on Loch Fyne. As can be seen from these photographs, the run of the stream is continually working away at the concrete buttressing of the road at this point, swinging into it as it exits the bridge.

It is obvious that the collapse of the concrete support has happened now because, over time, the river has eaten away the earth bank behind it. The upper horizontal structure remaining is little more than an unsupported concrete biscuit.

This road runs down to the first house visible in the top photograph, swinging to the right at its gate to run down to and along the shore, offering access to a handful of other residences. The people living in these and the two houses visible here, whose access is from this road, will have concerns about the stability of the road.

Argyll and Bute Council claim that this is a private road and is not their responsibility. This would seem to be the case. Locals say that when the river previously undermined this road – around 40 years ago – it was repaired by the local landowner, the Cumlodden Estate.

At this very moment there’s a natural film set waiting for a survivalist movie – just off the A83 at Crarae Garden on the shores of Loch Fyne in Mid Argyll.

Existing cheek by howl with the teasing, dramatic yet tranquil beauty that has made this garden’s name as a Himalayan gorge delight right here in Argyll, is a very different world, full of powerful forces, destruction and an unexpected beauty of its own.

Crarae, reopened recently for the 2012 visitor season, is still dealing with the scale of the consequences of the gales on the 3rd January.

Following the loss of some 30 trees in the lesser December gales, Head Gardener Nigel Price found a scene of unimaginable and chaotic devastation near the northeastern boundary of the garden after the January gales.

The winds were the cause of the power outage that saw that saw much of Argyll cold and dark at the turn of the year for around 60 hours – with Islay even worse off than that.

Crarae has another direct link with that stormy time.

Access to the cable that had dropped the power was uphill through the garden – on the path across which lay many of the 200 trees Mr Price discovered downed in the winds.

The Scottish Hydro engineers, unable to take a van or even a quad bike up the path, had to physically carry every single thing they needed up the hill to the damage site – and not only that, they had to get it all up and over or around an endless array of fallen trees. Nigel Price speaks of the work they did with an awed respect.

That path is now cleared, of course, with the chopped-off end of trunks hard on each side of the path and massive root plates creating the barriers, chasms and defiles of a world of secrecy and potential menace.

You can’t take your eyes off it – although Nigel Price would be very glad to be able to do so. We were free to catch our breath and reach for the camera. He has to get it sorted.

There is money in much of the fallen timber – but getting it out will be so difficult and cause so much physical disruption that it will probably take all it has earned to see to the restitution afterwards.

But much of this is part of the business of looking after any major garden. Nature does not run on set tracks but can take off in unexpected directions. It’s a case of looking at the positives. They are always there.

The 200-odd trees taken down in the January gales are to be replaced by a fabulous redwood forest – which none of us will see in its maturity but will be quite splendid.

Some individual tress that blew over elsewhere in the garden have let a blaze of light into dark areas, with new glimpses for visitors and growth potential for new plants.

Walking through the garden now, you run the gamut of experience, all of it unforgettable. As always, you need to look for the detail, the moments where there is a fusion of the two beauties, one born from care, the other from destruction. By the stump of a fallen eucalyptus are some bluebells and a curl of new bracken softening the cut.

You take in the drama of the momentous energies that reshaped where they struck; and you exhale with the brilliance of the flowering shrubs, the sound of the burn, the birdsong – and the secret paths vanishing out of sight and promising whatever you imagine…

Any great garden has a skyscape and here your eyes follow the endless vertical trunk of a Californian Grand Fir that a 14 year old Sir George Campbell planted or are intrigued by a twisting trunk that has been created by wind torsion.

Every so often you get glimpses of the loch below and some expansive calming scenes of rolling fields and grazing sheep.

You may see a splendid rhododendron with some of its foliage looking on the droopy side. This is another of the challenges Crarae is currently confronting – the transmission of Sudden Oak Death disease (Phytophthora Ramorum) – which does not affect British oaks but absolutely does for the rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and magnolias that abound in Crarae.

This is a notifiable plant disease and those diagnosed to be afflicted by it must be felled and burned where they lie  -  along with the gathering up of any fallen leaves in the vicinity.

