Christmas 2009

Our last trip of the year, 28th-29th December, was primarily to check over the house in the midst of the cold winter weather and to deliver some larch flooring which we intend to put down. Packing the van in Glen Urquhart on the Monday morning it was -16C but luckily Mull never experiences temperatures like that.
We stayed Monday night and took the long road back to Skye on Tuesday leaving at 3pm and arriving home about 10.10pm through some pretty wintery conditions, a 480 mile round trip in all. The drive at Achadaphail was like a skating rink, see below, but glad to say the pipes in the house were fine.




Ben More, Tuesday 29th December 2009.

3rd and 10th October 2009

The 3rd of October would have been my parents 40th wedding anniversary (married Bunessan and then reception in The Clansman, now Pennygael Hotel) so it was slightly poignant to be down on the Ross of Mull on this date.
We left from Glen Urquhart in the morning and by Spean Bridge we were asking ourselves were we wise, a very stormy morning with wind and heavy rain made it a pretty horrible drive down. We persevered as I didn't expect to be able to get across on any other weekend. This led to a new pastime called 'Extreme Lawnmowing', whizzing around the lawns at Achadaphail whilst dealing with a force 7 or 8 gale (see the pictures of Burg below).
Made it home safely that evening to Glen Urquhart via the take-away in Inverlochy.

The 10th October was another milestone as it was Catherine's mother's first ever visit to Mull. We stayed the Friday night in the Distillery Guesthouse in Fort William (an excellent guesthouse and our first visit there). The next morning Catherine and Mary headed off early to Achadaphail (this was Isle of Mull Rally weekend too) and did the changeover on the house, before heading home to Hungladder. (I didn't go over this weekend as I was playing at a wedding with the band and the last thing I wanted was to turn up late for a wedding booking).