Kidmapped

Kidnappedtestboo

kidmapper — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:22:42 +0000

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The Start of the Kidnapped Trail

kidmapper — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 10:45:17 +0000

Shipwrecked On Earraid

kidmapper — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:35:17 +0000

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29th June: Starting On The Beach

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:38:35 +0000

stepping ashore 8

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:45:08 +0000

"To walk by the sea at that hour of the morning, and in a place so desert-like and lonesome, struck me with a kind of fear."

limpet rocks

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:46:32 +0000

"I knew indeed that shell-fish were counted good to eat; and among the rocks of the isle I found a great plenty of limpets"

stepping ashore 7

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:47:49 +0000

"To walk by the sea at that hour of the morning, and in a place so desert-like and lonesome, struck me with a kind of fear."

granite

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:49:39 +0000

"the ruggedest scramble I ever undertook--falling, the whole way, between big blocks of granite, or leaping from one to another"

filming southwards

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:51:19 +0000

"it was all desolate and rocky; nothing living on it but game birds which I lacked the means to kill, and the gulls which haunted the outlying rocks in a prodigious number"

stepping ashore 6

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:52:27 +0000

"To walk by the sea at that hour of the morning, and in a place so desert-like and lonesome, struck me with a kind of fear."

stepping ashore 5

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:53:46 +0000

"To walk by the sea at that hour of the morning, and in a place so desert-like and lonesome, struck me with a kind of fear."

stepping ashore 4

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:54:52 +0000

"To walk by the sea at that hour of the morning, and in a place so desert-like and lonesome, struck me with a kind of fear."

looking back south from my vantage point

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:56:26 +0000

"it was all desolate and rocky; nothing living on it but game birds which I lacked the means to kill, and the gulls which haunted the outlying rocks in a prodigious number"

a pretty high rock 2

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:57:54 +0000

"There is a pretty high rock on the northwest of Earraid, which (because it had a flat top and overlooked the Sound) I was much in the habit of frequenting;"

The Ross

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:59:13 +0000

"Now, from a little up the hillside over the bay, I could catch a sight of the great, ancient church and the roofs of the people's houses in Iona. And on the other hand, over the low country of the Ross, I saw smoke go up, morning and evening, as if from a homestead in a hollow of the land."

stepping ashore 3

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:00:37 +0000

"To walk by the sea at that hour of the morning, and in a place so desert-like and lonesome, struck me with a kind of fear."

heading inland 2

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:02:19 +0000

"There was no sound of man or cattle; not a cock crew, though it was about the hour of their first waking; only the surf broke outside in the distance, which put me in mind of my perils"

heading inland 1

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:03:17 +0000

"There was no sound of man or cattle; not a cock crew, though it was about the hour of their first waking; only the surf broke outside in the distance, which put me in mind of my perils"

stepping ashore 2

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:05:20 +0000

"To walk by the sea at that hour of the morning, and in a place so desert-like and lonesome, struck me with a kind of fear."

stepping ashore 1

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:06:13 +0000

"To walk by the sea at that hour of the morning, and in a place so desert-like and lonesome, struck me with a kind of fear."

a pretty high rock 1

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:06:44 +0000

"There is a pretty high rock on the northwest of Earraid, which (because it had a flat top and overlooked the Sound) I was much in the habit of frequenting;"

the pig hut

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:07:21 +0000

"There was in this part of the isle a little hut of a house like a pig's hut, where fishers used to sleep when they came there upon their business"

Kidmapper Vodcast 1: 29th June (cf Chapter 14)

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:11:27 +0000

Loneliness On The Ross Of Mull

kidmapper — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:27:33 +0000

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30th June: through the Ross of Mull

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:40:41 +0000

Kidmapper Vodcast 2: 30th June (cf Chapter 15)

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:00:50 +0000

reasonable phone reception here

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:12:48 +0000

"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first."

a quiet spot for a reading

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:13:15 +0000

granite

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:13:33 +0000

HPIM1017

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:14:06 +0000

the mainland in the distance

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:14:21 +0000

out on the Ross 1

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:14:47 +0000

wreckage

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:15:05 +0000

old house in the hollow?

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:15:22 +0000

"with all my great weariness and the difficulty of the way came upon the house in the bottom of a little hollow"

house in the hollow?

