A couple of miles north of Connel is the little resort village of Benderloch. There is a wide sandy beach at Tralee which faces south west across the sea towards Dunstaffnage.
Tralee Beach – not a tourist in sight.
No. There are none in the opposite direction either.
There’s a grand house at one end of things and a boat moored offshore.
Aha. A tourist tests the waters.
A pond in the dunes behind the beach.
Grazing cows at Tralee.
A wild black rabbit digs in the Tralee sand dunes.
In Tralee ‘village’ we came across one of those unexpected delights – a farmers’ market at a poultry breeding farm.
There was nothing intensive about this farm. Good old poultry houses were set in ample grassland. These hens and their mates were truly free range.
Did I say hens? Well make it White Campbell ducks as well.
We arrived at the market area, having walked between poultry runs along paths with suitable names – Chicken Run, Turkey Trot etc. Some were quite witty – but now forgotten. Fancy a bit of Highland Goose? It was there for the tasting.
This was all so unexpected. I suppose Tralee is less than ten miles from Oban, but it seemed remote and yet here we were at a market in the middle of nowhere.
My eyes spotted a miniature railway track out in the garden.
And poultry of all sorts. The owner was doing quite a good trade selling little bags of poultry food to children.
You give hens grass but look at that – they actually quite like mud to scratch in.
I’ll finish with a handsome fellow, even if his tail does need a bit of a sort out.