There are two types of Phytophthora ramorum. They differ in the degree of speed they travel. Fortunately Crarae has the slowmo – but they’re on guard for the first trace of the more virulent sibling.

Who’d be a gardener? There’s another little plague sculling around. This is the nasty little ‘Scale Insect’ disease which sees the tiny blighters consume leaves leaving a sticky honey excretion on the stems and branches. This attracts a sooty black fungus making plants suffering from it look for all the world as if they’ve got charring damage.

The plants will probably survive this attack but Nigel Price takes proprietorial offence at the dusty blackness that mars their vitality.

There is development as well, to lift the spirits of the gardening team. A group of volunteers have recently cleared an old drovers’ road running through Crarae, probably from the southern parts of Loch Aweside through to link up with the drovers’ road through Brenchoille near Auchindrain.

Clearing the area around this brought another discovery – a secret pond protected by a wrought iron gate, fed by an uphill well channelled into it. This pond prison once housed a single trout. The fish seems to have had a ritual totemic status, with the flourishing of the area thought to depend upon it.

Climate change will bring associated changes to Crarae – as it will to other west coast and Scotland-wide gardens.

Part of the far forest garden here is likely to host reserve collections for gardens in the south of England facing persistent drought and unable to perpetuate their signature plants.

It’s all change – adaptation, improvisation, opportunism, recovery, redirection – gardens have always been a metaphor for life.

They may look confident, fixed. But it’s all go – evolution by the day.

Crarae garden is open daily, even when, in early and late parts of the season, its visitor centre and shop are not. At the moment, all visitors are asked to step into a disinfectant tray on the garden side of the visitor centre, as they enter and leave it. This helps to limit the two-way transmission of the plant diseases that can wreck havoc in a place like this.

The Argyll First group of councillors – invited to address today’s hearing by the Scottish Parliament’s Petitions Committee of their Sign for the A83 petition,  are ‘extremely delighted’ at how things went.

Councillor Dougie Philand, who gave the main address, said that found ‘the strong  level of support by members of the committee’ very reassuring.

The petition will now move to the next stave where the committee will call upon Transport Secretary, Keith Brown, to answer the questions raised at the meeting.

Political support: Michael Russell MSP

Michael Russell, MSP for Argyll and Bute, attended the meeting in support and afterwards said: ‘This is a very important petition and I was very pleased to be able to attend the committee and speak in its support.

‘The three Argyll First councillors presented a strong  case on behalf of the entire Argyll community and they got  a sympathetic hearing.

‘There was clear cross party support for continued and increased  investment in the route and for learning the outcomes of the present study being undertaken by Transport Scotland.

‘I will continue to argue for the major work that is required , support the local campaign for that work and I hope today has marked a major step forward in that regard. ‘

Political support: Jamie McGrigor MSP

Jamie McGrigor, Highlands and Islands MSP, who was present at the hearing in support of Argyll First and spoke in defence of the petition, praised the Councillors who have co-ordinated the petition, noting that Public Petitions Committee members agreed to ask the Transport Minister to come before them and respond to the petition at a future meeting.

Speaking at the Committee in support of the petitioners, Jamie McGrigor MSP said in his address:

‘The A83 is as important to the people of Argyll & Bute as the M8 is to the people of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

‘Since the first major landslide closed the road at the Rest & Be Thankful in October 2007 I have been lobbying Ministers to recognise the damage that closures of this trunk road route could cause the economy  of Argyll & Bute due to Dunoon, Cowal and Campbeltown and Kintyre becoming cut off by road except via a lengthy and unacceptable detour. Everything possible must be done by government and its agencies to prevent landslides at the landslide-prone Rest & Be Thankful section of the road- this may well involve significant capital investment.

‘Further, the condition of the road, particularly on the de-trunked section of the A83 south of Kennacraig, is incredibly poor and this acts as a barrier to the investment the government and its agencies are trying to attract to Campbeltown and Kintyre.

‘I congratulate the petitioners today on bringing forward their petition and for securing so much popular and business support for it. I now look to the Committee members to take the petition forward and help maintain pressure on Ministers on this critically important subject.’

