A COUL WEEKEND AWAY

So,

another November, another weekend away for the Dinosaurs.

It wasn't very far away - just to Contin, about half an hour from Inverness.

It seems to be quite difficult to find out much about the history of Contin. The Gaelic name - Cunndainn apparently relates to Neap tides and barriers. However, the tidal limit on the river is away down at Conon Bridge, so I am at a loss. (Some might say, not for the first time).

In any event, we all (except for the workers) pitched up after lunch to have a wee shot at the golf practice area on the front lawns of the hotel. The participants even included those notable non-golfers Jacque, Pam and Maureen.

Here is the mixed group looking for the hole.

It was very cold and wrapping up warm was essential.

The location was splendid.

Maureen ducking as Jacque attempts to hit the ball.

If you ignore the golfers in the photo above - and you would do so at your peril - you will notice the fine backdrop provided by the hotel.

Coul House was built in 1821 for the 7th Baronet of Coul, Sir George Steuart (yes, that is how his name was spelt) Mackenzie who lived from 1780 until 1848. It was designed by 2 Edinburgh architects - the Dickson brothers, who were quite famous at the time.

Sir George was quite the scientist and was famous for determining that diamonds were composed of Carbon. He also had some fairly robust views on agricultural improvement, being of the view that the Highland population should be reduced so that agricutural production could be concentrated in fewer hands - one assumes he meant his wealthy landowning class and not the peasants. This justification of the Clearances was backed up by his support of replacing crofting tenants with sheep farmers and he thought that only a "few feeble voices dissented" from this view.

The house is designed round the octagonal dining room, which is a little unusual.
We had a very nice Thai style pork curry there on the Friday night after our exertions on the front lawn.

The house is a category A Listed Building, primarily in recognition of the fine plasterwork in the ground floor rooms. Some of the original features were altered by the Victorians. People tend to think of the Victorians as great builders but, in fact, they probably destroyed or altered more buildings than most. They were quite ruthless in clearing away earlier developments to lay out new streets and neighbourhoods. Many fine houses and other buildings have been severely hacked about by the Victorians.

Coul House was eventually sold by the Mackenzie family to pay off taxes in 1949 and was converted to an hotel in 1978. 

Here we are at the entrance to the hotel before setting off on our first walk of the weekend.

So,here we are again, but with one critical difference - Jimmy and I are actually in the photo - thanks, Charlie. Jimmy was lucky to be there, having disappeared up to the top of the garden.

You can see that we are all well wrapped up, because it was pretty cold and there was plenty of snow on the hills. You might also have noticed that there was an interloper there - yes, Agnes had joined us for the walk today.

Despite the cold, it was a bright day as we set off across the fields, and not a cow in sight.

A fine oak tree.

After crossing the fields we were into the forest and the first difficulty of the day. Sharon and I had checked out the walk some little while ago and clearly had different memories of the route. In order to avoid any further acrimony I have decided to pretend that it was all my fault and that I was wrong in my recollection.

Whatever the truth of the matter, we were soon walking through the sunlit forest.

It may look as if we were about to go in separate directions again - but no, Sharon and I agreed that right was the way to go.



We just ignored the signposts.




The first bridge photo of the weekend. 

Maureen and Hugh look a bit carefree, but in fact they were muttering under their breath that they had been called back to go in another direction for the 14th time so far.

But, the detour wass worth it after all as we came through the woods to Loch Na Crann. (Loch of the Plough). It was very pretty and the little boathouse by the loch just added to the scene.

So did the sweeties.

We got another view up the loch.

I persuaded them all to turn round for another group photo.

We soon climbed up and began to get some fine views of Ben Wyvis.

There were views to the west as well.

Ben Wyvis has a hidden, much wilder side and this is it. Perhaps it is this side of the mountain that gave it its Gaelic name which translates as Awesome Mountain or Mountain of Fear. From the Inverness side it looks much more benign and it is hard to believe that it is 1046 metres high.

We soon  leave the vehicular track and join with the cycle track down the hill.

It looks like ET didn't make it home.

It looks like he missed his payments to the Highland Dental Plan as well.

Talking of teeth, it was time to get ours around some lunch. It seems Sue didn't get anything to eat.

I am struggling to say anything decorous about Agnes licking Charlie's neck. As for the next photo, I cannot possibly comment at all!

It certainly amused the woodland elves.

