Camuscross, Starvation and Rain ALL DAY! 15th Jan 2020

Vince wanted an early start to drive the 2 hours or so to Camuscross on the Sleat Peninsula. So at 6.00am the alarm went and we were up and out the door before 7.00am in the pitch black of night.

The wind was howling and I couldn’t open the car door as it was so strong. As I tried to put my gear in the other side poor Morag was unceremoniously ripped from me by the ferocity of the gale and disappeared into the night, along with three Co-Op reusable carrier bags. I go my light paining torch and searched in the inky blackness - managing to track down all three bags but no sign of Morag - I was devastated.

Vince came out of the house into the deluge and I explained why I was trompsing around in the dark with a torch and wandering into the field alone. He turned on the car lights and manoeuvred it to shine in the direction I had found the carrier bags. I was still wandering and calling to Morag but the little Moo was playing hide and seek with me. Vince spotted her and directed me to her, when I picked her up I was so relieved, and she was not bothered at all - she thought it was a great adventure! Apart from a bit of dirt on her nose she was unharmed, thank goodness. We had left Marmalade sleeping at home safe and sound so he was none the wiser!

Finally all inside the car it was off down the East coast towards Camuscross. Offinto the inky darkness with the wind howling and buffeting the car as we drove and Vince had to be extra vigilant on the single track roads.

We arrived around 9.00am, passing our friend Penny’s house on the the way (her car was not there so we didn’t call in).

Camuscross (Scottish Gaelic: Camus Croise) is a small crofting township on the west shore of the Sound of Sleat overlooking Camus Croise bay. It is right next to the village of Iselornsay and the little island of Ornsay. In the time that my relatives lived there (1700s and 1800s) Lord MacDonald created a township of 40 small crofts of just 2 to 3 acres (12,000 m2) on average. The hill grazing was less than a tenth of the size of most other Sleat townships, with many more crofters. It seems that they were made deliberately too small to live on to force crofters to fish during the Herring boom.

The nearby harbour of Ise Ornsay used to be very busy, being the main connection to the mainland. Isle Ornsay post office (where the estate office is now) was the main post office for all of Sleat. This harbour was the departure of many emigration’s ships such The William Nichol, a government emigration ship left on 6 July 1837, bound for Australia as part of "Langs" Bounty Scheme. The Sillery departed on 7 September 1853 for Canada, including 332 people from Knoydar ad Glenary estate who had been cleared as part of the Highland Clearances to make way for sheep. Houses were burnt and levelled to the ground. It was difficult times.

According to the census records I have previously found, my relatives moved to Greenock sometime between 1861 and 1871. I have traced things back as far as the the old parish records allow, and was hoping to try to find out more from other sources, such as the rent records for the area from the Clan MacDonald Centre but it was closed until March.

Camuscross looked flooded and miserable today in the awful weather and it rained constantly. We went to the Isle Ornsay hotel in the hope of a coffee and some food - but they only offer meals to residents. We went down further to Armadale, but couldn’t find anything open.

At the ferry terminal there was a shop which was open, Ragamuffin, which sells handmade clothing and accessories, but no coffee or food anywhere. We asked about anywhere that might be available but she only directed us to the Clan MacDonald Centre and Armadale Castle which we had already been to. Heading back along the road there was absolutely nothing!

The tummy worms were biting as by this time is was around 11.30am - we headed back to Broadford certain one of those cafes we had seen would be open - but NO! We tried a few places that had signs out, and a fish and chip shop with lights on and two people in it eating!!! But all were closed! Unbelievable!

We headed into Portree and finally got some breakfast ( 25 GBP) around 12.30pm at the Aros Centre. Vince also found the book he had been looking for at the Rare Book Shop at Skeabost the other day, so that was a bonus for just 8.00GBP.

We backtracked to Sligachan as Vince wanted to take some pictures, but the weather was horrendous and he didn’t manage any great shots. I stayed near the car and took some macro of fungus on nearby trees instead and spent the rest of the time sitting the car being buffeted from side to side by the wind and rain and hail. Vince took so long and I couldn’t see him, so I started to get worried - but he eventually returned safe and sound, if a bit wet and bedraggled looking.

Just out of Sconcer we saw the heard of Heiland Coo but we didn’t stop.We headed into Portree for a coffee to warm up and would you believe it - everywhere was closed until next week! FFS! We grabbed a drink from the Co Op and a few bits and pieces we had run short of and headed home.

Just out of Portree we saw Mable and Bruce (the Heilan Coos) but again we didn’t stop.

As we approached the Aird we did stop to take a photo of the Black Bull we have seen before, that I have named Willie! But it was raining and cold, and every time I put my camera up he would look away and every time I put it down he would turn and look at me - it was like he was just messing with me!

Back in the car we headed up to Shulista and stopped in the Rubha Hunish car park as Vince wanted one last try at some photos towards the Quiraing (which had lost all it’s snow from yesterday). I stayed in the car as it was just miserable outside and I didn’t think there would be any chance of a good shot with all the cloud cover and blanket for rain.

Back home at Willies, Lorraine had delivered another load of wood for us (we contacted her yesterday as we were running low again.) So I soon set about making a fire and getting all the great unpacked. We have a bit of a system now, I take what I can and take off my wellies in the porch, then he ferried gear backwards and forwards to the porch and I take it all inside in my stocking feet, then he can take his shoes off when he brings in the last load.

I spent the evening battling with my laptop - as it’s so full I couldn’t download my images from today, so that meant backing up and deleting a lot of stuff - which then meant I had to relink all my Lightroom Catalogue from the hard-drive to an external drive - Freakin Nightmare!!!

We made our little “nest” and watched Captain Corelli’s Mandolin! We had a quote about love from it at our recent Scottish wedding so it even though it was really a movie about war it was still romantic!

We got to bed quite late, but as I hopped in and pulled the doona over me, snuggling my hot water bottle, something made me get back out and draw back the small attic window curtain and look outside - I saw stars for the first time in many nights, as usually the sky is covered in cloud. But tonight there were stars!

“Are you up for some Astro?” I asked Vince and he was. So we got dressed and packed our gear into the car and headed off to nearby Old Kilmuir Church to use as foreground interest. But I had not even got around to focusing my lens properly and setting up just the right angle than the bloody cloud cover came back obscuring everything! On top of that my fingers were frozen and not functioning - those new gloves can’t come soon enough!.

Back in the car we stopped at the Museum of Island Life, just to take a couple of shots to check out what a silhouette will look like when we finally get to see some stars again.

It was about 1.00am by the time we got back into our bed - a long day!