Time Zone Focus

The clocks changed yesterday and a few hours later we were acclimatised. Residents on Scottish islands may face some further changes if the UK follows Europe and makes daylight-saving a permanent feature. The BBC's Time-Zones item is worth looking at - for it gives insights into the workings of this system and the quirks that have arisen. To think that before the coming of trains and the introduction of railway timetables, it was the sun and unsynchronised public clocks that had to be used as the time-keeping devices.

Scottish Islands Explorer - sells in all time-zones

Clocks Back

The clocks went back earlier this morning and more hours of darkness will feature in our lives until next February. This photograph of the old boats on Salen Bay, Mull, serves as a reminder of the changing times and tides. It was taken by Andrew Pennill whose images form a fine gallery. Older residents of the village of Salen, mid-way between Craignure and Tobermory, recall the mailboat service from Oban to Mull when the Lochinver called at the pier. This ceased in 1964 when larger boats came onto the route and were unable to use the facilities.

Scottish Islands Explorer - trying to keep up with the times

Last Boxes Ticked

Red boxes concluded - rather like this derelict one on Soay. The image comes from a blog-watcher in the Pacific North-west of the USA interested in many aspects of life in the North-west of Scotland. He also refers to the defunct telephone box on Scarp; to the one that looks like new, but with no phone in it, on Tanera Mor; to the one by the waterfall at Carsaig on Mull that featured in the film, I Know Where I'm Going!; and to the working one on Canna that has special status because of there being no local mobile coverage.

Scottish Islands Explorer - in full working oder

No Human Callers

Telephone boxes continued - well, not all of them. There are 5373 payphone boxes in Scotland, but last year 451 of them did not have even one person making a call. The Western Isles had 40 boxes completely unused; Shetland 26 and Orkney 24. The march of the mobile has left these installations marooned. Full details of use and non-use are available through this Deadline account, here obviously featuring dead lines.

Scottish Islands Explorer - calls welcomed from all phones

A Red Light District?

One blog-watcher responded to yesterday's item by saying he was much amused and by sending these two photographs. The telephone box was, obviously, set up by some joker selecting the top of Beinn Chaorach  (the Hill of the Sheep), some 257m above Arduaine, on the south shores of Loch Melfort, south of Oban. The door is apparently bolted, although some wag has recently put cards in the kiosk advertising the services usually associated with a red light, rather than a red box, district. Mull is in the background.

Scottish Islands Explorer - appropriate advertisements displayed

Adopt-a-Box

A feature from the website of Countryfile magazine is about how telephone boxes have been adopted throughout the country. There is a reference and picture of a box being taken to an island, but no write-up about the specific use one has been put to on a Scottish island. Perhaps, mobile coverage in these parts means that the kiosks are still being used for ... telephoning. Ideas, please.

Scottish Islands Explorer - on the end of a line

Between Weathers

Fetlar is both fertile and these days full of hope for the forthcoming days of increasing daylight ... next Spring. This may be the time that the film crew arrives to shoot local scenes for Between Weathers, a film in the making. Things are still apparently at the pre-production stage, but the full story is available in The Shetland Times.

Scottish Islands Explorer - regardless of climate

Deaths on a Beach

Saturday's item on this blog was right in anticipating Sunday Times Scotland coverage of the slaughter of goats on Rum. It also attracted these two photographs of goat carcases, taken by a hill walker on the beach at Harris on Rum, close to the mausoleum in the Greek temple-style evident at the top of the image above. Ironically it was built to house the sarcophagus of John Bullogh who owned the island from 1888-91. The goat carcasses have been crudely netted and badly hidden. This cull of around 60 goats, which took place last week, served no apparent purpose for neither records were taken nor investigations made in relation to the climate-change project in which these animals have been a part. Can anyone add anymore to this dismal story?

Scottish Islands Explorer - investigating

Geocaching is Catching

The daily-blog, Across the Minch, has introduced several interested parties to Geocaching. It deserves investigating for it could well lead you to make investigations of your own. The scene above is of the entry into Rhenigidale on North Harris.  On the right the track begins, taking hardy walkers over the Postman's Path towards Tarbert. Within a short distance and before the zig-zag ascent, there is a former settlement called Garraidh Lotaigear, situated on a backwater of the loch and mentioned on the blog. Is anyone able to supply any more information about this place and the community that once resided there?

Scottish Islands Explorer - 'islecaching', if nothing else

Alleged Slaughter on Rum

There have been feral goats on the island of Rum since the 16th Century. From the year 2000 a number of them have been monitored to assist in studies of climate change. Apparently last week an order was given, through Scottish Natural Heritage, to kill 30 or so of these animals not as part of these investigations, but as needless slaughter. The carcasses were not recorded, nor examined, nor added to the larder. It was a waste of time ... and life.  This subject is reported to be covered in tomorrow's edition of the Sunday Times Scotland.

Scottish Islands Explorer - covers causes for concern