Saturday 17 May 2014

Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Near as I can figure it, through the possibly flawed perceptual filters of my own reality tunnel, the most likely answers this week, seem to me to be:

Q1. Tiree


Q2. The Treshnish Isles


The initial (huge giveaway) clues seem to place us on the beautiful island of Tiree, in the eileanan a-staigh, or inner Hebrides. The OS map shows one lighthouse on the island, at the harbour and from the photographs, it looks to be around thirty six feet of so high. I could not find any references to a children's TV program shot on location in Tiree, back in the seventies but the satellite pictures show a golf ball radar station at a point called Carnan Mor, on Ben Hynish, which is marked as 141 metres (436ft) on the OS map. There do not appear to be any A roads on the maps of the island I looked at but there are phone symbols shown on the OS map. 

I found several references which claim that Tiree airport opened in 1935 and it is built on an area of Machair (fertile soil which is a mixture of peat and crushed seashells), called 'The Reef'. Some of the tourist blurb also claims that Tiree is one of the sunniest places in the UK and the puzzle author is likely standing on a beach called Traigh Bhi, on the south western end of the island. A lighthouse which lies 12 miles or so south west of Tiree, is the Skerryvore light, which some sources claim, was built c 1844 and is around 156ft in height.

The Dutchman's Cap or Bac Mor, is an island which lies 18 miles or so to the east of Tiree, in an archipelago called the Treshnish isles. The OS map shows the highest point on Bac Mor to be 86 metres (282 feet) in height.

Travelling five miles south east from Bac Mor, would bring us to an 82 acre national nature reserve, called Staffa. Here lies Fingal's Cave, made famous by Felix Mendelssohn, who wrote a musical overture about it (Hebrides Overture), following his visit in 1829. The poet who wrote the lines "mighty waters play/Hollow organs all day", was John Keats (the poem is called 'Staffa').

1 comment:

  1. Apparently, the authoress and broadcaster, Elizabeth Dodd MBE (1909 -1989) wrote novels under the name of Lavinia Derwent about an island called Sula which later featured in a film. It is believed that the film location may have been on Tiree. The novels were: Sula (1969), Return to Sula (1971), The Boy From Sula (1973) and Song of Sula (1976). The Boy from Sula appears to feature the adventures of Magnus Macduff along with his companions, one of whom is known as Old Whiskers, a seal. In the 1970s, it is understood that Lavinia may also presented the television series Teatime Tales on STV in which she recollected stories from her own childhood.

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