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:15:38 +0000

"with all my great weariness and the difficulty of the way came upon the house in the bottom of a little hollow"

bunessan at a higher tide

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:16:19 +0000

"A sea-bred boy would not have stayed a day on Earraid; which is only what they call a tidal islet, and except in the bottom of the neaps, can be entered and left twice in every twenty-four hours"

sheep

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:16:53 +0000

Ben More

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:17:05 +0000

bunessan at low tide

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:17:34 +0000

halfway

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:17:47 +0000

a mushroom in a pat

kidmapper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:18:16 +0000

1st July: society & friendship on Mull

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:36:59 +0000

a parting of the ways

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:44:46 +0000

more woody, less heathy

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:46:03 +0000

no place to wash a hat

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:47:22 +0000

"The old gentleman, although I pressed him hard, would take no money, and gave me an old bonnet for my head; though I am free to own I was no sooner out of view of the house than I very jealously washed this gift of his in a wayside fountain."

the old road

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:48:28 +0000

looking down on the loch

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:49:36 +0000

basic bridges

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:50:46 +0000

crossing a stream

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:51:35 +0000

a way through the woods

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:53:19 +0000

bandy legs

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:54:30 +0000

The Highland dress being forbidden by law since the rebellion, and the people condemned to the Lowlandhabit, which they much disliked, it was strange to see the variety of their array. Some went bare, only for a hanging cloak or great-coat, and carried their trousers on their backs like a useless burthen: some had made an imitation of the tartan with little parti-coloured stripes patched together like an old wife’s quilt; others, again, still wore the Highland philabeg, but by putting a few stitches between the legs transformed it into a pair of trousers like a Dutchman’s.

over the hills to lochbuie

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:55:45 +0000

is that the lone house?

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:57:03 +0000

soft and boggy, but beautiful

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:58:54 +0000

near Kilfinchen, SCT, United Kingdom

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:12:45 +0000

I Think I've Worked Out The Trail!

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:42:57 +0000

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Kidmapper Vodcast 3: 1st July (cf Chapter 15)

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:22:26 +0000

shells

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:25:58 +0000

dandelion poo

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:28:02 +0000

multicoloured bracken

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:30:05 +0000

bracken, bracken everywhere

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:32:56 +0000

can i live here please?

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:33:56 +0000

the rich man's house

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:35:18 +0000

those bandy legs again

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:36:12 +0000

a peaceful moment

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:37:14 +0000

another view of the rich man's house

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:38:27 +0000

coppiced trees

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:40:39 +0000

bulbous oak

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:42:20 +0000

my seat

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:43:45 +0000

looking back down the loch

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:44:43 +0000

bulbous

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:48:02 +0000

halfway up the island?

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:49:33 +0000

kidmapper at rest

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:50:42 +0000

jetty

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:52:36 +0000

old rocks

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:53:44 +0000

a splash of colour

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:55:41 +0000

something odd on the beach

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:57:50 +0000

could I eat this?

kidmapper — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:59:27 +0000

Kidmapper Vodcast 4: 2nd July (cf Chapter 15)

kidmapper — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:56:32 +0000

The End Of Mull

kidmapper — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:28:46 +0000

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3rd July bad weather & blindness

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:02:19 +0000

I've Started So I Must Finish

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:13:28 +0000

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my route for the day

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:33:34 +0000

"I lay down in very good spirits; having travelled the greater part of that big and crooked Island of Mull, from Earraid to Torosay, fifty miles as the crow flies, and (with my wanderings) much nearer a hundred, in four days and with little fatigue"

leaping the stream

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:34:28 +0000

a lone stone

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:35:37 +0000

a very wet kidmapper

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:36:11 +0000

"I chuckled to myself as I went, being sure I was done with that rogue, for a variety of reasons. First, he knew he could have no more of my money; next, the brogues were worth in that country only a few pence; and, lastly, the knife, which was really a dagger, it was against the law for him to carry."

a long way to go

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:36:56 +0000

"I watched him striding along, through bog and brier, tapping with his stick, until he turned the end of a hill and disappeared in the next hollow."

the inn

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:37:41 +0000

"At Torosay, on the Sound of Mull and looking over to the mainland of Morven, there was an inn with an innkeeper, who was a Maclean, it appeared, of a very high family"

a meeting point?