Back home…

When the group got back to Argyll, Councillor Donald Kelly said of the occasion:

‘We felt that our petition was very well received by the committee and that the cross party support displayed by Mike Russell, Jamie Mc Grigor  and Rhoda Grant helped to re-enforce our message.

‘The government are currently recognising three component parts of the petition namely:

• the Rest and Be Thankful
• the pinch points at Inverary and between Ardrishaig and Tarbert
• and the provision of safe crossing points at the villages of Ardrishaig and Tarbert.

‘The Fourth point we have raised as part of the petition is trunking of the road between  Kennacraig and Campbeltown.

‘At present no action has been taken regarding this issue.

‘This is  key to the future economic development of the Kintyre peninsula given that the First Minister has already stated that the Windtowers factory at Machrihanish will be a key player in the development of renewable energy.

‘It must also be considered that the current condition of the road is impacting on Tourism local business Hauliers and the emergency services.

‘It is our intention to continue with this campaign until there is a firm plan of action in place to address all four issues raised in the petition.’

The persistence of the Argyll First group on this matter has been both admirable and effective. The challenge now is to maintain attention and pressure to keep the addressing of this issue moving in to action.

With the incoming coalition administration proposing to appoint Councillor Donald Kelly of Argyll First, to the Roads brief, the situation of the A83 is unlikely to drop from view by default.

The photograph above shows Councillor Donald Kelly (left), with Councillor John McAlpine, outside the Scottish Parliament earlier today.

The BBC’s You and Yours radio programme this morning carried first an interview with Martha Payne and her father and then with a council manager responsible for the school catering service – Jane Murphy.

Martha Payne is, of course, the nine year old pupil at Lochgilphead Primary School whose blog and photographs blew the whistle on the inadequate schools males – in volume, variety and nutrition – too often served up there.

The Paynes were lucid, factual and balanced. Martha said some of her school  meals were ‘lovely’ but others were not. She mentioned particularly the general paucity of vegetables on offer.

Her father was honestly shocked by the photographs he saw of what his daughter was being given to eat – and noted that he has been getting all sorts of emails from all over the place, with people sending him photographs of what their children are getting to eat at school.

Mr Payne said that most of them – then corrected himself to say that ALL of them – were better than what is being served up to Martha. He mentioned one roast dinner with two types of vegetables for under £2.

Then came the council, officer, Jane Murphy – who parrotted the line taken by Facilities Manager, Malcolm  MacFadyen, on BBC radio the other day.

This story is all the child’s fault. Children make choices.

She said specifically that the content of the plates photographed by Martha Payne showed what Martha herself had chosen.

This is flatly not the case, What young Martha Payne showed was emphatically what she had been given.

Ms Murphy went on to paint a glowingly luscious picture of the meals on offer – talking of platters of fruit, a wide selection of vegetables, endless salads – and specifically instanced ‘cherry tomatoes and watercress’.

We have since been unable to find any child who eats at Lochgilphead Primary School who has ever had ‘cherry tomatoes and watercress’ there.

In every breath of this interview was the imputation that this child has overegged the pudding – if anyone could overegg the ice lolly the world saw perched on the side of Martha Payne’s plate?

The picture from Ms Murphy conjured the notion that, just out of the carefully edited frame of the child’s photographs, were platters piled high with glorious fruit, with dishes of all sorts of vegetables there to choose from, piles of salads and, of course, the ubiquitous cherry tomatoes and watercress.

What is unforgivable is far less the unacceptable quality of the meals  – which is an issue that can be put right – than the readiness to distort the truth and the level of comfort in deliberately undermining the veracity of an obviously truthful child.

The culture at Kilmory really cannot get any lower than this – and may be a problem, unlike the dodgy meals, that cannot be put right.

This is certainly a matter which Argyll expects the incoming new administration at the council to confront and on which it will be judged by the evidenced progress it makes.

And a telling little footnote: as is their usual modus operandi in ‘transparency’, the council has now blocked Martha’s blog from the public sector broadband network it controls across Argyll and Bute.

The council seems not to realise the extent of worldwide interest in this story.

We have blocked attempts being made through us by television stations in Spain, France and Germany and by the BBC in London, to reach the Paynes – because we are aware that they are doing everything they can to protect their child from an overdose of media attention.

