Out for a drive

The past few days have been a school holiday up this way so my husband and l took the two days off from work which has been nice.

Yesterday we decided to go for a drive out by Loch Striven and sit to enjoy the open landscape while our son climbed and ran around.

This drive is about 28 miles round trip from where we live, heading south at first through Innellan to Toward point and then turning north along the Glenstriven road.

This is a remote and rugged place – a place of extremes. The weather changes here are often swift and unpredictable – the beauty and atmosphere raw – excesses of light and shadow, hills that rise abruptly from the water, towering rock set against sky– the sheer physical presence of it all. I love this landscape, l love the emotional response it conjures in me- the creativity to write, to paint, to dream.

It's an old place too and you can feel it - with old dyke walling, woodland and standing stones at the head of the loch, hills masked in mist, remote and unearthly - the distances sunk in silence.

Near the end of the loch is the parish of Inverchaolain - pronounced 'Inver-hool-an' and means, 'mouth of the narrow stream'. The present church that you can see in the photograph is not old, it was built in 1912 to replace the one that was destroyed by fire the year before. The original church sat about 200 yards up the hill and was dedicated to St. Bride, as many churches are around this area given the close proximity to Ireland – St. Bride, or Bridget, being the Abbess of Kildare (467-525). This little church is always open, has two lovely stained glass windows and the kirk-yard burial ground has many graves of historical interest.

I've posted a few more photographs taken yesterday below.