GLENELG AND SANDAIG

Many towns and villages in Britain have twins in other countries, for example my home town of Penzance is twinned with Concarneau in Brittany. Glenelg, however, has gone one better by being twinned with a location on Mars! The space rover Curiosity is currently sending back images of a rocky valley which scientists have called Glenelg - although the name has been chosen for a geographical feature in Canada, rather than the Scottish Glenelg. Glenelg is a village located on the bay of the same name with views across to Skye. The village has a range of accommodation from the acclaimed Glenelg Inn to a campsite, and there is a summer ferry service between here and Skye. Just outside Glenelg lie the ruins of Bernera Barracks, built by the English after the Jacobite uprising. The barracks are fenced off for safety reasons. Near the village are the brochs, or Iron Age settlements, of Dun Troddan and Dun Telve. The latter is the best preserved broch in mainland Scotland, with a 10m external wall. Three and a half miles from Glenelg is Sandaig, where the author Gavin Maxwell lived with his otters. The house where he lived was sadly burnt down in 1968, but there are memorial stones to Maxwell himself and to his pet otter Edal.

Map of the area.

Old Dock, Glenelg - geograph.org.uk - 600932. Photo by sylvia duckworth, via Wikimedia Commons.