At last a day of mixed sun and clouds and some lovely morning light. It was amazing to drive over the same roads as yesterday and this time be greeted by scenes of beautiful white beaches, rolling waves, and green fields dotted with sheep and cattle. I went in search of the surfing beach at Balevullin and found one of the most dramatic beaches I have seen. Although it was low tide, the rolling waves reached toward a wide expanse of white shell sand and machair covered dunes. One side of the bay is ringed with ancient rocks – the bedrock of Tiree is Lewisian gneiss, 2.8 billion years old. I explored some of the narrow pathways between the rocks and marveled at the formations and colors. It was another one of those places that begged for dinosaurs to be roaming, not sheep! I also went past the Old Mill at Cornaig, commissioned in 1771 by the 5th Duke of Argyll. It was to grind the corn for the whole island, thus replacing inefficient horizontal mills, and hand mills or querns. In Scarinish I had to take some pictures of the “spotty” houses. The mortar between the stones was whitewashed giving it a distinctive look.
So a bit more about Tiree. The island has a strong connection to St. Columba, the monk who founded the famous monastery on Iona. The island provided the monastic community on Iona with grain and its name comes from Tìr lodh, land of the corn. A number of early monasteries once existed on Tiree itself. Tiree did come under Norwegian rule in the late 11th century but the kings of the isles asserted their power and took control once more until around 1266. After the Battle of Largs Tiree formerly became part of Scotland and was controlled by the MacDougalls. This change in power appears to have had little affect o the life of the islanders of Tiree. Because of their opposition to Bruce in his struggle for Scottish rule, the MacDougall holdings along much of the west islands was forfeited to Robert the Bruce’s supporters, including Tiree which went to Angus Og of Islay and thus ultimately became part of the Lordship of the Isles.
Tomorrow I think is supposed to be mostly sunny and I scouted places I want to photograph in early morning or late afternoon light so hopefully will have some success in the morning.
