Thomas Ralston: A fishmerman’s lament for Mallaig and the passing of time
The years go bye and I’ve now passed my ‘three score years and ten’. So I sit today, my mind goes back, and I remember when A callow lad of just fifteen, I first smelt the acrid smoke From the kipper...
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Nick Ray 2015 in 2015
Nick Ray’s 2015 in 2015 is a 2015 mile solo sea kayak journey around Scotland’s coastline, visiting each of the Scotland’s forty seven RNLI stations, raising money for the RNLI as he paddles.The...
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Tommy Ralston: Whitby Times
Ringers berthed at the New Quay, Whitby including FIONA, CN165 and GOLDEN FLEECE, CN170, Whitby drifter PROVIDER, KY201. INS247 is GUIDING STAR.As July gave way to August so the time approached when we...
View ArticleSome Argyll train routes out of action 14th and 15th January – in horrible...
Scotrail has announced that, due to the high winds forecast for Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th January, there will be no trains between 12.00 noon Wednesday and around 18.00 on Thursday on a series...
View ArticleCalMac’s top performers
There are some cracking surprises in cutting the CalMac carrying statistics for 2013 in a range of ways.Here are the top three performing routes in terms of ferry usage, in each of the four carrying...
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£120k Coastal Communities Fund award for Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust’s...
In an exciting boost for Hebridean coastal communities’ engagement with their marine environment, the Tobermory-based conservation charity, Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust’s Sea Change project has...
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Lording it on the new Mallaig-Lochboisdale winter service
Photographer, Martin Briscoe, has given us these shots of an early passage by CalMac’s new three year pilot of a winter-service between Lochboisdale in South Uist in the Western Isles, across the Minch...
View ArticleUists get involved in the issue of the Campbeltown to Ardrossan ferry
An unlikely participant has emerged in the imbroglio around Argyll and Bute MSP, Michael Russell’s unfortunate suggestion that the marketing slogan for the new CalMac ferry from Campbeltown to...
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Julian Penney: Sea kayaking in the Small Isles
I always find Arisaig an inspiring and dramatic place to start an expedition from. On a clear day the views to Eigg and the Cuillins of Skye just give you that deep sense of longing for the adventure...
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Mark Carter: Fire on Ben Duirinnis in its third day
A fire is smothering Oban and even Mull in its smoke. It started on 25th March beyond the quarry at Bonawe.Several fire tenders are in attendance, fighting it as it creeps down Ben Duirinnis and...
View ArticleBBC ALBA schedule producer off to National Indigenous Television in Oz.
A young West Highland woman has left Scotland to take up the opportunity of a lifetime on a placement with National Indigenous Television (NITV) in Australia.26 year old Lisa Annette from Mallaig has...
View ArticleSilver Darlings: one for fisherfolk from BBC ALBA
Herring has been fished around Scotland for hundreds of years. Where once there was heavy work there is now automation. Where once there were hundreds of boats, there are now only 28 in the Scottish...
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Mission 2110 in progress in Loch Striven
Have you seen the fabulous Avatar? That imported, steel, high-tech universe, fuelled by violent imperial intent? The ‘outstation’, like a giant metal portacabin, plonked down and terrifyingly,...
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Tommy Ralston and Kintyre’s lifeboats: it began with a camera
Tommy Ralston, born in Campbeltown and now an honorary Fifer, left school in 1950 and ‘went to the fishing’ - on ring-netting herring boats. He moved to work on the Mallaig fleet, met a Mallaig girl...
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West Highland Line voted world’s most scenic rail route
Winding from Glasgow, up through Argyll and into Lochaber, the 164 mile long West Highland Line to Fort William, with its extensions from Crianlarich to Oban and from Fort William down to Mallaig has...
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Lochhead negotiates hard on EU fish quotas and says ‘The bulk of the west...
Scottish Government Fisheries Minister, Richard Lochhead refused to accept the deal on the table this week in the negotiations on EU fish quotas. As it stood, this threatened the devastation of...
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Oban fishermen negotiate for new berthing facilities at South Pier
Oban fishermen, losing facilities to the second linkspan for CalMac ferries and to planned new pontoons for yachts have, with associated businesses, had a constructive meeting with local Councillors....
View ArticleTrain hits van on crossing at Corpach
Late on Friday night a train on the route from Mallaig to Crianlarich hit a van on a crossing at Corpach, north of Fort William. The can was driven by a 65 year-old local man, Peter Donald from Banavie...
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