If the council continue to peddle their inexactitudes at the expense of the child’s reputation, they may leave the Paynes with no alternative but to speak out to the multifarious media platforms clamouring to talk to them.

And incidentally, Martha and her parents have been told that school staff cannot now talk to any of them about her food.

We understand that tomorrow, Tuesday 15th May 2012, a group of councillors is to visit Lochgilphead Primary School to eat there. Cherry tomatoes and watercress, anyone?

The book starts with a section on Argyll’s archaeological and historical past; and follows that with 25 of the best heritage and natural heritage walks in Kilmartin Glen, Craignish, Kilmichael Glen and Knapdale.

The photography of the area -  said to be stunning – is by Dr Aaron Watson and complements the text.

Copies of In the Footsteps of Kings will be available to buy from the Museum shop, Waterstones in Oban and the Argyll Book Centre in Lochgilphead; and will also be posted by the Museum direct to remote purchasers for an additional £1.50 to cover postage and packing.

The idea for this book is inspired – telling the authentic story of this remarkable area in the sane covers as giving the detail of 25 walks in the locality. It should prove hugely popular.

A stout weighty double-sided wooden board, resistant to most winds, was in a prominent position in the street outside a shop visitors use and stop to look at: McGilp’s Fyne Tackle – an angling and outdoor clothing shop.

The Heart of Argyll group recently recruited  West Coast Motors and seafood-exporter, O-Fish-Shell – to carry large images from the area on the back of buses and trucks – flaunted daily on the route to Glasgow and back  and weekly to and through mainland Europe long the motorway network from Glasgow to Spain.

From the look of this local streetside initiative, there is no resting on laurels,

Yesterday – Saturday 12th May 2012, Lochgilphead Red Star, playing in the Scottish Amateur Football League, won the Coronation Cup for the first time.

The final at Cambuslang Park saw Red Star, pitched against Whitehill FP, go into a 3-o lead only to see Whitehill pull back two quick goals. The Star held on and took the Cup 3-2 to scenes and sounds of communal celebration at the presentation, on the bus on the way back home and outside the Stag Hotel in Lochgilphead where the welcome committee made their feelings clearly known.

Councillor Philand has suggested that a civic reception to honour this historic win would be a happy start for the new council administration.

It would also underline the inspiration of seeing young people play a competitive team sport to a high level – and win.

Once Argyll gets a taste for winning – as it is now doing in the Argyll and the Isles tourism marketing collaboration – there will be no stopping it.

(Updated below on the hoof.) According to one of their major fans, Councillor Dougie Philand (who also took the photographs), ‘Lochgilphead Red Star’s performance was brilliant today’ in this afternboon’s final of the Scottish Amateur League’s Coronation Cup in Glasgow at Cambuslang Park.

With a crowd from the town of about 200 (supporters below)  ‘The Star’ went on to win the Cup 3-2.

Red Star were up 3-0 but in the last 10 minutes the opposition -  Whitehill FP – got 2 late goals.

Bit of a nail-biter but  Red Star were resolute to the end and won in front of an emotional crowd (every reason to be emotional on an occasion like this).

Alan Weir and his team are to be congratulated for winning the first cup for the Lochgilphead team. Next year the crowd will be even bigger.

The photograph at the top shows Captain Connor Crawford and Vice Chairman Duncan MacLean holding the prestigious Coronation Cup as the celebrations begin.

Talking of celebrations -  here they are, with some supporters, on the bus on the way home.

You could say they’re very happy.

And when they got back home, dismounting at The Stag Hotel was quite an event.

Perhaps, in this Diamond Jubilee year, the new council might host a civic reception for the team that brought the Coronation Cup to Argyll?

Over the two days of the 19th and 20th May, between 10.00 and 17.00 daily and with normal entrance charges applying, there will be hands on experience of cooking over a peat fire and churning butter.

These exertions will be comforted by the thought of tasting some samples of culinary time travelling recreated by  talented guest chefs – and entertained by the internationally renowned Waulking Group from Inverclyde with their Gaelic work songs.

Add to that an outdoor theatrical performance by the specialist Walking Theatre Company from Cowal – and you’ll need all the food you can eat to keep up.

