Port Kilchoan

Above the cliffs of Fascadale Bay and the sea off N. Ardnamurchan

View from the road to Fascally on the Ardnmurchan Estate. In the distance the island of Eigg is visible off shore

Fascadale was a salmon fishing station and ice was collected during the winter and stored in the icehouse. During the salmon netting season, February to August, the salmon were packed with ice for the journey to southern markets. The icehouse has the characteristic rounded roof which would have been covered with growing turf.

We didn't look inside, so I don't know what this building was used for. I'm guessing storage of fishing/boating equipment.

Cushions of saltmarsh, bright green in low sunshine, at the shoreline. One of the cottages at Achateny is just visible in the distance, and the hills behind it, in the shadow of the clouds, are part of the 'great eucrite'.

A tall stack beside the path at Kilmory beach.

A megablock is a very large chunk of rock which has been displaced by a high energy debris flows from a higher level, and dumped with vast amounts of other rock to produce a jumbled mass of distorted and displaced rock fragments. This block measures about 25 metres by 35 metres, and is made up of beds of calcareous sandstone tipped up on end so that the beds are vertical instead of horizontal. Just imagine the forces involved in moving something this size from its original location! The shadows are those of admiring geologists, but it won't be long before there will need to be a work party to strip off the seaweed so that the corduroy-like texture of the block can continue to be admired. For the reciprocal view see NM5270 : Megablock from the west

Saltmarsh above high tide mark, and rocks colonised by channel wrack just below high tide mark. The hills are part of the exterior of the 'great eucrite'.

The tide is making its way into the embayments on the rocky shore near Achateny. In the distance is the Isle of Eigg, with the Isle of Rùm beyond it.

A megablock is a very large chunk of rock which has been displaced by a high energy debris flows from a higher level, and dumped with vast amounts of other rock to produce a jumbled mass of distorted and displaced rock fragments. This block measures about 25 metres by 35 metres, and is made up of beds of calcareous sandstone tipped up on end so that the beds are vertical instead of horizontal. Just imagine the forces involved in moving something this size from its original location! The sunlight glinting through the seaweed makes it easier to see the vertical beds than in NM5270 : Megablock from the east.

Port Bàn means 'white port' or 'pale port' and presumably takes its name from pale sand. It is protected from the north-east by this wave-cut platform of rocks of the Achateny Breccia. In the background are hills which are part of the outer 'great eucrite'.

The only land in this square is a few tens of square metres of mostly intertidal rocks. They are part of the interesting-looking Achateny Breccia, but no matter how interesting, a rising tide is not the time to examine them!

This corner of the square contains just a small area of rocks which are mostly below water at high tide. They belong to the Achateny Breccia, and a quick glance suggested that there might be interesting things to see. The tide, however, was rising, so a hasty retreat was called for as soon as this photograph was in the bag.

This wave-cut platform is cut by a resistant dyke which is the obvious line of black rock crossing from lower right to upper left.