Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Very entertaining this week and a little tricky as some of the acreages and hectarages of the islands involved vary depending upon which sources you check. Near as I can figure it, the answers which seem to me most likely are:

Q1: Luing

Q2: Kay Kendall

(NB for question one, the size of Luing island in hectares is quoted in some references as 1430 and in others as 1543, which gives acreages of 3533 and 3813 respectively. The acreage for Seil island is given in one source as 3289, so they are similar in size, however it is the highest point at 94 metres clue, which indicates the answer is likely to be Luing )

I'm not sure what the "Lend me a dollar" quote refers to but from the initial clues given, I'd say that the author and his travelling companion are standing on the Clachan bridge, which spans the Clachan sound, on the northern end of Seil island, in the Argyll and Bute region. The bridge, according to some sources, was designed by Thomas Telford and constructed by an engineer called Robert Mylne c1792. It became known as the 'Bridge Over the Atlantic' and has a span of around 72 feet.

The highest point on Seil island (according to Ordnance Survey) is Meall a Chaise at 146 metres or approximately 479 feet, which rules that out as the location of the 'pretty island'. The highest point on the nearby Luing island, again according to OS, is Cnoc Dhomhnuill at 94 metres or around 308 feet, which puts this insel in the frame as a candidate for the answer to question one.

Approximately two miles south of the Clachan bridge lies Ardmaddy castle, which is famous for, among other things, its Rhododendron gardens. Travelling northeast from the bridge brings us to an inlet called Loch Feochan, which does look to be around four miles long and has a road which tracks along its southern shore. The Argyll and Bute district was the location for the films "A Ring of Bright Water" (civil servant with a strange pet, (an otter) c1969) and "Enigma" (c2001). I found a reference which says that a scene from "Enigma" featured a house in the locale called "Tigh Beg Croft". The road does turn north at the end of the Inlet and it carries us to a town called Oban, (the distance looks to be around four miles on some of my maps but again, the author may be measuring the distance using the car odometer) where an actress called "Kay Kendall" (b 1927) went to school (St Margaret's convent school). Some of the biographies I read on Kay Kendall state that she was in a film called "Les Girls" (c1957). The poor woman, god help her, died from Myeloid leukemia at the young age of 32 (c1959). Shortly before her untimely demise, she became involved with the actor Rex Harrison, who according to some sources, left his wife to take care of her.

The Callander and Oban railway was authorised c1865 but didn't actually reach the town of Oban until 1880. A mile in the westerly direction across the sound, lies the island of Kerrera, highest point at around 189 metres or 620  feet , the hill of Carn Breugach. Around four and a half miles to the northwest of Kerrera, lies the Lismore lighthouse, which is not actually on Lismore but was built on Eilean Musdile by Robert Stevenson c1833 and is reckoned to be around 26 metres or 85 feet in height. There is another lighthouse on Lady's rock very close by but I couldn't find any information on its dimensions or construction dates, however the Lismore lighthouse seems to match the clues. A king who died on Kerrera, who's father was William the Lion, was Alexander II of Scotland. Alexander II was a psychopath and by all accounts he murdered a baby girl, the daughter of a rival for the throne, by getting his goon squad, to bash her brains out on a rock ( The Eastender was raging when he read this and thinks someone should have altered this royal bampot's parameters of absolute reality, with an anachronistic Claymore (Claymores are though to be 15th century weapons, Alexander II died c1249), long before the fever killed him on Kerrera). There is a ferry to Kerrera, marked on some maps as being situated a few miles south west of Oban.

Link to the competition:

Sunday Times Where Was I? Competition