On Sunday 20th May – at 6.30pm – the festival will be topped off with a Ceilidh Evening featuring Heron Valley – an event filled with Scottish traditional music, poetry, song and dance – and fuelled by a Licensed Bar and Buffet by Inveraray’s crack George Hotel.

Tickets for this event are £10 – available from:

• by phone from Auchindrain: 01499 500235
• by email from: Leanne.muldowney@auchindrain.org.uk

Mr Anderson says: ‘The Minister for Housing and Transport has asked me to thank you for your email of 3 April. Mr Brown was pleased to have the opportunity of meeting with you and other stakeholders and elected members to hear at first hand your concerns about the impact of landslides and road closures on the local economy of Mid Argyll.

‘The installation of debris flow netting and upgrading of the forest track to establish an emergency diversion route is being progressed as a matter of urgency. We will also be appointing consulting engineers to undertake a study looking at the feasibility of longer term options.

‘We will keep you informed of the results of the study in due course and also about progress in the above works.’

This Sunday – 13th May 2012, between 10.00 and 17.00 – Inveraray Castle, seat of the Chief of Clan Campbell, the Dukes of Argyll -  is hosting an Open Day for locals.

Admission will be free and there will also be a 20% discount in the Castle Tearoom and in the Castle Gift Shop.

The opportunity will let resident locals familiarise themselves with the experience the Castle offers to its visitors, form the spaces, to the artefacts to the narratives of the guides, to the ‘Bluebell Teas’ in the tearoom and the merchandise stocked in the Gift Shop.

Of course this will be a fun experience and an interesting one; and of course it sustains the good relationships existing between the Argyll Estates and the local population.

Beyond that though, this is sound business.

Tourism – including activity tourism -  is THE most important industry in and for Argyll. We have history and heritage of profound significance and interest. We have almost unparallelled scenic and activity resources in land, water and air. We have a bedazzling spectrum of wildlife in each of those environments. We are growing the specialist foods, distilling and brewing legendary potions and developing genuinely first class hotels and eating places. And we have plenty of room.

This is a massive mainland and island territory and there’s not an ugly corner in it.

But do those of us who live here all the time actually know enough about what we are offering our visitors?

Yes, online information is utterly crucial,. Yes, brochures help. But talking to someone who has first hand knowledge, who can enthuse, inspire and recommend – from genuine personal knowledge and experience? There is nothing more effective in interesting people in what they might do and in helping to build Argyll’s key industry and one which, broadly speaking, does not damage our environment but benefits from it.

So remember what you learn of Inveraray Castle, what you think of the food, the coffee and the service in the Tearoom and of the quality of the stock in the Gift Shop.

Then, if you are involved in a B&B, or a restaurant, or an activity centre or someone stops you in the street to ask a question, pass on the fruits of your own experience and help others to appreciate what you have enjoyed yourself.

Do you qualify as a ‘local’?

You do, if you live in one of the following postcode areas:

• PA27
• PA32
• PA33
• PA35

If you have any queries, visit the Inveraray Castle website or phone 01499 302203.

Since the storm on January 3rd which, in the space of just a few minutes resulted in 200 to 300 trees being blown down, staff, contractors and volunteers have been working hard to make the affected areas safe.

The final safety barriers have been removed today.

And this is the tine of the year when Crarae is at its best.

Begun more than 100 years ago on the south facing slope of a promontory separating Asknish Bay from Loch Melfort, this remarkable hidden paradise is  influenced by the North Atlantic Drift and grows a wide variety of plants from the four corners of the globe.

Internationally known for the rhododendron species collection, the garden also features magnolias, camellias, azaleas and many other wonderful trees and shrubs, many of which are tender and not often seen. A broad selection of perennials, bulbs, ferns and water plants ensure a year-long season of interest.

Beside Arduaine is the fabulous Loch Melfort Hotel, with its food, its welcome and its vistas over the loch making the overall experience of a visit to Arduaine pretty irresistible.

This episode follows his wake around Argyll’s west coast waters, into Tarbert and through the Crinan Canal to sail north up Loch Linnhe and through the Caledonian Canal.

