A week near Kenmore by Loch Torridon

A confession..after the early to bed and and early (5.00am) start to to the transfer day, I realised most of the way towards the ferry that my camera battery charger was still plugged in North Uist, whoops!

Trying to source a new one as we drove down the Isle of Skye was fruitless, I tried switching my laptop on at a free wifi point, that was dead too:-(( I knew all my photos were safe though, good backup strategy is vital!

Our cottage for the week.........http://www.lochtorridon.co.uk/index.htm

Craig Cottage in a beautiful sheltered bay on the Applecross peninsula, to the north on Loch Torridon.

Unpacked and tired we settled down with a glass of something tasty, we soon had a taste of what the week would offer..

The pine marten seemed pleased to see us, it was important to keep behind the double glazed doors though, one scent of a human and they are off! What a great start to the second week...

On Sunday we ventured up a small hill, A Bairol is its name and it rises a stately 175m from sea level..

A view of the cottage from the top..

And a rare view of us too:-))

The hills behind are the Torridon giants, more later..

Later in the day we had quite a special visitor again on the decking...

The next day we had a drive round to iconic village of Applecross, with the number of tourists here maybe because of the name we had an immediate dislike, but we found a short walk that yielded a part fossilized tree..

And a nice river view...

And later we had our lovely visitor.....

Another day, more things to see....a black throated diver...

And a rusty old boat .................:-))

We found house martins:-))

And one of the family of pine martens visited again...

Next day a chaffinch appeared  on a fence post..

The siskins on the feeders kept eluding me:-((

And then a wonderful otter spot in nearby bay....

Arctic terns taking a rare break, one is young one...

As the week went on we had one no marten show:-(( But views on on our very short drives made up for it!

Red breasted mergansers made occasional appearances:-))

And our friend the wood mouse kept us entertained:-))

Beinn Alligin looked superb..

An otter appeared almost by magic..

A memorable experience indeed!

What a great start to our last day, a short drive and we found a lovely close look at a razorbill..

And a hunting heron with a prize..

We found a redpoll...

Our last day should be special, a buzzard hanging like kestrel was good...

The view up Loch Torridon was good...

What I think is Liathach would have been a target a few years ago:-))

And the wee wood mouse kept appearing...

A willow warbler nearly sang me to sleep:-))

And the gorgeous pine marten appeared as if to say goodbye........

What a brilliant memory to carry in the mind on the way home, a long journey but sometimes we travel into our souls  to search out what there is in life that enthuses us, this two and a bit week holiday certainly topped our enthusiasm levels up!! Cheers and thanks to all who read and look, it makes the work in doing the blog very worthwhile.