OCH, THE WORLD OR MOND

 It was our turn to organise a walk this month. After a fairly chaotic couple of attempts, we decided to revisit Ormond Hill near Avoch. We had been here as a group before, but there are no rules to say you can't come back and revisit old jaunts.

We foregathered next to the foreshore in Avoch. It was a little cold in the force four breeze, but we were not to be forestalled and we would soon be setting forth.

Actually, it was more like a force 2 Light Breeze, but I was enjoying setting forth as many words with a four sound as I could.

The definition of Force 2 on the Beaufort Scale is when there are short wavelets with a glassy appearance. A bit like the photo below.

We had brought two of our grandsons with us and like all little boys, the lure of the sea was too great to resist. What they didn't know was that just out to sea in the direction of the salmon cages, lies the wreck of the fishing boat, Fortitude (another four sound!). She was lost along with 8 lives in December 1796.

However, we were going inland to start with, climbing up the hill away from the sea and towards farmland.

We were heading to Ormond Hill, marked by the two Scots Pine on the skyline.

To get there we had to pass along the drive to Castleton. This is a farm, but it was once a farming township comprising a number of buildings. The clue is in the name - it was the farm town of the castle.

A bit more climbing up to the castle. As you would expect, altitude leads to some fine views over Avoch and out to to sea. There were also three errant sheep in the foreground - another one would have given me the opportunity to write four in the foreground.

This is also very close to where a Medieval silver seal with a cross shaped handle was found by metal detectorists in 1998. It has a design on the base, of three keys encircled with an indecipherable inscription.

Just as we were about to go up the zig zag path to the castle, we met John Watt coming down. John is known to most of us, but the chances of meeting him on a walk like this must be pretty remote. After a brief chat, we parted ways and we went up to the castle site.

There is nothing really left of the castle itself, although the foundations are visible as turf covered linear features on the ground. The castle was said to have been one of many Royal Castles built by William the Lion. Ormond is originally thought to date to 1197 and the Royal Castle of William was only a few years later. It was destroyed by Cromwell in 1650. It was a very large castle, covering well over 8000 square metres. 

I'm not sure that Robbie and Liam were quite so enthralled with the historical importance of the site. Indeed, Robbie was so hungry, he started eating his lunch!

The castle is traditionally associated with the Earl of Moray, Andrew de Moray, who mustered his men here at the beginning of the Scottish Wars of Independence. De Moray and William Wallace raised armies to fight against the English king Edward I. He had previously installed John Balliol as a vassal king of Scotland, but he abdicated in 1296 as he had no support among the noble houses of Scotland.

De Moray and Wallace defeated the English army at Stirling Bridge, but De Moray was wounded there and died shortly after.

Ormond Castle, therefor, has huge significance in the history of Scotland and the struggle for Independence. It is for this reason that Independence campaigners frequently commemorate De Moray's role to this day. 

You can see from the views over the sea approaches to Inverness, just why the castle was so important.

Having been marched up the hill, it was time to march down the hill to carry on our way. The boys were magnetically drawn to an old landslip, which Dave convinced them was a neolithic flint mine. They spent a fair amount of time cracking stones together in the hope of creating a spark.

It is the time of year for frog spawn and there certainly was some in the track-side puddles and pools.

We were now getting close to Munlochy Bay and there were some great views to sea, which Liam ignored as he tried to get another spark from his flint.

The moody sky just added to the atmosphere.

The path took us downward, where Liam came across something we have never encountered in all the many walks we have done.

Yes, it was a number two that looked like a number 2!

Now, you may not want to know this, but the colour and apparent softness of this poo indicates that the badger has been eating a lot of worms! You could smell the poo as they are supposed to be sweet and musky. Nobody did!

We were heading downhill to the shore and this entailed a bit of 7 bar gymnastics, which Robbie and Liam managed with ease.

Jimmy was less elegant!

We followed the shore around and the land looked pretty reasonable. There is significant, but barely visible archaeological evidence for a prolonged occupation and cultivation of this area along with a lot of marine activity in the shape of old wooden jetties and the like. There appear to be a further 3 shipwrecks lying offshore in the bay. Only one, the lugger, Powerful is identified. It was registered in Banff and caught fire and sank in 1921.

Much more interesting to the boys was a plastic box full of very brown and smelly water. Kicking the tub made the water shiver and shake. Happily, most of the water remained in the box and not all over the boys' clothes.

We did notice the remains of one building - probably a house. This was recorded as roofed on the 1881 Ordnance Survey map, suggesting that it may have been occupied at that time. It certainly isn't now. 

The walk directions suggested that there was a Clootie Well at the end of the field. There was even a tree with the word WELL painted on it. However, we could not find it.

It is there, but apparently difficult to find as it is surrounded by stone, some of which is dressed. This would indicate it had some importance as dressed stone is worked and shaped rather than just rough as if straight from the quarry. The stones are falling over and obscuring the well as are the roots of a large tree. Nonetheless, the well (Tobar Chragag - meaning Well of the little rock) is apparently still used. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and people would tie rags to the surrounding trees, especially on the first Sunday of summer. Once the rags had rotted away, whatever ailment afflicted the supplicant would miraculously be cured. Here is a picture taken, I think, in 1966. An archaeological visit in 2014 noted signs of use at that time.

Having failed to find the well, we also failed to find the gate that would allegedly allowed us to pass through the fence at the top of the hill with ease. As the barbed wire fence was at the top of the slope, climbing over was a tad on the difficult side.