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:38:31 +0000

"In about half an hour of walk, I overtook a great, ragged man, moving pretty fast but feeling before him with a staff. He was quite blind, and told me he was a catechist"

a distant loch

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:39:05 +0000

"I picked up both that and his brogues, wished him a good morning, and set off upon my way, leaving him barefoot and disarmed."

water everywhere

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:40:23 +0000

a cattle-track

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:41:17 +0000

"We were now upon a sort of green cattle-track which crossed the hills towards Torosay, and we kept changing sides upon that like ancers in a reel. I had so plainly the upper-hand that my spirits rose, and indeed I took a pleasure in this game of blindman’s buff"

we're not in mull any more

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:13:20 +0000

But if ye will pardon me to speak plainly,” says he, “there is a name that you should never take into your mouth, and that is the name of Alan Breck; and there is a thing that ye would never do, and that is to offer your dirty money to a Hieland shentleman.”

at fishnish2

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:14:08 +0000

There is a regular ferry from Torosay to Kinlochaline on the mainland. Both shores of the Sound are in the country of the strong clan of the Macleans, and the people that passed the ferry with me were almost all of that clan.

at fishnish

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:14:48 +0000

towards oban

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:15:23 +0000

In the crowded boat this was of course impossible, and the passage was a very slow affair. There was no wind, and as the boat was wretchedly equipped, we could pull but two oars on one side, and one on the other.

view towards the cold war bunker

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:16:04 +0000

timber business

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:16:45 +0000

I had some other advice from Neil: to speak with no one by the way, to avoid Whigs, Campbells, and the “red-soldiers;” to leave the road and lie in a bush if I saw any of the latter coming, “for it was never chancy to meet in with them;” and in brief, to conduct myself like a robber or a Jacobite agent, as perhaps Neil thought me.

entering Loch Aline

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:17:22 +0000

In the mouth of Loch Aline we found a great sea-going ship at anchor; and this I supposed at first to be one of the King’s cruisers which were kept along that coast, both summer and winter, to prevent communication with the French. As we got a little nearer, it became plain she was a ship of merchandise; and what still more puzzled me, not only her decks, but the sea-beach also, were quite black with people, and skiffs were continually plying to and fro between them. Yet nearer, and there began to come to our ears a great sound of mourning, the people on board and those on the shore crying and lamenting one to another so as to pierce the heart.

the way ahead

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:18:57 +0000

“I am seeking somebody,” said I; “and it comes in my mind that you will have news of him. Alan Breck Stewart is his name.”

on the ferry

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:19:41 +0000

fallen tree

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:21:26 +0000

“I am seeking somebody,” said I; “and it comes in my mind that you will have news of him. Alan Breck Stewart is his name.”

another bridge

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:23:06 +0000

he made haste to give me my route. This was to lie the night in Kinlochaline in the public inn; to cross Morven the next day to Ardgour, and lie the night in the house of one John of the Claymore, who was warned that I might come; the third day, to be set across one loch at Corran and another at Balachulish, and then ask my way to the house of James of the Glens, at Aucharn in Duror of Appin.

the end of the loch

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:23:57 +0000

The inn at Kinlochaline was the most beggarly vile place that ever pigs were styed in, full of smoke, vermin, and silent Highlanders.

the first big house

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:25:17 +0000

the first big farm

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:26:17 +0000

The inn at Kinlochaline was the most beggarly vile place that ever pigs were styed in, full of smoke, vermin, and silent Highlanders.

perhaps I should steal a horse

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:27:17 +0000

rural bliss 1

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:28:37 +0000

fnar fnar

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:29:30 +0000

4th July: diversions

kidmapper — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:51:31 +0000

5th July: becoming Alan

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:40:07 +0000

Kidmapper Vodcast 7: 5th July (cf Chapter 16)

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:07:28 +0000

the old road (by the new road)

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:41:37 +0000

And though I was a good deal puffed up with my adventures and with having come off, as the saying is, with flying colours; yet he soon had me on my knees beside a simple, poor old man, and both proud and glad to be there.

the henderland house

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:42:37 +0000

Accordingly we shook hands upon the bargain, and came in the afternoon to a small house, standing alone by the shore of the Linnhe Loch. The sun was already gone from the desert mountains of Ardgour upon the hither side, but shone on those of Appin on the farther; the loch lay as still as a lake, only the gulls were crying round the sides of it; and the whole place seemed solemn and uncouth.

mr henderland's house

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:43:22 +0000

at kingairloch

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:44:07 +0000

So we continued talking and walking the great part of the, day; until at last, Mr. Henderland after expressing his delight in my company, and satisfaction at meeting with a friend of Mr. Campbell’s (“whom,” says he, “I will make bold to call that sweet singer of our covenanted Zion”), proposed that I should make a short stage, and lie the night in his house a little beyond Kingairloch.

