Lord of the Isles

Standing stone at Finlaggan, Islay
Originally uploaded by Lidwit.

In the middle ages Islay was a seat of power for Clan Donald which ruled the west coast of Scotland from Lewis to Kintyre virtually independantly of any royal power. The centre of activity was Finlaggan where ruins remain today on two small islands to the north end of the loch.



Finlaggan is approximately 2 miles north of Ballygrant which made it a must for an evening walk last Friday. Okay so it's not very far but we knew we would be doing the distance thing the following day and decided this would be an excellent way to ease ourselves into the way. Better yet as we headed north we spotted what we think may have been a golden eagle. With virtually no wind and a clear sky conditions were perfect for a wander and it wasn't long before we were soaking up the atmosphere and the history.



Of course, being the organised people we are, we'd arranged a time for dinner and were soon conscious that that time was approaching and we still had to walk back the two miles. But hey... we're on island time now. Everything is a little bit later on an island. So technically we had plenty of time for a few more pictures... really.



That said, we are girls who like our food and our stomachs were grumbling for some attention, so we didn't hang about too much longer. A quick jog back down the road and we were ready to demolish whatever was put down in front of us... and demolish it we did, every last bit. One thing was for sure, we weren't going to starve on this weekend.



For anyone interested, there are more pics where these came from. Just click on any of the images to be taken to the complete set on flickr. And look out for the next post tomorrow.