Planners!!! and Cobblers

Which to consider first?

Planners refers to the personal opinion of one of the Highland Council's planners, and our case officer, which means that we are having to reconsider the larch shingles that we were going to clad the house with. The good news - all other aspects of the house design, site layout, access road etc are fine. It's just that this particular planner doesn't like larch / shingles. As we are more concerned with the inside of the house this is not a major set back but it seems wrong that one individual's personal opinion can delay approval. No, there is no problem with failing to meet the considerations of the local plan, no we are not in breach of any regulation, simple fact is that we could appeal and win. Do we have the will, cash, appetite to do this - no we don't. We just want to get on with it.


So, Ian from Dualchas has been very quickly back to the drawing board and sends us some options. He is suggesting a "corrugated" material that would make the house look like many of the original buildings in this part of Skye. (agricultural sheds and crofts) We consider this but, while we like it for the roof, not sure about the whole house. Settle on a corrugated roof with - wait for it - larch cladding (not shingles) on the walls and gable ends. Will still look very clean and modern and will still be clad in wood. There is a good example of the style we are talking about on the Dualchas website. http://www.dualchas.com/index.php/Private-Residential/Boreraig-Isle-of-Skye.html
We will be keeping the colours neutral, grey roof like the one at Boreraig above and the wood cladding will eventually fade to a gentle silvered colour.  Quite happy with this but more than a little irritated by the delay. We are now a week past the stated decision date. Ian is confident that he will get a positive decision out of the planner this week. 

Cobblers - a bit of poetic license with Ben Arthur AKA The Cobbler, which we climbed last Sunday. Fellow posters on Walkhighlands suggested this as a good mountain to tackle after Ben Lomond. Took their advice and enjoyed a tough but interesting day on the hill. This is yet another popular mountain so we were off bright and early and eating breakfast in the car park at Arrochar by 09.00. A large sign told us we had to pay & display (previously free) but it was the grand sum of £1 for the whole day - bargain.

This walk starts off on easy zig-zags up through the forest. The zigs and zags getting steeper with every turn. Good views back to Ben Lomond and down Loch Long.    

View of Loch Long - very still at this point in the day

Ben Lomond - our route from last week can be clearly seen

Carried on up until we emerged from the trees and got our first view of The Cobbler and Ben Narnain.

Distinctive shape of our destination. Fellow walker in red on the path.

The path was busy with a variety of people in a variety of clothing. We could see the weather closing in ahead. We decided to stop by the famous Narnain Boulders, which are huge rocks in the middle of the path. As we enjoyed our coffee, the threatened weather arrived. Not rain, not sleet, not hail (more of that later) but huge great snowflakes. It was like being inside one of those snow domes where you shake the glass bubble and the snow swirls around. We walked on with the snow being blown straight into our faces - cool!

Snowstorm in May

Arrived at what looked like a small lochain on the map but turned out to be a damp hollow in reality. We could see all the way down to the rest and be thankful car park. You may have heard of this stretch of road as it has been mostly closed due to rockfall recently. (The detour was something like 47 miles) Anyway, all open again and quite busy. We also spied out the route onwards to Ben Ime. This is a steep old Munro.

This was where the path splits and our way went left and up, up, up a very steep staircase. If you have seen Lord of the Rings and the stair to Shelob's lair, it was a more airy version of this. Despite the number of people out and about, they all dispersed here and we climbed alone apart from a very fit young lady who passed us easily and disappeared from view. We finally rounded the shoulder and could see the summit above. 

The path became much more eroded here but was no problem. Stopped at a col for the view straight back down towards Loch Long. Steep. We both thought the path leading away from here was our return route, didn't fancy it so agreed we would just retrace our steps. 

Reached the fairly small summit plateau - although the "real" summit rock is reached by "threading the needle" and climbing up onto the sloping, polished rocks above with a very close view of the sheer drop beyond. The needle is a small hole in the rocks that you squeeze through before hauling yourself up onto the final even smaller summit. Decided this wasn't for us and watched a few valiantly threading, though no-one tried the final few steps.


A cold wind was blowing so we found shelter away from the crowds and ate our lunch in peace and quiet. Ventured above the shelter of the rocks for some dramatic photos of the surrounding mountains and lochs. We could see for miles and miles. 

View towards Arran

The actual summit rocks on the left in profile. Sheer drop below.

Ben Ime and weather heading towards us - time to go

 What we could also see was the weather deteriorating again so packed up and headed back to the col. During lunch we had watched as many people popped up from just beyond the col. When we got there, we could see the huge great cairn marking the top of the real descent path we had plotted. It looked OK at the top with stairs carved from the rock and there were kids, dogs and poorly clad teenagers coming up so we decided that we would go down that way.


By now the hail had started in earnest. Polystyrene type balls of ice which clumped together and made the rocks slippy and tricky. The path down became a rocky scramble within about 15 steps of the top. We continued down carefully, negotiating a few very steep gullies. Found a bypass path for one but the only way down a couple of them was to sit and slide. Luckily Gary's legs are much longer than mine and he was able to go first and steady my slide down!


Several of those coming up looked taken aback by how steep and scrambly it was and some had to lift their dogs up the gullies. We descended reasonable quickly, passing a couple who looked terrified and were moving very slowly indeed. The rocks were wet and icy in places so I suppose better to be slow and safe. As always just when you think you've made it down safely, a final scramble down a stream bed got us to what was, in comparison, a motorway of a track. No wonder some of those coming up looked shocked - led along a nice, surfaced path then here's the mountain as nature intended. Decided we would go up this way in the future and come back down the stairs. Once we are much fitter, we could carry on to Ben Narnain and down over the ridge. Would be quite a lot of height to regain and a couple of extra miles. One for later then.


Picked up the main track back past the boulders and into the trees again. We had spied a perfect bench for our last cup of coffee and raced others on the track until we reached it and bagged it. No-one else knew what we were doing but as we settled ourselves on the (wet) seat, a group of four arrived looking slightly miffed that the seat was taken. Ha.

Returned to the car, changed into clean dry clothes and drove home. The next day both of us were suffering from "lowerer's arm" Shoulders and arms aching from lowering ourselves and our rucsacks down the hill.   

Yesterday (Saturday) we headed to Glasgow for some retail therapy. Very enjoyable and how nice to rediscover John Lewis again. Travelled by train direct from Alloa - very easy journey straight to the shops. Will be back for stocking up on stuff before we move to Skye.

Next weekend is the home building show at the SEC in Glasgow. We have complimentary tickets and a large list of must-sees / questions to ask. Could be a tiring one but it will allow us to make some decisions about the house and how it will be built. 

Then, if all has gone well with the planners, we will be off to Skye to meet with Ian and do the detailed work on the specification sheets. Hoping to call in at our solicitors in Fort William on the way back to sign the papers and complete the sale. 


Watch this space.