Let’s Hope As we tumble into 2024, wondering with not just a little fear and trepidation what on earth current world events will bring; while we journey on, unable to make any real difference to them, but are forced to watch horrified at the appalling suffering of the innocents, I do hope you carry with …
At home in Colehill, Dorset 6 December 2023 Hello Dear Readers, I hope you have had a year with more joys than regrets and as the old year declines I would like to thank you once again for following our travels and adventures. Well, when we arrived at Zoonie last Thursday we didn’t need to …
We do get the tail end of hurricanes here in the UK, and the ones that arrive towards the end of the season can be the most powerful. Zoonie registered 44 knots at her sheltered marina position, so the wind force will have been greater at sea, dissipating as it reached the resistance of the …
Men in Cloth Caps ‘Health and Safety’ were not around when the shipbuilding industry in Belfast grew from 1663 to be the fastest cargo discharging port in the world. Using both manpower and cranes to move the goods and support the local industry, including linen, which by now (1907) had moved from being a cottage …
Approaching Stornoway on a fine, calm day aboard Zoonie, the natural harbour opened its arms in what would normally seem to be a welcome to the seafarer, but over to the right is a tiny buoy and a concrete pillar in the water, which open the door on an event that was the opposite to …
Whisky Galore – soon Low grey clouds beckoned us forward and south on our last morning across Lewisian terrain that we were now familiar with, but including some fine lochs, set deep into the landmass, some smaller ones called Lochans, and also some tiny ones, Lochlets? Respect for ancestry and history was evident with modern …
The Long and Ancient Road We travelled across a bleak landscape of peatlands, too bleak even for pretty cotton grass to flourish, and too wet for gentle cattle, along a single-track road, virtually due west to a period a few thousand years after the end of the last ice age, to where people from Ireland …
Part 2 Tolsta and the Bridge to Nowhere Our second day brought a submersion into gorgeous coastal views, crofting history, Victorian industrial zeal, and ancient Christian activity leading to the downfall of the MacLeods and the gifting of Lewis by King James VI of Scotland to the Clan Chief of the Mackenzies in 1610. A …
Part 1/4 A Short Odyssey in the Outer Hebrides Part 1/4 Northwards up the Isle of Lewis to Port Ness Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a different era and an entirely alien location to the one you are used to? That’s what I love about travelling and exploring …
Bangor Northern Ireland to The Isles of Scilly Unfamiliar waters for us always hold a tasty mixture of adventure and challenge, to be met with due research, experience and caution. Our outward journey last year took us across from The Isles of Scilly to Baltimore in the south west Irish Republic, so on this next …