In and Around Ardentrive Cottage

Saturday, October 22, 2016 ~ by Amy

Ardentrive Cottage and farm has been around a long time. The walls are thick...windowsills are 18”-24” deep! It sits at the northeast end of the Isle of Kerrera. From up on the hill you stand with your back to the Kerrera Sound and look out beyond the land to the Firth of Loin.

Ardentrive Farm with Firth of Loin in the distance

Our hosts didn't supply much information about the cottage so I found a little on the internet. “James Cameron married Jane Keddie on 8 June 1835, and they spent the first years of their married life at Peebles, Scotland. Subsequently they lived at "Ardentrive", a free farm, which James bought in 1843, on the Island of Kerrera, opposite Oban, Argyllshire. James stocked his farm at Ardentrive with some very fine cattle, for which he was noted. Sadly, in 1850, he was caught in a storm, and took a chill from which he died. Jane Cameron died at Ardentrive in 1856.” I didn't find anything about when it was built. Ardentrive is one of nine farms on the island and the island population is 35-45, depending on your sources. We were told that three babies have been born recently.

  

View from the other side ~ Little Horseshoe Bay in the Kerrera Sound

Our hosts, Isla and Loui have no children but Isla's brother, wife and children live in the house. Isla is from a family of 8. She is a seamstress and works in primarily in home textiles in Oban. Loui builds slips (cement boat ramps) all around Scotland. Together they have been working on fixing up the original 4 bedroom cottage (where we've been staying) and the house (an attached, somewhat more recent addition) where they live. 

Original cottage in foreground, attached house behind

Parlour window

One of Isla's sisters owns the sheep and cattle that run on the farm. There are quite a few other family members about that may live in the main house, including the guy in the yellow wellies that sent us off in the wrong direction.  There are also lots of farm critters that Alyssa enjoyed playing with...three dogs, a turkey, ducks, bunnies, peacock and hens, and more.

Alyssa playing fetch with the dogs

Friendly farm ducks

What animal doesn't Alyssa love?

One of the many outbuildings 

When I first looked into booking this Airbnb, I knew that I couldn't take my car onto the island. I pictured getting onto a cute, white-painted ferry and cruising across to a tidy little dock on the other side. Then I would walk up a clean sidewalk to a house. If I wanted a latte or some fresh fruit, surely I could just jump back on the ferry. It's not actually like that. As I wrote in my previous post, the ferry master has decided to run things his way. Within reason, he still runs every-other hour for those who live in the nine residences on the island but everyone else is somewhat at his mercy. Most of the farms on the island that we walked past seem to have vehicles..tractors, quads and especially Land Rovers. They all got there by ferry.

Much of the return walk from the Gylen Castle that Alyssa wrote about was a gentle downhill so we made pretty good time. Still, by the time we were about ½ mile from the southern ferry dock it was dusk. Our little trac phone rang in Alyssa's pocket. It was Loui, checking to be sure we'd made it back okay. The final leg of our journey would be a single animal track along the east coast of the island. The guy wearing yellow wellies was afraid that we would fall in the bogs there but Loui seemed to think we'd be fine. “A wee bit of light left”, he said. Minutes later, he called back and said that he'd hooked up with someone with a yacht and they would meet us at the ferry dock. We practically sprinted and were there waiting when the boat pulled into the dock. The owner of the boat (not exactly a yacht, more of a small sailboat, had made a run to Oban to bring Isla and Luis home from work. There were several on board and they happily welcomed us.  When I apologized for the need to be "rescued" they laughed and said that they were happy to do it as it gave them something to do. A box of merlot and case of beer flowed freely, being Friday night. The captain of the boat was down in the tiny galley stirring up something amazing with the aroma of sauted garlic floating up our way. Alyssa and I were damp from our walk. I held Mavis, their tiny chihuahua, for warmth and Alyssa sat on the other side, trying to keep her jacket from burning on the little heater that they set beside her. We were aching to get back to our cold house but they wanted to make it a party. As we cruised north to the “home” ferry landing, one of the louder members of the gang tried to get into as much controversial discussion as possible. When I said that I was a Christian and didn't believe in abortion, he fairly blew up but said that the ride was too short to prove how wrong I was. Finally at the dock, it took us another hour before Isla, Mavis and Loui (with his flashlight app) escorted us to the cottage. He'd gone up previously to start our fire, but it had died so he restarted it. They returned to eat their gourmet dinner on the boat and we opened cans of soup.

We were booked for just two nights here but feeling rather exhausted last night and not up to a long drive today, we requested another night here and forfeited our stay on the Isle of Skye. We spent most of today washing our clothes and hanging them over chairs to dry. We both tried numerous times to get the coal fire going but couldn't manage it, even burning up our egg carton. So we had to rely on our little room heaters and the parlour heater. I was so frustrated because I've always been rather proud of my fire-starting abilities. Finally this evening Loui said he'd drop off some more fire starters for us and brought a whole box of paraffin sticks. I couldn't believe it..no wonder he started it so easily! Now we are cozy warm and our clothes look like they may be dry by morning. So glad!

On our walk about the farm today we came across this big fella.  We decided to give him some space and climbed the hill.

When we got to the top, the bull's hoof prints were all over!  Hard to believe he could climb it.

Tomorrow morning we will pack up and get escorted to the ferry. Loui promised to draw me a paper map so that we can find our car on the other side. He says that it's only a ten minute walk.