Wednesday Walk - Along the Argyll Coastal Path by Appin

​I didnt make it out for a proper walk today, so am relying on some older pics for todays post. These are from a section of the Argyll Coastal Path on the West of Scotland.

I just love the west coast of Scotland. Its quite dramatic, with lovely sea views and mountain backdrops.

The stretch of the walk covered in this post lies between Oban, where we used to live, and Fort William. The scenery along the whole stretch in this area is just stunning.

This part of the path runs along the route of an old railway line that was decommissioned, probably in the 1960s, and as such, its nice and flat. Thats our old dog, Buster, in the pic. He has passed away now, and we still miss him dearly - he was a very well behaved springer spaniel !

We started on the walk about 3 miles north of the village of Appin. Thats a sea loch you can see (Loch Linnhe) and in the background, those mountains are still mainland, but fairly remote in an area called Moidart. Its stunning over there !

Heading off down the path, the first thing you come across is the stunning Linnhe Marina. It so quaint, and located in a natural cove which really protects the boats. I just love the little chandlery shed - its pretty cool. Sailing is very popular on the west coast as there are hundreds of islands you can visit, so there are marinas all up and down the coast.

And thats just some of the boats moored in this location.

Further on down the path we spotted these two seagulls on a large rock. The smaller one at the back with the mottled feathers is the chick from that year. Its quite well grown, but is still aiming for the coloured red dot on its parents beak, which they do when they want more food !

And just by the rock was this lovely old boat/barge - Little Jack. I think its seen better days, but I love the setup !!

Also in this area is a fish farm. This probably has salmon in it. The black item on the right is a large netted cage, which will have something like around 30,000+ fish in it. The grey vessel to the left is the feed-barge, with the black pipes being how the pelletised feed is delivered into the cage. Fish farming is big business in Scotland and you can also see these all up and down the west coast. They are becoming more and more regulated all the time because they do cause pollution due to fish poo and the un-eaten food, which kills the area of the seabed below them unfortunately.

And the most interesting point on the stretch of the path we walked along is Castle Stalker. It sits on its own lovely wee island around 300m or so of the mainland. I have posted about it before. You can walk over to it at low tide (with wellies), but can also get to it for an arranged tour via boat, which we've yet to do - maybe one day !!!

It really is a cute wee castle ! And those people are over for the tour !

And then the other main feature down at this part of the path is the Glendsanda super quarry, which is over on the Morvern side of the loch (the far side). Its huge, and you can see the large bulk carry that is in to collect aggregates from it. You cant reach that quarry by road, and everything is carried in and out by boat, including the workforce !

There is quite a lot of shipping in this sea-loch, and also a lot of hazards from all of the small islands, and here you can see one of the small lights that has been put in place to help keep the shipping safe.

So that closes off my wed walk for this week. Its such a lovely stretch of path with so many things to see - we really loved it !!!

All the best from Scotland !