Kildavie and Langamull Beach

Today we've travelled from Edinburgh to the Isle of Mull for a long weekend. I feel like I'd been behind the wheel forever, and although it's a very wet and very windy late afternoon, I'm out for a wee stretch of the legs and my first little exploration on Mull.

There's a small car park off the B8073 between Dervaig and Calgary. From here I'm heading to the north on forestry tracks. There's tree felling work in progress here with great piles of logs on the sides of the track,   acres of stumps and stripped branches on the ground. The rain is falling and there's a strong wind behind me at the moment, I'm feeling good. After a few minutes I reach the end of the forestry track and I've no choice but to stumble over the acres of stripped branches. This doesn't feel so good but soon I reach a clear area with the ruins of the old (perhaps ancient) village of Kildavie.

Today I start from the car park on forestry roads ...

... there's tree felling work in progress here.

I've reached the end of the road and I have to stumble across this stuff ...

... to the clearing where we find the remains of the village Kildavie

There's a pretty little stream flowing past Kildavie in the general direction I want, so I'm happily running along the edge until the way forward is blocked by felled trees. I have some more stumbling until I reach a small area of more natural woodland. Now sharp branches are dense and stumbling is replaced with crawling until I reach a fence and tracks on the other side. This is a deer fence, tall and weak, I cannot get over, so more crawling until I  find a point strong enough to clamber over, and onto the track at last hallelulijah.

Some runnable track at last ...

... soon leads to lovely running terrain.

I'm happy running down toward the coast now and it seems like no time at all before I reach Langamull Beach. It's a pretty place, white sand formed from sea shells, and black rock. I seem to have acquired a smudge on the lens of the camera, but I'll plough on with the photo-blog anyway today.

Langamull Beach

Liking the coastal running thing now 

Black rocks ...

... and white sands.

Despite the earlier stumbling and crawling I've a little spare time so I decide to run along the headland to the east for a while, and then head back toward the south of the forestry on rough ground, through the orange/brown of the dead bracken. I reach a wide stream with slippery stepping stones ... luckily I do not end up in the water. I'm soon back on the tracks, the wind has picked up a lot, and it's right into my face, this is hard work now. I'm back onto the forest traks and more tall piles of logs. Just a few hundred metres from the car park there are warning signs telling not to go where I've just been ... oh well!

Headland to the east of Langamull Beach

Wonderful rough ground on return

Slippery steeping stones

More tree felling work here

Warning, warning, don't go here  ;-)

This was an alright run today, good to explore somewhere new, and a beautiful beach. Not so good the stumbling over brances of trunks stripped in the forestry works, and likewise the crawling through woodland. The head wind on return was very hard work, but, hey ho, good exercise, and variety is the spice of life. I went out to exercise the legs after hours of driving, and for sure the lags have been exercised. I've done about 8km this afternoon, a small climb of about 150m, running and stumbling and crawling for just under an hour. I feel so much better now than I did getting out from behind the wheel a couple of hours ago this afternoon.

Enjoy!