We made it in the end and decided this was a good place for a spot of lunch.

Seating was a little precarious on the bank, comfortable for Liam against the tree and optional for Robbie, who had eaten most of his lunch at the castle, anyway!

Robbie was still fascinated with the possibility of making fire with flint, so he had collected a pile of dry wood in the hope of starting a bonfire on the track!

Liam, meanwhile, took a leisurely lunch.

I hope nobody had a beef sandwich for lunch, as we soon ran into some cows once we got back on the road. One of them was actually a bull. The boys did stay behind when we carried on and once they got up they were happy to regale us with tales of of farting and lengthy urination. What is it about wee boys and bodily functions?

Eventually, we reached a bit more civilisation and we came across a house and garden where the owner clearly liked a tractor or two.

You might say the owner had a bee in his bonnet. We, however, had a bee in the blackthorn blossom. In this case a Red-tailed Bumblebee Bombus lapidarius. This is a female bee - the males have a yellow ruff around their necks. These bumblebees are among the most common of bumblebees, although this one was about a bit earlier than is usual for the time of year. Being a bumblebee, they carry a sting!

Our bumblebee is feasting on the pollen and nectar of a blackthorn bush. Blackthorn is one of the earliest flowering bushes and is very important for a range of foraging insects early in the year. The fruit is, of course, the sloe and this is used to make sloe gin, or less commonly to make sloe port. The latter is not made form port at all, but wine and brandy, which is basically what port is made from. Sloe juice was used to adulterate genuine port. It made the port a bit rougher, but it was a cheaper additive allowing for greater profit!

By now we were back on the very quiet back road into Avoch.

This road took us past a surprising thing - an airstrip. Who knew? Certainly not me. It is a private grass airstrip with a runway length of 600 metres. It is listed as Bennetsfield airstrip on the UK airports and airfields website - yes there is such a thing! They list over 7000 such sites. This one has apparently operated on a private basis at least since the early 21st century.

The sign is quite clear that rutting on the airstrip is to be discouraged.

From the airstrip, it was all downhill to the cars and then on to Munro's for tea and buns. This was a highlight for Liam and Robbie! I think!

I think everyone enjoyed our day out. It was nice to venture forth in March and not get soaked to the skin. Plenty of history and interest about, so we all had a good day.

FIVE GO ON A SECRET TRAIL IN NAIRN

Good afternoon, boys and girls. I do hope you are sitting comfortably, so that I may begin my wondrous tale of the adventure of 5 rascals getting into all sorts of scrapes and jams near the pretty little seaside town of Nairn.

Naturally you will be expecting to see all 5 of our jolly wholesome crew, but, don't be so dim - someone has to take the photos. Heaven forfend that these 5 would ever be so base as to take a selfie. 

So here are our four frolicsome females. I do hope there are a lot of dishes to wash after they have had lashings and lashings of ginger beer and cake later. After all we know only too well that that's what girlies do best.

At this point, I should point out that the blog has not been proofread by my ever so wonderful wife, and there may be a number of editorial changes made!

Naturally, Dave, being the only male, made sure that all the girls were ready and suitably clad with warm clothes, mittens and stout shoes. Then they were off, following the Secret Trail, that only Dave knew. Sometimes such knowledge can be terribly burdensome, but Dave would never trouble any of the girls with this charge, which he bore so stoically.

The trail was wonderfully serpentine and eventually wound its way to the Ice House, where Mama used to keep copious amounts of ice for her daily pre-, post-, and breakfast G&T. One simply cannot get through the day without a snifter or two, she always said. Frankly, the children were much too frightful to allow abstinence. If only they could be seen and not heard, life would be so much more agreeable.

Dave gaily led the little troop on a merry way, further and further from home and the comfort of a roaring fire and the smell of crumpets toasting on the flames. They were undaunted and knew in their fluttering little hearts, that Dave would take care of everything.

Just as there was a smidgin of doubt creeping into their minds, they came upon a sign, which irresistibly, invited them to flirt with danger. Surely there must be all sorts of jolly japes to be had if one were to ignore the instruction to Keep Out. Modern life was just so terribly safe and children had become so cosseted and separated from peril that there was a danger ennui setting in!

Let's go!, they cried and tumbled over the fence and into a whole new world. Gracious, but there were huge holes to tumble into, diggers to play with, cables and wires, the purpose of which was impossible to divine, lots of sharp and deadly tools and, best of all, pipes to crawl into and hide from each other. My, what fun they had and hardly anyone got badly hurt. 

Unfortunately, their foray into this world of adventure had not gone unnoticed and PC Murdoch, from another story altogether, was soon galloping after them and threatening a clip round the ear and a stern word with Papa.

That would never do, so the infamous five had to escape. Luckily, the ever resourceful Dave spotted a way out. He reasoned that this would work for the five companions, as old PC Murdoch was rather too stout to make it through.

So it proved, as they escaped by the skin of their teeth.

Phew! They were all rather glad to have escaped the long arm of the law, with nothing but a bit of a fright! It really had been such fun!

What shall we do now, they wondered.

Why! we should go to my house and eat lots of scones and jam with lashings of ginger beer. Perhaps they should avoid being sick, if their eyes are not bigger than their bellies.

So, that was exactly what they did. All sorts of cakes had been conjured up by Sandra and a wonderful time was had by all.

Afterwards, Mama and Papa, said they would take them to the Punch and Judy show, once Mama was able to walk in a straight line.

Five go to Punch and Judy is, of course, another story for another day!

The end.