towards mr henderland's house

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:45:19 +0000

down to the beach

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:47:35 +0000

in the valley

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:48:36 +0000

nearly at the loch

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:49:41 +0000

looking back

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:50:41 +0000

this Alan Breck is a bold, desperate customer, and well kent to be James’s right hand. His life is forfeit already; he would boggle at naething; and maybe, if a tenant-body was to hang back he would get a dirk in his wame

kingairloch

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:51:21 +0000

the road across morvern

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:52:18 +0000

We fell in company at once, our ways lying together as far as to Kingairloch. As we went, he stopped and spoke with all the wayfarers and workers that we met or passed;

halfway there

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:53:04 +0000

“What of the wind that bloweth where it listeth?” said Henderland. “He’s here and awa; here to-day and gone to-morrow: a fair heather-cat. He might be glowering at the two of us out of yon whin-bush, and I wouldnae wonder!"

more rock hopping

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:53:53 +0000

Early in my next day’s journey I overtook a little, stout, solemn man, walking very slowly with his toes turned out, sometimes reading in a book and sometimes marking the place with his finger, and dressed decently and plainly in something of a clerical style.

the kidmapper rock hops

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:54:40 +0000

following the river 2

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:55:31 +0000

On his part, he told me much of his work and the people he worked among, the hiding priests and Jacobites, the Disarming Act, the dress, and many other curiosities of the time and place.

following the river 1

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:56:25 +0000

On his part, he told me much of his work and the people he worked among, the hiding priests and Jacobites, the Disarming Act, the dress, and many other curiosities of the time and place.

Agency Planners As Redcoats

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:24:06 +0000

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Kidmapper Vodcast 8.1: 6th July (cf Chapter 17)

kidmapper — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:21:06 +0000

6th July: running for a living

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:00:23 +0000

filming the murder

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:03:20 +0000

But just as he turned there came the shot of a firelock from higher up the hill; and with the very sound of it Glenure fell upon the road. "O, I am dead!" he cried, several times over.

protection against midges

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:03:44 +0000

Here I was not only troubled by a cloud of stinging midges, but far more by the doubts of my mind. What I ought to do, why I was going to join myself with an outlaw and a would-be murderer like Alan, whether I should not be acting more like a man of sense to tramp back to the south country direct, by my own guidance and at my own charges

view above the cairn

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:04:16 +0000

I believe it was his movement that brought me to my senses; for he had no sooner done so than I began to scramble up the hill, crying out, "The murderer! the murderer!"

view above the cairn

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:04:35 +0000

So little a time had elapsed, that when I got to the top of the first steepness, and could see some part of the open mountain, the murderer was still moving away at no great distance. He was a big man, in a black coat, with metal buttons, and carried a long fowling-piece.

a secret hiding place

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:05:35 +0000

"Now," said he, "it's earnest. Do as I do, for your life." And at the same speed, but now with infinitely more precaution, we traced back again across the mountain-side by the same way that we had come, only perhaps higher; till at last Alan threw himself down in the upper wood of Lettermore, where I had found him at the first, and lay, with his face in the bracken, panting like a dog.

birches

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:06:04 +0000

the murder cairn

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:08:15 +0000

"And what seek ye in Aucharn?" said Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure, him they called the Red Fox; for he it was that I had stopped.

the murder of the red fox

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:09:17 +0000

"Take care of yourselves," says he. "I am dead." He tried to open his clothes as if to look for the wound, but his fingers slipped on the buttons. With that he gave a great sigh, his head rolled on his shoulder, and he passed away.

hiding in the bracken

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:09:57 +0000

Ye maun lie bare and hard, and brook many an empty belly. Your bed shall be the moorcock's, and your life shall be like the hunted deer's, and ye shall sleep with your hand upon your weapons. Ay, man, ye shall taigle many a weary foot, or we get clear! I tell ye this at the start, for it's a life that I ken well. But if ye ask what other chance ye have, I answer: Nane. Either take to the heather with me, or else hang."

James of the Glens Trail

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:11:02 +0000

At last, about half-past ten of the clock, we came to the top of a brae, and saw lights below us. It seemed a house door stood open and let out a beam of fire and candle-light; and all round the house and steading five or six persons were moving hurriedly about, each carrying a lighted brand.

big tree close up

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:11:45 +0000

big trees

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:12:36 +0000

through the woods

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:13:30 +0000

Now we ran among the birches; now stooping behind low humps upon the mountain-side; now crawling on all fours among the heather. The pace was deadly: my heart seemed bursting against my ribs; and I had neither time to think nor breath to speak with. Only I remember seeing with wonder, that Alan every now and then would straighten himself to his full height and look back; and every time he did so, there came a great far-away cheering and crying of the soldiers.