These programmes are always well shot and are a reminder to those of us who live here of just what a uniquely beautiful place it is.

This is the second in the Argyll and the Isles Secrets Collection – and it has a substantial bonus. Getting there is a parallel delight.

Mid Argyll is famous for Kilmartin Glen, the second largest and most important collection of archaeological remains in the UK.

But, also in Mid Argyll, this time on the shores of Loch Fyne at Brainport Bay, just south of the village of Minard, is the Brainport Alignment, a little-known neolithic solar alignment.

It was only discovered in 1975 and was excavated between 1978 and 1984 by archaeologists from Glasgow University with members of the knowledgeable local archaeological society.

The alignment -  on the midsummer sunrise – runs from an upper platform at the rear of the site, over a boulder setting, to the two standing stones, the rear stone and finally the pointer stone. This alignment is thought to have been in use as long as 3,000 years ago.

People came to live around Loch Fyne something like 6,000 years ago and although their habitations are no longer discernible, the structures they used for the communal burial of their dead can still be seen – chambered stone cairns. There is one immediately north of Minard that can be seen – with another parallel treat – the glorious ‘Himalayan’ garden of Crarae in whose grounds it lies.

The parallel treat that goes with the alignment is one of the loveliest and most charming walks in the area  and arguably far wider, created by the local community – the Brainport Heritage Trail. This was done as a community amenity but also with the intention of drawing attention to the Brainport Alignment and of making it accessible.

The result is a circular walk that marries an open and mature broad leaved woodland with the coastal environment and links with coniferous woodland around its southern quarter.

The Alignment is a little short of the half way mark, the path is waymarked and the alignment has interpretation panels from Historic Scotland. Believe us, that does not mean that this is not a secret place.

It is so secret that a couple of years worth of fallen conifers  have passed unremarked. The most numerous are the most recent – from the massive gales of the end of 2011 – and block the path just after the alignment. Worse, many have collapsed over the rear platform that is the start of the alignment – and over the boulder setting between there and the first standing stone.

We mentioned this situation to Councillor Alison Hay, who lives locally. She immediately went off to contact Historic Scotland with which she has an existing connection through her Chairmanship of the Trustees of Auchindrain, Scotland’s last preserved highland farm township, about five miles north on the road to Inveraray.

Councillor Hay says: ‘I’ve told Historic Scotland that the alignment is needing attention. They thanked me for reporting it and said they would send someone to look at the site.  They struggle to inspect every monument so rely on the public letting them know if one of them needs repair.’

This is an important site and it will be cleared.

In the meantime, it is well worth going there. You can see and walk around much of the alignment.  The two and a quarter mile walk is also quite wonderful – fairly level, tranquil, varied and enchanting.

You start at the little informal car park that drops down from the A83 to the shores of Loch Fyne, just north of the lights that slow traffic through the narrow exit south from Minard. This holds no more than a handful of cars but there is usually room. This is a secret, remember.

There’s an information board about the walk at the loch-end of this space – and you simply walk down on to the stony beach and turn right along the top of the shore.

The first section of the walk is the least comfortable, because of the stony underfoot but you are already in another world and you will see a sort of light track leaving the beach but running parallel to it in no more than a few minutes.

From here on in, you will get most delight from this walk if you approach it as if you were a camera lens – which you are, of course.

Look for the detail – the flow and curve of the path through the woodland; the narrowings and the clearings; the burns and bridges; the glimpses to and along the coast; the moss covered boulders and tree stumps; the wooded headlands projecting into the loch and seen through the slender veil of scrub where woodland joins shore…

… irresistible rock formations in the water, clamberable at the right point of the tide and with rock pools; the pond-like former fish trap towards the point before the privately owned Minard castle; the secret seats – and the access to the alignment.

When you see a wooden seat on the grass at the head of a little bay, with a point beyond it projecting into the loch and the fish trap ponds visible, you’re there.

Walk away from the shore and trust your eyes and feet. There is a little ankle-high Historic Scotland sign warning against using metal detectors. Stay left of this, look around you and move towards a rock platform a little ahead and above.

You’ll see what you come to realise is the pointer stone and as you walk up to the natural rock terrace it sits on, its identity becomes more certain.

