Walking Loch Creran

Barcaldine-based maker, creator and writer Mairi Stones has already made a start from the Isle of Eriska, on what will be her third time walking the loch.

Ten years ago it was a way of ’walking’ back to health after being struck down by a chronic fatigue illness, her second attempt had to be abandoned because of Covid but now she is back.

"The dots have all joined up. The time is right for me to re-start this journey which I hope will help protect the loch and as well as highlight the harm that is being done to it - also show that we can do good and how amazing what we have on our doorstep is. It’s definitely more of a project this time," said Mairi who is a member of Friends of Loch Creran and has been invited to join a new watchdog group keeping a close eye on it.

"Except for stopping dredging and anchoring, as far as I know there’s been no other actions to protect the protected status of the loch. There are a lot of industries around the loch. I don’t know what all the problems are yet but I will encounter them as I go round and I will be describing what I find in my blogs," she said.

Mairi has been an activist most of her life "shouting into the world"  but this project is focused right here on her own doorstep. "A lot of what’s happening in the loch is happening globally anyway. The loch is not being protected, it is such a special place in so many ways including its rare reefs - it is beautiful

Mairi is walking every bit of the shoreline - over rocks, boulders, seaweed - there is no path or track to follow - and the plan is to break it up into 12 walks - once a month.

On her first walk round the Isle of Eriska, she found an invasive type of seaweed, then came the inevitable plastic: "I know as i go further round I will find more of the same and different pollution. My question is ’Really? Are we letting this happen?"

She will also be leaving a piece of her own art work at a hidden, for now, spot on each of the walks.

Her art is all natural and will do no harm to nature where it is left to disintegrate in the outdoors. She has made felt pods, dyed with natural pigments and inside each one is contained a message on handmade paper displaying a quote pertinent to the wild world itself.

Mairi’s current bedtime reading is a book written by W Anderson-Smith, recording by month what he saw and experiences he had monthly between 1881 and 1883.

"There’s a vibrancy of wildlife he describes that I’m not sure I’m seeing as still being there. They were skate fishing, a shoal of herring came into the loch and there were porpoises - I’ve not seen that yet but who knows?"