IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Lower Ardelve, KYLE, IV40 8DR

A small site with basic facilities and a wonderful view.

This old digger, which by the shape of the tractor looks like a Fordson, has seen better days - rather like the photographer.

Although I have stated that this cottage is on Loch Duich this bit of the pebble beach might actually be the beginning of the banks of Loch Alsh. The sea loch changes its name at some indeterminate point about here when its direction near enough follows a 90° bend. Loch Alsh is the bit nearest the sea. A large proportion of the properties round here are either bed and breakfasts or self-catering. This one was obviously self-catering, and is part of a small collection of houses that make up Lower Ardelve. The houses round here are a strange mix of older ones, which go from fairly dilapidated to very well-maintained, and newer ones, which sometimes blend in but at other times are obviously designed to make a status statement! So it is quite common to see a showy newbuild next to a very functional home with a corrugated metal roof which could easily be mistaken for a scout hut. The seaweed on the beech is a type of egg-wrack. Unlike most seaweeds it doesn't attach itself to pebbles on the beach or seabed. It just floats when the tide comes in. The big length of seaweed in the picture is actually formed from hundreds of individual plants, mostly around two feet long. This type of free-floating egg-wrack can be found at various locations on the West coast of Scotland but apparently right here is one of its hotspots, so to speak.

This strange little building looks like something from a tale by the brothers Grimm, which maybe is not so surprising as the lady in charge is of German origin. I don't think that folk tales by the brothers Grimm ever included pizzas.

I wonder how long it will be before the houses are loved no more, and modern eco-houses embrace the coastline at Lower Ardelve. I heard that the foreground house had been recently the subject of a sketch for a heritage project

The waters of Loch Duich and Loch Long combine at Ardelve to form Loch Alsh. The view is westwards towards the open sea, but with the hills of the eastern end of Skye blocking the western horizon.