Then just explore the place. Warning – this is Argyll, so once you move off the rock, its boggy – very much so towards the back of the site. Come prepared.

You can see information on the interpretation panels – although none of them explain this curious and very geometric stone, clearly shaped, which you’ll notice at the side.

Take your time and breathe in the time this place has  been here, marking the transition of the seasons that shaped the way lives were led, in ways we have artificially overcome – for the time being.

It is a delightful and gently impressive place.

You can get around the next batch of fallen trees across the path at the base of the headland, if you want to complete the circuit – again, it’s boggy off piste just here.

Whichever way you walk, on or back, you will find all sorts of choices to follow paths from one side of the circular walk to the other and back again, sometimes bridged across little burns, sometimes curving mysteriously around a hill.

This is a playful place. You want everyone’s children to have the chance to come here – but not all at once.

Not for cardiovascular exercise but for strolling and observing, this timeless walk, marrying loch and woodland, taking you to a 3,000 year old stone calendar, cannot but leave you refreshed as well as more informed.

Being here is to touch base with another of the multiple secrets of Argyll and the Isles. Just remember, be a camera and don’t think you have to stay with the path. There’s the shore as well.

The first in the Argyll and the Isles Secrets Collection can be found here.

Note:We would like to recognise the initiative and imagination of a reader from Cowal – aka The Fox -  who suggested that the Brainport Alignment would be a great addition to the ‘Secrets Collection’.

Tell us about your own secret places and For Argyll will act as a running transmitter and repository of these deep secrets, passing them on to the Argyll and the Isles website when it is is ready to receive them.

Every part of Argyll and the Isles has its secret places and hidden touchstones to other times. Knowing about these gives us alluring insights into where we live and offers our visitors the experience of being insiders, gifted with specialist information and getting under the skin of a place in a way that tourists, in the normal run of things, cannot do.

This is the sort of information that can demonstrate the almost impossible riches of Argyll and the Isles – the identity that has successfully brought together this most slippery of places in a common name.

That was the week that was – bullnosed, arty, and full of love.

Bullnosed and flatnosed too

Oban and Mull were treated to a fine spectacle last week as the the area witnessed the arrival of many an old lady and gent.  Gathering at Penrith in the afternoon of Monday 23rd April, The Bullnose Morris tour began for 2012.

The twelve cars are magnificent. They include a 1929 MG 14/40 , a 1923 Bullnose Morris Oxford, a 1924 Bullnose Morris, a 1925 Bullnose Morris Oxford,  three 1926 Bullnose Morris Oxfords, two 1927 Morris Oxfords, a 1929 Morris Cowley  and a 1926 Morris Cowley four seater. This is the car that toppled Henry Ford’s dominance in the British Isles with his Model T Ford and has a special place in the hearts of the British public.

Heading north on quiet roads they covered nearly 120 miles before the overnight stop in East Kilbride. Then on Wednesday they skirted round Glasgow and over Erskine Bridge to Balloch and into the Highlands.

After enjoying a boat trip on Loch Lomond, the splendid old cars then sped up Loch Long, over the tough Rest and Be Thankful test and along Loch Fyne, to the seat of the Duke of Argyll in Inveraray.

A total of about 110 miles for the day is covered as the party settle into the comfy lounge at the Falls of Lora Hotel at Connel for a couple of nights. These cars are not museum pieces – this is a testing schedule for vehicles that are approaching their 90th Birthdays.

Thursday is a welcome free day around Oban and a few of the convoy head for town, others set off to tour the Cruachan Power station while some meet local man, Alan Anderson, to admire his meticulous restoration of his own Morris.

Later that evening after a fine dinner, to which your correspondent is cordially invited, we are regaled by Sir James Angus Rhoderick McGrigor, 6th Baronet, of Camden Hill in the County of Middlesex and Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Highlands and Islands.

Speaking on ‘Clans and Tartans’,  Jamie tells of the success of the first member’s bill which he carefully worked and steered through the Edinburgh Parliament with assistance from fellow Argyll MSP, Jim Mather, to make the success and create the world’s first Register of Tartans.  The kilt and tartan register must be kept in Scotland – the home of the kilt surely. Seemingly Ottawa in Canada had its eyes on the prize and Jamie’s legal intervention put paid to that malarkey!!

