Sunday 23 January 2011: A day of misses and rewards

I missed the earthquake which hit the west of Scotland on Sunday – slept through the 3.5 magnitude quake.
Then I missed my friend’s house as I was driving along the side of Loch Etive. And then we missed the turn off on our walk and stomped an extra 2 miles.
Still, rewards for these misses: totally oblivious to the Quake until a friend in London asked of the earth had moved for me.
Where I turned the car round to go back to J’s house I had to stop as an otter was playing in the loch just in front of me. Just bliss to see this wild creature.
And because we were blethering and not concentrating on our route walking a wee bit extra gave us more time to chat and enjoy the fabulous Coffin Route. So called because it was used to carry coffins over the hill from Barcaldine to Achnaba on the shores of Loch Etive for burial at Ardchattan Church. What a beautiful final journey and resting place.
Pits, known as Marl Pits, slowly infilling, can be seen at regular intervals along the road at Achnaba.
They look like craters but what I’m reliably told happened was in olden years, tenants were required, every seven years, to dig down to the layer of London clay, some 8-12 feet down, to be spread on the surrounding field. In the days of horse and cart this was obviously easiest done from the centre outwards, and so they appear some 500 yards apart, still visible today.