snorbens_caleyman

Thank you! Two separate villages, apparently. Whisky country. And there is a connection to Caley - and I do mean just Caley. Though it's not unique to this church.

Well done - that's it! Ben Stack has a very distinctive outline, but nearly all photographs are taken from the north or north-west - which might make you think that I had reversed it, again. But I found this one below, which is labelled "Ben Stack from Meallan Liath Beag", which is about 17km away SE of Ben Stack. It's clear that my Dad was on almost the same bearing from Ben Stack. From the map, I realised that he was much closer, on the high ground to the SE of Loch na Mucnaich at the bottom right of the map below. The 719m peak of Ben Stack is at the top left. On the shore of Lock Stack beside Airdachuilinn, above the centre of the map, is the house where my Dad's uncle and later his cousin stayed when they were head gamekeepers on the estate there. It's an area that he loved.

Might get a few teams moaning about the early start they will have to make.

I am 99+% sure of it. Most modern photographs of this place are from a different angle, but I'm sure that this one this time isn't reversed, if that's what you're getting at Because a) I have seen some modern photos from the same angle, and b) it's from a print, not a transparency. I have also worked out where my father took it from, and it makes sense to me. Not that I can see from the map. Haven't been that way myself for a while.

OK, mountain men, here's one of my Dad's photographs, from 1947. Though I don't think it has changed much... Interesting damage at the top - almost mirrors the mountain.

What's your source? A minute's research tells me that they are about the same.

I find this slightly odd, given that watching a football match is an outdoor activity, and the current thinking is that the risk of passing on the virus outdoors is low. I would have thought that a well-supervised and socially-distanced crowd - which might simply mean spreading out a normal crowd for the Championship and League 1&2 clubs - should be OK. Especially if they are self-policing as well - i.e. calling out anyone who is being stupid. Doofer's Dad posted his message above whilst I was typing this, but I thought I'd give you my tuppence-worth anyway.

Jemimaville!

From that photo, plus the references to Strathconon and Balnaguie on a gravestone in the previous pic, I'd guess that we are on the Black Isle. Where there are many, many churches

Ha! A giveaway. "A concrete barge, the Cretetree is beached in the harbour of the Isle of Scalpay near Tarbert, Harris, Scotland. She was built by Aberdeen Concrete Ships, and completed in 1919." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_ship#Europe Explains why I couldn't get Portree or Tiree out of the letters that I made out

Can't quite make out the name of the boat, if that's what you are referring to. Can make out some letters, but they don't make sense to me. Enhancing with edge detector filters doesn't help. Only one of its kind that you have seen. A whaler?

Looks like no one has

And, though I am sure that you know, my photograph is of the archeological site at the Ness of Brodgar. One of the most important archaeological sites in Europe, if not the world. And it receives no government funding. Criminal. In a normal year it's only open for the three summer months, when the academics and students are "on holiday". And this year it didn't open at all.

Never actually been to that precise spot. But the topography is pretty distinctive, and, using the coastline, I went more or less straight to it on Google Earth. Then confirmed the name of the hill. It got me thinking that the hill might appear in the background of some of my own photographs. Having looked at some online photos of the hill, and checked the direction on Google Earth, I am fairly sure that that's it in the photograph below, behind the people just left of centre. No work done on that site this year - another consequence of the pandemic

Castle Grant, just north of Grantown. Owned in 2012 by Craig Whyte, but (according to Wikipedia) seized by the Bank of Scotland when he refused to make mortgage payments. I'm guessing that there might have been a few photographs of it in the local news at the time. Plenty of photos of it online.

Last clue - the Scottish football connection would have been in the news in 2012.

Nope. You are too far north. There is actually a Scottish football connection from a few years (single figures) back.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Going-Ballistic-Paperback-Ian-S-Broadfoot/303620499354?epid=89238079&hash=item46b131279a:g:9gUAAOSwSmxfCZVa £20.94, free postage. They say they have two available. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Going-Ballistic-Inverness-Caledonian-Thistle/dp/0953124010 7 used, from £20. https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/going-ballistic-inverness-caledonian-thistle-fc-the-first-decade-1994-5-to-2003-4/author/ian-s-broadfoot/ 4 available, from £19.50. There may be some overlap - ie the same vendors could be on more than one of those platforms.

Not sure. My father did manage to get someone out late one night - can't remember if it was from the hotel or not - to open up the pumps and sell us a gallon of petrol. Otherwise we wouldn't have made it home. The Freeburn Hotel at Tomatin. The photgraph below is from 1986. I don't think the place has ever been open to the public, but I think there's a chance that you will know it.

Makes me think of lederhosen - hope they have the shorts and socks to complete the look

Me too - I threw it out not so long ago, when I was tidying up. I just recently came across a few cassettes that I haven't digitised. Including one of my late father's, labelled as "Caley-Thistle merger debate - Sir Robert Cowan". I have no idea what that is! Should still have the tape deck. It's either in the attic or under a bed - unless my wife has been tidying up too

There's no fooling some people! Must try harder...

OK. Altguish Inn between Garve and Ullapool. Sorry for not memorising the previous 50 pages One from 1954 - before my time!

OK, then - Campeltown Loch. I saw enough in the Google pictures to convince me that it wasn't Here's one of my Dad's from 1992.

Thought it might be the place that a popular (?) entertainer once wished was whisky. But, having gone for a walk there with the wee yellow man, I don't think so any more.