Invergordon Tank Farm

Sol and I went on a cycle today. We went to do a 10 miler but then decided to go up the hill at Inchindown to find the 'secret bunkers' in the hillside.
It was a steep climb.

but the views were nice.

We soon found the first entrance.

and used the flash on the camera to see what was inside.

There was a great echo and a nasty smell of oil inside.


I must admit I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of these hillside bunkers was but it was something to do with the tanks in Invergordon. You can read an interesting account of one of them being bombed in WW2 here. The bombing of tank 13.

Wild Wild West

First of all apologies for any grammatical or spelkling errors.. I have just had a lovely barbecue, a bottle of wine and a large Cointreu and Esprsesso. thanks to Mary and Roger.
Had a nice few days camping in Clachtoll and then a days climbing at Gruinard.
Clachtoll is lovely. We first visited in 2006 and the kids had a ball.

This time I had apirations of doing some climbing. Split rock was a real posasiblitty.

... but jeez, a really tricky ledge from the headland and then a tidal gap followed by a scaramble just to getto the climb. A wee bit too much for the kids. Saunders and I managed to get to the base of split rock on the reccy and then gave up.
The next day I went soloing severalother insifnificant but none the less quite interesting wee climbs all within walking distance of the campsite.

View from crags back down tocampsite and split rock.

Whilst the kids had a laff on the beach AGAIN !

Then we managed some climbing a few days later at Gruinard. Now never mind the Anthrax.

We did a coupleof climbs Flaky Wall 15m VD.

and Small But Perfectly Formed * 25m VD.

 Then we spent a wee while on the beacj before heasding home, ooch time for a wee dram then TDF high;lights and bed...

Reiffer Madness

After many weeks almost going, when the weather has been very nice thank you very much, we were organised enough to head for Reiff for a bit of climbing.

We had picked a a few climbs suitable for me and the kids. The forecast wasn't too good, 25mph winds and  heavy rain showers, but we decided to chance it. I didn't bother checking the tide as the guidebook Scottish Rock Volume 2 North describes it as non tidal. We drove through a few showers on the way but they really weren't too bad. I thought the fresh wind would help to keep the cliffs dry. When we parked up the wee man saw huge breaker rising up against the cliffs across the field !

Not a great photo, tha camera is fairly basic but waterproof :) The waves were breaking as high as the cliff face as seen from our parking spot.
We crossed the fence and headed across the field, leaving the troops in the wee stone structure I went down to investigate.
The way around to the pinnacle from the north was being regularly swept with swell.

I checked around the other side.

It wasn't good, the Pinnacle and some of our bloody climbs was being soaked with spray.

The base of the slab with our other climbs was being lapped by the swell, it just wasn't safe for the kids to descend and stand about in close proximity to the angry sea.

The females in the party were not up to abseil in down "Descent route" we shrugged and made our way home.
Later... I checked the tides and found that high tide was 1211 BST, we were there at 1130, although it appears to have been a neap tide !
Maybe we'll get another day in the upcoming holidays although the wife isn't keen on the drive.