During lunch this plane flew overhead. I blew up the original photo and it is a KLM Boeing 747-400. I have no idea where it was coming from or going to.

We didn't linger long in the cold and were soon ready to get walking again before Agnes licked anything else.

We were heading into more pastoral countryside towards Kinellan.

This is Loch Kinellan.

Alpaca. These are much smaller than LLamas, although they are related. Llamas are beasts of burden and Alpaca are bred for their meat and coats. There are two species of Alpaca and given that 90% are of one species, I am going to take a punt and say that these are Huacaya alpaca.

Alpaca can be house trained due to their peculiar habit of using communal dung heaps. They tend to always go in the same place. This is especially true of the males. Females are a bit like women at a disco and they all tend to go at once. The lead female will go for a pee and all the other females will line up and have a pee at the same time.

I bet you didn't know that.

A Red Kite.

The black dot was a Grey Heron.

Our next stop was a Korean War memorial by the side of the loch. It commemorates those soldiers of the Black Watch killed in the war. There are more than 60 of them.

This stone was actually commissioned by a local veteran of the Korean War - Kenny Stewart. He had arranged for a mason to carve the memorial from a stone taken from his family croft. He died a week before the stone was unveiled in March 2016.

Of the names listed, one was killed exactly 65 years before we got there. He was Lance Corporal Thomas G. Philp. I struggled to find anything online about him. However, there are a significant number of his companions killed on the 19th, the next day. The Black Watch took part in The Battle of the Hook which took place over the 18th and 19th of November 1952, so it might be reasonable to suggest that that is where poor L/Cpl Philp met his end. The battle was between UN forces and the Chinese army. The Chinese were attempting to take this strategic position called the Hook, and were repelled by the UN forces including the Black Watch.

Looking up the loch from the memorial site. You can see why Kenny Stewart picked this spot.

Another pastoral scene.

Dave taking a short cut to avoid the mud into which I fell.

On the last leg of the walk into the sinking sun.

The trees with the least shelter have very few leaves left compared to those in the photo above where there is more shelter from the wind.

Back at the car, but too late for me it would seem!

Well, actually it was the mud from my earlier fall - really.

Next stop was the hotel for some much needed tea and scones and a change of clothes for me.

After tea and scones most of us retired to our rooms to freshen up and to watch rugby. Once we had scrubbed up, it was back to the bar for drinks before our very fine dinner. Of course, it was too early to retire for the evening, so we headed back to the bar for more drinks and games.......

............you have to guess what the next line of the blog was going to be!

 It certainly wasn't " ,and Charlie bought us all a drink, just because that's the kind of guy he is."

And so to bed.

In the twinkling of an eye, it was the morning and time for more food in the form of breakfast before we got out into the sunshine for another walk.
Some people went for a quick walk around the fairy garden in the grounds of the hotel. Not me, though, I was sorting out stuff and carrying bags to the car and that sort of thing. Sharon took the photos of the fairies.

Some of the fairies were evidently Ross County supporters.

It seems that there were more than fairies at large in this part of the garden, although I suppose this could be a fairy's aunt.

No wonder the Dodo went extinct - leaving the nest like that.

Perhaps this was really the Garden of Eden.

Certainly there was a touch of paradise about the scenery this morning.

We drove to Brahan Estate and parked, ready for a pleasant walk along the River Conon.

Brahan Estate was the ancestral home of the Seaforths, the chiefs of Clan MacKenzie. Brahan Castle stood at the centre of the estate until its demolition in 1951 and the stones were used as the foundations for a new Conon bridge. 

The gardens and plantings may be a bit overgrown now, but you still get a sense of the grandeur of the surroundings as we walked along some lovely tree-lined avenues.

Our first stop on the walk was at an artificial pond. It was so still that everyone ended up taking lots of photos of swans and reflections. I have included a selection of these.

At the side of the pond stands this stone. It is inscribed in Gaelic and English to say "After the day of the stag will come the day of the bear"
This is one of the Brahan Seer's predictions. The Brahan Seer - Coinneach Odhar in Gaelic was a worker on the Brahan Estate. He made  many predictions, some of which concerned the Seaforth MacKenzies who owned the estate. This particular prediction relates to the downfall of the MacKenzies -  the "stags". Brahan is now owned by Andrew Mathieson. Clan Mathieson is, of course, the clan of the bear.
Spooky, or what?

