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Balnahard

Sadly, we are home from Colonsay now but I still have some photos to post.  The holiday photograph album is not yet complete.

As part of the island's Autumn Food and Drink Festival, last Monday I went on a farm walk at Balnahard, which is the top north east corner of the island and an area we haven't explored before.  The farm is reached by a pretty extreme track and luckily I was in a vehicle being driven by the farmer, who will travel along those 2 - 3 miles every day.  It is not a track I would wish to drive myself and our car wouldn't stand any chance of survival, especially on the stretch beyond the farm to the beautiful beach at the top end of the island!  Generally people walk to the beach at Balnahard, and it is certainly worth the effort.

You can read all about the farm at Balnahard here https://www.balnahard.com/balnahard-farm.html   It is a beautiful part of the island, with views across the sea to the mainland, the northern end of Jura and also the island of Mull.
There is little doubt the farmer, David Hobhouse, loves his animals.  They have a good life here before they have to move on to pastures new.  The cows and sheep are born on Colonsay, but in time they go east, to the mainland, where they spend their remaining time grazing on richer grass than grows on the island.
 The whole of Colonsay is full of history but Balnahard seems to have an excess!  There are signs of human habitation and places of worship, pre-Christian and dating from early Christian days.  There is no fuss or fanfare.  It's all just there to be seen and quietly wondered at.  The photo below shows a series of stone circles which are fairly obviously dwellings.  There must be about half a dozen of them, all in a row, facing a raised beach to the west.
We drove on past the farm buildings and David showed us an area which has been fenced off to protect ancient stones from damage caused by animals.  There is a standing stone here, and it was probably the site of pagan worship.  There is a kist grave, which is a mind-boggling 7-8,000 years old!  You can just see its outline in mossy stone.
St Columba was on Colonsay in the mid 500s AD, before he travelled across the sea to Iona.   In the enclosure there are the remains of a small chapel which he probably frequented, and in a further corner part of a stone cross, as well as a stone font, sitting on the grass.  These things have been here for 1500 years!
David drove us on to Balnahard beach.  Another treasure.  It was a favourite stopping place for the Royal Family in the days of their beloved Royal Yacht Britannia.  The ship would moor off the island (a Royal Navy destroyer alongside of course!!) and the Queen and her family would enjoy time on the beach.  With all the formality of life in the Royal court and living life in the public eye, to walk along that remote and lovely beach, and look out across the sea to such uplifting views must have been balm indeed.




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