Ardmore again, beautiful day
Posted: Monday, 20 August 2007 |
Well it was back out to Glengorm yesterday afternoon - a great walk out there along the main road and then back via the track through Ardmore Forest. What a difference in the weather! And it is supposed to be good all week as well. Hope so - some of us are planning a major walk this Saturday coming, and a week of good weather to dry out the ground would be super.
Anyway, the forest track is a good stroll - been there often enough in the past - but today, it definitely had a bit of an autumnal feel to it. And with the good weather and good light it was a fine day for taking pics!
The view over to Kilchoan was good:
Heres another, a bit further on:
Ardmore Forest is a really neat place to see a lot of the features that are characteristic of the type of igneous rocks in the area - great swathes of what are called Plateau Basalts, the sort of thing that is found in places liek Iceland today. In fact some people reckon that Mull a long time ago would have looked a bit like Iceland does today.
A lot of the rocks are full of white crystals, mainly what are called zeolites. Whole areas of rock can appear spotted:
The pound coin gives an impression of scale (No child present today....!) In close up (these macro lenses are good):
These "amygdales" as they are called are quite small, but occasionally, large crystals can be found. When the Forestry get digging out new quarries for rock, I always get excited (sad, I know, but hey... we're talking rocks here)
Further alomg the track there is a really, seriously bright red "red bole" as its known - I've reported on these on other blog entries but this one is a cracker:
And seen in close-up with a bit of flash:
The red colour really stands out. That's the top of an old lava flow that you are looking at there. Would have been impressive at the time it was being poured out...
Definitely Autumn, its Toadstool Time:
There are several ruined houses in the area - now that a lot of the trees have been cut down, they are really obvious. Here's a couple:
So that was it - a really nice afternoon walk. It was good at nigt as well (steady, mountainman, steady...) No what I mean is the stars were pretty impressive. Definitely Autumn. Jupiter low in the west, seriously bright and the massive red giant Antares, just visible beneath him, grazing the horizon. Antares is one of the biggest stars known - pity it is hard to see from these latitudes. Just for reference, here is a link to give the impression of scale:
The Size of our World, its called:
http://www.rense.com/general72/size.htm
Thought provoking. (I have a feeling I may have referred to this link before, if so , apologies, if not, check it out - it is remarkable)
More mountainman madness soon!
Cheers
James
Anyway, the forest track is a good stroll - been there often enough in the past - but today, it definitely had a bit of an autumnal feel to it. And with the good weather and good light it was a fine day for taking pics!
The view over to Kilchoan was good:
Heres another, a bit further on:
Ardmore Forest is a really neat place to see a lot of the features that are characteristic of the type of igneous rocks in the area - great swathes of what are called Plateau Basalts, the sort of thing that is found in places liek Iceland today. In fact some people reckon that Mull a long time ago would have looked a bit like Iceland does today.
A lot of the rocks are full of white crystals, mainly what are called zeolites. Whole areas of rock can appear spotted:
The pound coin gives an impression of scale (No child present today....!) In close up (these macro lenses are good):
These "amygdales" as they are called are quite small, but occasionally, large crystals can be found. When the Forestry get digging out new quarries for rock, I always get excited (sad, I know, but hey... we're talking rocks here)
Further alomg the track there is a really, seriously bright red "red bole" as its known - I've reported on these on other blog entries but this one is a cracker:
And seen in close-up with a bit of flash:
The red colour really stands out. That's the top of an old lava flow that you are looking at there. Would have been impressive at the time it was being poured out...
Definitely Autumn, its Toadstool Time:
There are several ruined houses in the area - now that a lot of the trees have been cut down, they are really obvious. Here's a couple:
So that was it - a really nice afternoon walk. It was good at nigt as well (steady, mountainman, steady...) No what I mean is the stars were pretty impressive. Definitely Autumn. Jupiter low in the west, seriously bright and the massive red giant Antares, just visible beneath him, grazing the horizon. Antares is one of the biggest stars known - pity it is hard to see from these latitudes. Just for reference, here is a link to give the impression of scale:
The Size of our World, its called:
http://www.rense.com/general72/size.htm
Thought provoking. (I have a feeling I may have referred to this link before, if so , apologies, if not, check it out - it is remarkable)
More mountainman madness soon!
Cheers
James
Comments
thanks yet again mountainman the pics are lovely
tws's weather girl from in awe(not as in loch)
Great pics again, MM. Your photos are much better than the ones in the geology book. Good shot of the amygdales. What gorgeous weather you had - just look at the colour of the sea! I note that your son was absent, but I hope you didn't get the pound coin from his piggybank instead...
Jill from EK
och MM, can I have your life please? More fabulous pics! I miss hills. And trees. And sunshine. You should be doing your own book y`know.
Hermit from Sandaywhereitsrainingagain
Fantastic pictures. I know people who won't go to Scotland because "the weather is terrible". Wrong, aren't they?!
Mrs Trellis from North East Wales
Sometimes, Mrs Trellis. But not always...
Jill from EK
Thanks for the comments so far - the weather has been very mixed this past wee while, but I always try to make the most of every opportunity to get out and about. Hopefully what we've got is a nice clear spell for a few weeks now. Some of us are going to walk the Loch Ba Ring Dyke on Saturday - a long boggy walk in places. Hopefully, this weather should get the ground nice and dry and Saturday will hopefully be nice. If you want to know more about this walk go to my web site www.mullgeology.com/LBRD_walk.html Afterwards there is a "social evening" for all my students. So lots to blog this coming weekend! Unless it pours of course..... Nahhhhhh... Cheers! JW
James (Mountainman) from Sunny Mull
Its great to read a Blog that is not full of stories about not locking car doors and otter watching. I have always wondered what that red bole was. If that excites you there is a really good bit at the entrance to North Harbour Gometra. I was thinking it was Iron and had been imagining iron age men picking away at it. Thanks for clearing that up.
Monkey from Mull
Monkey, thanks for the comment - yes the blog is more than just chat. I am quite passionate about science and I love promoting my own chosen field (Of course you could interpret that as being bored rigid by some crazy geek...) That Gometra red bole sounds interesting. Havent been to Gometra for a while -would be nice to get over there before the summer (summer? summer did I say? Pah!) ends. Gometra doesnt actually get much of a mention in the Geological Memoirs - I suspect the original survey officers didnt spend a lot of time there. There is an interesting little remark in the Memoir that mentions Gometra - they are actually talking about Staffa: "Staffa - uninhabited. Visited by Tourist-Steamer from Oban, by sailing boat from gometra or by motor-boat from Iona" Ah! I love the way they described things a hundred years ago - all we need is a shooting brake and a char-a-banc and a scene of Edwardian bliss is complete! :-) Cheers! MM
JW (Mountainman) from Tobermory
MM i've just sent a couple of pics to IBHQ to see if they can show them--they were taken on the Corromandel pennisula and when i was there in january i thought about the west coast of scotland,your snaps have just confirmed it
tws's weather girl from in the zoo
Fascinating material thank you for sharing, sorry I missed the lecture you will keep us up to date on when the next will be wont you.
Jessica from NY
Exploring the hills and coasts of Mull and Iona and occasionally elsewhere, with a close eye on the geology
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