 Mute swan and cygnets on the pond. Mute swans are actually quite noisy, despite their name.

"The changing of sunlight to moonlight"..... and the next line is?

Obviously it is - "Reflections of my wife" by the Hollies.

This looks like the meanderings of a drunken tractor driver.

A Roe deer didn't think we were good company. 

The next line is.....?

And your shoes get so hot you wish your tired feet were fireproof.

Of course, it is....

....Under the boardwalk, down Brahan Estate, yeah.

More reflections.

I have resisted another song line, but Tony Orlando and Dawn would have recognised this tree.

Clearly Jacque had heard the song in my head and started a Canadian Barn Dance.

So,

here we are on the banks of the River Conon. The Brahan fishings are reputedly the best on the Conon and 700 salmon and grilse are caught on average each season. I could not find out how much it would cost to fish the Conon. I suspect it is a case of, if you have to ask you can't afford it.

Mac held the bridge up....

....while Dave checked out the trout fishing.

Daenerys is nowhere to be seen, but you can guess the name of the dragon if you know the next line after "brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff".

Another boardwalk, another chance to see some interesting walking styles.

With the help of Charlie and a bit of technology, we managed to find out that we were supposed to walk along the edge of the field.

We were beginning to straggle a bit.

Soon, however, we were dancing for joy at having to leap over water at the end of another boardwalk.

Robin is clearly enjoying the prospect of Susan landing just a little bit too short.

Pam and then Sharon, go for the direct approach.

A trout pout.

Pam escorts her garden gnome over the boards.

At last we reach the bridge to Moy Island, our objective. By this time, some of our group had come to the conclusion that the island was an illusion and had made their way back to the cars. They had no idea what they were missing.

Once over the bridge, we found ourselves in a different world that you could hardly imagine existed.



Once we had waded across the shallow tropical waters we stopped for another photo.
They wouldn't actually have been so smug standing there if they had known that in 1999 a newly deceased cobra had been found there. Honest.

Unfortunately global warming had resulted in rising water levels and our path through our tropical paradise was flooded and so with heavy hearts we left the island.

Not before Dave and Mac had added to the water levels.

I waited until Sharon was safely over the bridge before I ventured onto it myself.

These were the only cows we saw and they were quite close. Well, they were close to us, but Pam was 200 yards off up the road very quickly.

From the old estate road we got some fine views down the river. It looked a lot easier walking down there than it actually was.

We had attracted a bit of attention.
I expect even Jimmy doesn't know the next line of this song. He probably doesn't know the artiste. Suffice to say that the song is described as a "southern rap-techno mashup", whatever that might be and it was released in 2013.
Anyway the line is " Baby do you dare to do this"

For those of you who are not fans of the incomparable Katy Perry, the next line is

"Cause I'm coming atcha like a dark horse".

A line full of deep and subtle meaning.

A memorial to Caroline, the last of the MacKenzies. The Brahan Seer had foretold the downfall of the MacKenzies who owned Brahan. This prophecy actually cost him his life. It arose as he had been asked by Isabella, to tell her what her husband, the Earl, was up to in Paris. The Seer told her he was having a dalliance in Paris and this didn't go down well. She threatened the Seer with all sorts of dire punishment and then he went on to predict the downfall of the family. She apparently was so enraged by this that she had him thrown into a barrel of boiling tar.

The prediction was that the line would come to an end and that the last chief would be deaf and dumb. The last chief was Francis Humberston MacKenzie, who was rendered deaf and dumb by scarlet fever when he was a child. His 4 sons died before him and the line was extinguished on the male side.

His daughter, Caroline came back from the East Indies to claim her inheritance as the heiress to the estate. The Brahan Seer had also predicted that Caroline would be killed by her sister, the Hooded Lassie. The monument we were looking at details that this was the place where Caroline was killed having been thrown from a carriage being driven by the Hooded Lassie. The Hooded Lassie eventually inherited the Seaforth MacKenzie estates and the current owner is a direct descendant of the Hooded Lassie, Lady Mary Hood.

Finally heading back to the cars back past the site of the demolished Brahan Castle. We also passed Brahan House, which some people thought was a little less grand than they expected. That is because the current house was actually the stables for the demolished castle. Just goes to show how grand the castle might have been.

Now it is time to go home. Our weekend away is over. We really did have a good time. Coul House Hotel really looked after us very well and everyone was in good form.

Looking forward to the next time away already.