Sandwood Bay - a photo on Flickriver

Sandwood Bay

            Wild camping at Sandwood Bay, a few miles south of Cape Wrath in the far northwest of the Scottish mainland.  A scan of a 35mm Kodachrome 64 colour transparency taken on Friday 17th April 1987.

I was having a bit of a sort out recently, and came across a bunch of prints I'd had done from slides years ago and completely forgotten about.  This is one of them, taken on my first visit to Sandwood Bay in the remote northwest corner of Scotland, back in April 1987.  The two fishing floats were found while I was beachcombing, and were collected as souvenirs; they now adorn my study at home.

I spent about a week up there on this trip, camping and backpacking alone: a few days at Sandwood Bay, then up to Cape Wrath for a couple of nights, before returning to Sandwood Bay.  The area abounds with ghost stories, with many accounts of a 'bearded seaman with a peaked cap and brass buttons on his coat, thought to have been the victim of one of the many shipwrecks on this treacherous coast'.

Like most ghost stories, it's complete nonsense, but has a basis in reality.  The physical description is entirely accurate, but he was no ghost.  I know, because I met him.  In fact he was the only person I met the entire week.  His name was James McRory Smith, and for more than 30 years he lived alone in the remote bothy at Strathchailleach, about a mile northeast of Sandwood Bay.  Opinions about him tended to be fairly negative: a local couple who gave me a lift from Kinlochbervie to the end of the Sandwood Bay track at Blairmore warned me that he would steal from my tent (he didn't), while would-be bothygoers reported finding him less-than-welcoming at their arrival.  The man I met and spoke to though was extremely affable, articulate and intelligent.  He just didn't like the company of other people, that's all, and I can completely identify with him on that; after all, that was one of the attractions of Sandwood Bay for me too...

Taken in: UK / Scotland / Sandwood (show map)

Taken on: April 17, 1987

Tags:

Sandwood Bay

Sandwood Loch

Cape Wrath

wild camping

Vango Hurricane

selfie

Nikon FM2

Kodachrome 64

colour transparency

film

35mm

scan « less

Sets appears in: • Sandwood Bay, 1987 • Of Me

Groups appears in: • Scotland • Of Me more » • A Piece of Me • This is me... • Scottish Lochs • I, Me, Mine - Pictures of you « less

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