I had a holiday in Cornwall some years ago and the memory I have is one of "give us your money and f*ck off".
My best childhood holiday was at Loch Etive about 35 years ago. I've got no surviving pictures but I'm pretty sure this is the spot. Dail it was called. Or Dail Bagh. We stayed at a little wooden cabin on the edge of the Loch about halfway round the lefthand shore between the old jetty and the trees as seen in this picture. It was owned by some arty friends of my mother's and they gave us the keys for fortnight. No electricity or running water, no neighbours, cars or tourists, just a gas stove, gas lights, and a 10' rowing boat for transport and a shed full of fishing rods. There was no road to the cabin. The car was left about a mile away and we had to walk up the beach and row our stuff round in the boat. The jetty was usable then and once a week a boat came with supplies from Taynuilt. I was 12 and spent two weeks roaming about on my own boating fishing and swimming. It was magical. I never wanted to leave. I hope the place is still there and still as unspoilt.
Don't think so Fin. It was very similar but smaller and I remember it as being all wooden and covered with shingles. There was a single chimney on the left hand gable as you look at it. But the general aspect is almost identical. The garden was a little grassy patch carved out of the bracken, there were Alder trees around it and a little burn running past the gate. It was pretty dilapidated even then. I do remember a Dail Cottage though. http://www.british-coast-maps.com/map-loch-etive.jpg Zoom in on this and I'm sure your cottage is the property marked Dial on the map next to Bagh na Dalach which I remember as a fairly substantial water way. I'm sure our cabin was to the west of this inlet, about halfway between Dial and what is marked as sch (school presumably). That place was a holiday house and occupied at the time by a chap who owned a fishing shop in Bath. I'm sure his surname was Parks, he chained smoked Vanguard cigarettes and we become great mates. He showed me all the best fishing spots and taught me how to troll for Pollock (he said the locals called them Fife) from the boat round the headland at Barr. The largest I caught was about 5 lb which I thought was huge. And we caught sea trout using a bubble float. Blimey this is bringing back some memories..
@Gimlet,i fish regularly on lochetiv i was asking a mate about it today who knows it better, the house you describe sounds like the bothy he and his family stay in every now and then,theres not many hoses down that side past bonawe. @Mr.R yip cornwall is a cracking place,many a childhood holiday spent there, when ever i am down we stay in moorganpoarth i see in the news there was a bit of a tragedy there last month. lovely part of the world,the locals where pretty cool also.
Got relatives in Cornwall, Penzance , newbridge, newlyn and mousehole. Beautiful part of the world spent all my summers there. My uncle is a fisherman out if newlyn and wears a t shirt during the summer that says 'if it's tourist season, how come we can't shoot them? ' Sums up the attitude to tourists.
I'm sure he's right Fin, which would be why it isn't shown on the map. Though it was certainly in private ownership when we went. It was full of their stuff and furniture. On that shore, as you approach from the west, there was the house I'm calling the school which was a large single story place 2 or 300 yards back from the shore, then about half a mile further on our bothy which was almost on the beach, then Dail Cottage about half a mile to a mile further round again. Directly opposite the bothy as you looked across the Loch there was a substantial two story house on the opposite shore which my fishing buddy told me had only recently been connected to mains electricity at huge expense via overhead power lines on poles. I am assuming that place is Ardmaddy. I know as you looked across the Loch there was Ben Cruachan to the right, which my mate Mr Parks told me meant "the crow" because the mountain looks like a bird with its wings spread, and equidistant to the left, Ben Starav. Its no good. I'm going to have to go back there now and find the place.
