I have moved to the west side of the island of Iona for my remaining week.  Immediately behind my house looking north are ragged hills of ancient rock interspersed with green valleys and dotted with sheep.  To the west is the ocean and the beach called the Bay at the Back of the Ocean. Camus Cuil an t-Saimh, as the beach is called in Gaelic,  stretches as far as the eye can see.  The waves relentlessly assualt the rocks which ring the beach and can be very dramatic in a strong wind blowing in from the west.  The light is everchanging and always dramatic.  I always remember to have my camera rain cover along as well as my rain pants as squalls can pop up quickly. Of course, when I forget to prepare for the potential rain squall it inevitably comes upon me. 

To get to the beach you pass through part of the Iona Golf Course, which is kept mowed by sheep and cattle, before coming to a stretch of small rocks of all colors and shapes spread out before the shoreline. Golf was played on Iona as early as 1886 when Alan Mac Beath laid out a 9 hole course.  In 1905, Wiliam Mcneile Dixon, a Glasgow University professor, extended the golf course to 18 holes. To play the course is free but you can pick up a scorecard at the post office for £1.  There is a wonderful YouTube video of 3 men playing the course, one of them an Iona native who regularly plays the course. Since non-residents are not permitted to have a car on Iona, you will walk about a mile before coming to the gate which leads to the course. The wind can be relentless adding to the challenges of the course and yet on the windiest days I have seen people out on the course golfing. It is these small, relatively unknown, golf courses that I believe speak to the love of golf this country exhibits.