Qualla: Ardnamurchan https://qualla.com/ardnamurchan en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:24 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/5/d/ardnamurchan-wk/hero-small.webp Qualla: Ardnamurchan https://qualla.com/ardnamurchan Ardnamurchan: Introduction https://qualla.com/ardnamurchan/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. From above, the secret of Ardnamurchan is obvious: a great circle scored into the land near its western tip, concentric rings of rock arcing across the heath. This is the eroded heart of a volcano that erupted around 60 million years ago, when the crust between Europe and Greenland was tearing apart. The cone and its caldera are long gone, ground away by ice and weather, but the harder rock of its ring dykes survived as raised arcs, and geologists regard the Ardnamurchan complex as the finest example of nested ring dykes anywhere on Earth. On the ground you do not see the circle. You see a long, winding single-track lane running west to the most remote corner of mainland Britain.

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Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/5/d/ardnamurchan-wk/gf5d-ardnamurchan-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Ardnamurchan: Headland of the Great Seas https://qualla.com/ardnamurchan/ Photo credit Melissa Highton, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Gaelic name, Àird nam Murchan, means "headland of the great seas," and the land lives up to it. For visitors the name covers the whole triangle west of Loch Linnhe and north of the Sound of Mull, taking in Moidart, Sunart, Ardgour, and Morvern as well as the western tip that ...

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Image: Melissa Highton | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/5/d/ardnamurchan-wk/gf5d-ardnamurchan-headland-of-the-great-seas.mp3 0:06 2 full Ardnamurchan: The Village That Named an Element https://qualla.com/ardnamurchan/ Photo credit Mark Anderson, CC BY-SA 2.0. Strontian is a tiny village near the center of the peninsula, and it gave its name to one of the elements. In 1790, in the lead mines above the village, a new mineral turned up, and when chemists burned a sample it flared a vivid crimson-red. They named the mineral strontianite a...

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Image: Mark Anderson | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/5/d/ardnamurchan-wk/gf5d-ardnamurchan-the-village-that-named-an-element.mp3 0:06 3 full Ardnamurchan: The Last of the Atlantic Oakwoods https://qualla.com/ardnamurchan/ Photo credit Philippe Giabbanelli, CC BY-SA 3.0. North of Strontian, in a glen, survives something rare: an Atlantic oakwood. Forests like this once carpeted Europe's western seaboard from Norway to Portugal, thriving in the soft, wet, mild air the Gulf Stream delivers. Ariundle is one of the few good remnants left in Scotland,...

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Image: Philippe Giabbanelli | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/5/d/ardnamurchan-wk/gf5d-ardnamurchan-the-last-of-the-atlantic-oakwoods.mp3 0:06 4 full Ardnamurchan: Stones of Memory https://qualla.com/ardnamurchan/ Photo credit Kognos, CC BY-SA 4.0. Ardnamurchan's emptiness was made, not found. On a tidal island in Loch Moidart stand the ruins of Castle Tioram, a stronghold of Clan Ranald burned out during the 1715 uprising; its name means "dry," and at low tide you can walk out to it, though not for long. Inland, the abando...

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Image: Kognos | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/5/d/ardnamurchan-wk/gf5d-ardnamurchan-stones-of-memory.mp3 0:06 5 full Ardnamurchan: Land's End, Quietly https://qualla.com/ardnamurchan/ Photo credit Sionnach1, CC BY-SA 3.0. Half a mile south of the Ardnamurchan lighthouse lies Corrachadh Mòr, the most westerly point of the British mainland. There is no fanfare, no visitor center, just rough going over the heath and then the rock and the open Atlantic, with the Small Isles and Skye rising blue on the...

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Image: Sionnach1 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/5/d/ardnamurchan-wk/gf5d-ardnamurchan-lands-end-quietly.mp3 0:06 6 full