Wednesday Walk - Around Dunbeg Beach taking in Dunstaffnage Castle

It was a full on day at work today so unfortunately I didnt get out for a proper walk, so am drawing on a previous walk taken a few months ago at the end of October.

We were up visiting Dunbeg on the West Coast of Scotland, and went for a stroll down to the beach. I call it a beach although there is more gravel than there is sand. We used to live in the area and often go back to visit it and take a walk down to this beach and the headland that it is on.

It was actually quite an odd day in that the weather was really changeable. The clouds were moving pretty quick, so we'd get sunshine one minute, and then ominous clouds the next. On the way I stopped to take my shadow pic. Being the end of October, we were getting winter sun, which was casting lovely long shadows.

The beach is often deserted and has amazing views out to the islands.

We dropped right down onto the beach and walked along the waters edge. The view above looks directly out to sea (South West), over the Firth of Lorn, with the land you can see in the middle being the Isle of Lismore (closer) and then the Isle of Mull (in the background).

As said, the clouds were moving really fast, and but the time we got to the other side of the beach it had clouded over to give quite a mean and moody pic of the sky.

From the beach its about a 5min walk up the headland to Dunstaffnage Castle, which is around 800 years old. Its partially ruined now, although you can visit it inside and still get up on the walls. There is one building left inside which you can see poking out at the top on the right. Its worth visiting.

Wlaking up past the castle we passed the ruins of its old stable block, with this lovely arch still managing to stand in place after hundreds of years.

Passing the corner of the castle I managed to take the pic above looking up at the large defensive walls which must have been pretty daunting for any assailants. As can be seen, the walls are built on a tor of solid volcanic rock ! That made it impossible to undermine the walls, which was sometimes a method used by invaders to breach the walls.

Moving on past the castle we went to the tip of the headland and hit shingle beaches again. This time looking in an entirely different direction (North West) from the first beach. What you see above is all mainland Scotland, looking in the direction towards the town of Fort William.

Thats a view from the same point looking out west this time. There was a rope swing nearby which my daughter stopped and swung on for a few mins before we started to make our way back.

On our way back we then caught a view of Dunstaffnage Marina which is on the other side of the headland from the first beach we stopped at (this time looking out East - thats Ben Cruachan in the distance). Although this is the sea, its actually quite a sheltered marina, protected by a number of islands in the Firth of Lorn.

From there we made it back to the house (although thats another earlier pic from the first beach above). It was nice to get out for some fresh air and see the beaches and castle.

As I was picking the photos for this post, another one popped up on my timeline from a number of years back. As said, it was the end of October, and this was a pic of me getting into the Halloween spirit from about 5-6 years ago - and I thought I'd chuck it into the post for fun. Dont worry folks - no axe murders were committed during the taking of this photograph !

That wraps up my wednesday walk for this week ! All the best from Scotland !

Posted Using InLeo Alpha