Thanks for taking us with you š One day weāll fly to a few of these places for sure!
Thanks for sharing this, what great travel inspiration!
āI can see my house from up here!ā
The Nendrum Monastery photo, small house on the bottom edge of the photo (the rightmost one ā is rightmost a word?)
We lived there 25 years ago, when I was working for Jersey European on the F27 out of Belfast City. The cottage was rented from friends of my parents, all four sadly no longer with usā¦the upper house on the left edge of the frame was my Godfather (also long gone).
Our son (now 26) was in his pram on the front porch and I glanced out to see the biggest rat Iād ever seen sitting there looking up hungrily. They were a bit of a nuisance, climbing in open windows to eat soap, chewing through the windscreen washer hoses on the exās Fiesta, and even chewing through her fuel line too.
Apart from that it was a great place, wild in the winter. Got cut off once or twice when high spring tides coincided with southerly gales and the causeways were flooded. The aforementioned Fiesta finally gave up after the ex drove through what she called a puddle, conked out and had to be pulled out by tractor. Closer inspection revealed that the puddle was more like an arm of the oceanā¦
Weāre now in Scotland, and I get to fly around the whole place with work. Last monthās logbook includes Oban, Barra, Islay, Glenforsa, Campbeltown, Arran, Fort William. I get a bit blase about the scenery after so longā¦so itās nice to read about it through a fresh set of eyes.
Great trip report! Thanks. It should inspire more people to visit.
Thank you all for the comments. To answer a few questions / points raised.
Peter wrote:
How far did you have to talk to set up the tent?
I hiked about 8km to the camp spot. There are plenty of places to camp much closer, but I like to try to get off the beaten track and away from passing traffic (road traffic and foot traffic). Obviously I wouldnāt do that with someone who wasnāt used to hiking and camping. 8km is a lot with all your camping gear on your back if you arenāt used to it (and really into it!)
Peter wrote:
What is seawater like for tea or coffee?
Thatās fresh water. It was a small pond/stream from some of the scrub land/wet land. I use a MSR Guardian filter to filter my water. It removes everything with a size bigger then 0.02 microns, which is enough to remove all bacteria, protozoa and viruses. What it wonāt remove is heavy metals or chemicals, so itās important to get your water close enough to the source to be before any chemical spills. Thatās not usually a problem for me as I then to hike in the mountains. This pond was effectively from rainfall / water table and hadnāt flowed far.
You canāt use these filters with sea water, as it quickly blocks up the fibers of the filter.
MSR Guardian
There are cheaper and lighter filters available, but this one is very good and provides more protection than most. Iām happy to pay more in price and weight rather than compromise on the filtering ability. (Most cheaper filters donāt filter for viruses as they donāt then to be an issue in water in North America or Europe).
alioth wrote:
I believe that thereās no advance notification required from Prestwick (thereās a number of Police notified airports where advance notice isnāt required ā IIRC, from southern Scotland into NW England you have at least Prestwick, Carlisle and Blackpool).
Quite possibly. Iāve not been to Prestwick. I seem to remember something about needing to sort handling with the aero club? Maybe thatās changed now. But itās not the sort of thing I want to be trying to organise at the last minute if the weather was worse than expected. So I take the easy approach and just plan go to Oban which I know 
If Iād been to Prestwick before and knew the proceedure, I might choose differently.
Capitaine wrote:
Is it worth flying with say 2 Ć 20 litre jerrycans of avgas in the back?
I wonder would that be legal? Even if it is, Iām not sure Iād be comfortable with it. Too many considerations (fumes, temperature, static electricity etc) that I donāt know the answers to. They are probably all possible to solve, but Iād be concerned about the āunknown unknownsā 
Russell wrote:
āI can see my house from up here!ā
Brilliant! It just shows the reach of our community. Take a few photos and someone pops up āThatās my house!ā Are you flying helis or is there a runway at Fort William?
Capitaine wrote:
Those are good photos for a phone, especially the lighthouse ones. Dublinpilotās trips are coffee table book material
Thank you! I really liked the lighthouse ones too. Though I always feel uncomfortable out to sea and then especially so when dropping down low to get those photos so far from shore. Iām not a comfortable cross water pilot! But living on an island (and not able to afford a twin!) I just have to get over it
dublinpilot wrote:
I wonder would that be legal?
Probably not. I ahem know someone who did it when Crossland Moorās fuel was out of action, and he didnāt yet have the aux tank. Also someone who used to ferry a bunch of them in the back of a Cherokee 235 (who said to me once āI donāt mind carrying the fuel, I know what it weighs, itās the crates of lobsters I donāt so I donāt want too many of them as the CAA will ask questions if I crash off the end of the runwayā). I was thinking the CAA wouldnāt be able to ask the charred cinders very much! Surprisingly, that pilot died of natural causes, despite always sailing very close to the wind on anything he did flying.
dublinpilot wrote:
I wonder would that [flying with say 2 Ć 20 litre jerrycans of avgas in the back] be legal? Even if it is, Iām not sure Iād be comfortable with it. Too many considerations (fumes, temperature, static electricity etc) that I donāt know the answers to. They are probably all possible to solve, but Iād be concerned about the āunknown unknownsā
According to the NCO.GEN.140(f) and its AMC and GM, it is legal to carry fuel for the purpose of refueling at an airports where fuel is not available.
dublinpilot wrote:
Brilliant! It just shows the reach of our community. Take a few photos and someone pops up āThatās my house!ā Are you flying helis or is there a runway at Fort William?
EC 135 helicopter (ambulance)
I spoke too soon! Our landlady from the cottage by Nendrum is still alive.
My sister visited her last weekā¦92 and still going strong ( the landlady, not my sister š¤£)
