Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Curses! Mr Fautley has finally got one over on the Eastender Himself with his obscure nacht und nebel furniture question last week, it was a fifty fifty shot between Ebenezer Gomme  and Lucian Ercolani, both had brands which were household names in the fifties, yours truly took a punt on the wrong one. However, he will not beat me this week. Near as I can figure it, the most likely answers are:


Q1.  Beinn Tangabhal (Ben Tangaval in English)


Q2. The Annie Jane

From the initial clues given, the author appears to be near Kisimul castle (c 15 century), on the beautiful island of Barra. The castle is built on a rocky island in Castle bay ( a natural moat hundreds of yards across). Barra may be named after a sixth century saint called Fionbarra or St Finbarr (feast day 25th September).

Going northwest from the junction leads to a tower on loch Tangasdail called Dun Mic Leoid, castle Sinclair, Ian Garbh's Castle or An Casteil depending on your preference. A little further on from there lies the 'Isle of Barra' hotel (not too sure what records it has set). Turning south west at the junction takes us past Beinn Tangabhal, which ordnance survey say is 332 metres or 1089 feet high.

From the next set of clues given, it looks like the author is heading to Vatersay, which can be reached by a causeway. I found several references which claim that around 200,000 tonnes of rock were used in its construction. Back in the early twentieth century and late nineteenth century a lot of ethnic cleansing and land grabbing was going on in that part of the world. Some of the islanders decided to invoke an ancient law which stated that if you could build a thatched house and light a fire in its hearth in a day, you could keep the land. A small group of people, who became known as 'The Vatersay Raiders' tried this experiment around 1906 and frightened the sociopathic absentee landlord oligarchy of the time so badly, that they had to cut a deal to let them have a bit of property to croft on, when some of them were released from jail.

A ship called the Annie Jane hit a reef near Bagh Siar (West Bay)  on Vatersay in September 1853, it had been bound for Montreal in Quebec before getting into trouble and some of the references show that around 350 men women and children perished in the wreck and are buried on the Isthmus, which has dunes on either side of it. There is a memorial to the victims in the form of an obelisk on the west side of the road and a stone cairn. It seems that only a quarter of the people on the Annie Jane survived the incident.