On Friday the gang visit Oban Distillery before setting sail to the Isle of Mull for three nights in The Isle of Mull Hotel. The cars are magnificent as they bathe in the Oban sunshine. I spy a bottle of water tied under the bonnet of one car.  I once had a Hillman Imp that liked a drink and I make a comment. ‘Oh no the cars fine….that’s for us – it heats the water and so when we stop the waters hot and the tea is ready in moments on the wee stove.’ They think of everything those Bullnose Morris Folk.

Hat Dropping – Part 2

You will remember hat dropping is the cue for a trip to the city – well we did it again.

Monday night and me and Mrs Cameron, the co-driver, are off.  6.00pm is the grand opening of ‘Touch – the Glasgow School of Art Exhibition;.

The show is well attended and the art from the Silversmithing and jewellery students is really impressive. Now I must declare an interest as a proud dad of a current student and declare that if my girl had picked up some debris from the street, immersed it in amber and made something of it I would be saying how pleased I was. Well. I have an announcement. This is great stuff.

If you get a chance and are in the city over the next week then pop round to the Skypark Building at Finneston and check it all out. The exhibition runs 10.30am – 4.30pm Monday to Friday until May 11th.

They are an imaginative bunch the folk of years 1, 2 and 3 of the Silversmithing and Jewellery courses and we have a bright future to look forward to when they graduate.

More in Miss Cameron’s Young in Argyll column shortly.

Art for Art’s sake

I caught up with 10CC at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow on Monday as they perform their Greatest Hits and more. We are treated to all the favourites  including Rubber Bullets, I’m Not In Love, Dreadlock Holiday, Donna, Art For Art’s Sake, Good Morning Judge, The Things We Do For Love, I’m Mandy Fly Me, Life Is A Minestrone, The Dean And I and The Wall Street Shuffle.

Not only were 10CC the creators of some of the Greatest Hits of the 70’s as ‘purveyors of the finest in popular music since 1972′ but they are genuinely one of the most exciting live bands in the country and are embarking on a string of major UK venues celebrating 40 years in the business. Tonight gets them off to a flying start.

It has been a patchy 40 years for the band.

I have been a fan since the beginning, hitting the Bayview café in Oban when it had a record section at the rear to buy my copy of ‘Sheet Music’ on cassette…1973 from memory. In 2012, Kevin Godley, Eric Stewart and Lol Crème have long gone from the original 10CC with fourth member Graham Gouldman remaining, now joined by Rick Fenn, Paul Burgess, Mick Wilson and Mike Stevens.

Through the seventies I followed them through thick (all the hits) and thin (when Godley and Crème left). That was in 76 when the Art school duo left to go the arty route with the brilliant, in parts, Consequences triple album. This was a real concept album, which at the time, all the prog bands aspired to. Even the Osmonds had a go with Crazy Horses – however nobody really noticed that was a concept….

Deceptive Bends and Bloody Tourists followed from the Stewart Gouldman 10CC, albums which proved they were the commercial minds of this great pop band. Hit singles The Things We Do for Love and Good Morning Judge from the former and Dreadlock Holiday from the latter made the case for them.

We got them all in Glasgow and we loved every moment. The band was excellent and obviously passionate about their task.

What we were less aware off was the prequel.

Before 10CC there was the Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders …their hit Pamela, Pamela was penned by the 10CC man. But when Wayne left, Eric Stewart took over lead vocal and Gouldman later joined. Gouldman had penned the first of the Hollies hits, Look Through any Window and the later Bus Stop. The Yardbirds had benefited from For Your Love and some others and Herman’s Hermits had No Milk Today – Gouldman’s dad came up with many of the song titles.

This man is a pop writer extraordinaire. Gouldman opened the concert with just an acoustic guitar and a smile – and played the early pre-10CC hits while bringing on his band, one by one. He closed it with a standing ovation and a well deserved one at that.

The ‘Wild Old Men’ from 1972 are alive and well….

The hat is back in hand ….I wonder when it will next drop?

Campbell Cameron

Photographs © Campbell Cameron