the kidmapper escaping

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:14:57 +0000

"Ay," said he, "they'll be gey weary before they've got to the end of that employ! And so you and me, David, can sit down and eat a bite, and breathe a bit longer, and take a dram from my bottle. Then we'll strike for Aucharn, the house of my kinsman, James of the Glens, where I must get my clothes, and my arms, and money to carry us along; and then, David, we'll cry, 'Forth, Fortune!' and take a cast among the heather."

the kidmapper escaping

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:15:32 +0000

I asked him whither we should flee; and as he told me "to the Lowlands," I was a little better inclined to go with him; for, indeed, I was growing impatient to get back and have the upper-hand of my uncle. Besides, Alan made so sure there would be no question of justice in the matter, that I began to be afraid he might be right. Of all deaths, I would truly like least to die by the gallows; and the picture of that uncanny instrument came into my head with extraordinary clearness (as I had once seen it engraved at the top of a pedlar's ballad) and took away my appetite for courts of justice.

the run across the hills

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:16:06 +0000

Hereupon he whistled three times, in a particular manner. It was strange to see how, at the first sound of it, all the moving torches came to a stand, as if the bearers were affrighted; and how, at the third, the bustle began again as before. Having thus set folks' minds at rest, we came down the brae, and were met at the yard gate (for this place was like a well-doing farm) by a tall, handsome man of more than fifty, who cried out to Alan in the Gaelic.

jimmy stewart's house

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:16:58 +0000

"James Stewart," said Alan, "I will ask ye to speak in Scotch, for here is a young gentleman with me that has nane of the other. This is him," he added, putting his arm through mine, "a young gentleman of the Lowlands, and a laird in his country too, but I am thinking it will be the better for his health if we give his name the go-by." James of the Glens turned to me for a moment, and greeted me courteously enough; the next he had turned to Alan. "This has been a dreadful accident," he cried. "It will bring trouble on the country." And he wrung his hands.

jimmy stewart's house

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:17:44 +0000

At last James could keep his seat no longer, and begged my permission to be so unmannerly as walk about. "I am but poor company altogether, sir," says he, "but I can think of nothing but this dreadful accident, and the trouble it is like to bring upon quite innocent persons." A little after he observed his son burning a paper which he thought should have been kept; and at that his excitement burst out so that it was painful to witness. He struck the lad repeatedly.

inside the house - the other end

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:18:37 +0000

"Ye must find a safe bit somewhere near by," said James, "and get word sent to me. Ye see, ye'll have to get this business prettily off, Alan. This is no time to be stayed for a guinea or two. They're sure to get wind of ye, sure to seek ye, and by my way of it, sure to lay on ye the wyte of this day's accident. If it falls on you, it falls on me that am your near kinsman and harboured ye while ye were in the country. And if it comes on me----" he paused, and bit his fingers, with a white face. "It would be a painful thing for our friends if I was to hang," said he.

inside the house - one end

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:19:36 +0000

"But see here," said James, returning to his former manner, "if they lay me by the heels, Alan, it's then that you'll be needing the money. For with all that I have said and that you have said, it will look very black against the two of us; do ye mark that? Well, follow me out, and ye'll, I'll see that I'll have to get a paper out against ye mysel'; have to offer a reward for ye; ay, will I! It's a sore thing to do between such near friends; but if I get the dirdum* of this dreadful accident, I'll have to fend for myself, man. Do ye see that?"

the route down the hill to jimmy stewart's house

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:20:21 +0000

"Now, Alan, man!" cried James. "Look things in the face! He'll be papered anyway; Mungo Campbell'll be sure to paper him; what matters if I paper him too? And then, Alan, I am a man that has a family." And then, after a little pause on both sides, "And, Alan, it'll be a jury of Campbells," said he.

running to jimmy stewart's house

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:22:21 +0000

"Hoot, hoot," said Alan, looking mighty silly. "The day comes unco soon in this month of July; and to-morrow there'll be a fine to-do in Appin, a fine riding of dragoons, and crying of 'Cruachan!'* and running of red-coats; and it behoves you and me to the sooner be gone."

near stewart's cave

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:23:26 +0000

Quarter of an hour later, Alan stopped, clapped down flat in the heather, and turned to me. "Now," said he, "it's earnest. Do as I do, for your life." And at the same speed, but now with infinitely more precaution, we traced back again across the mountain-side by the same way that we had come, only perhaps higher; till at last Alan threw himself down in the upper wood of Lettermore, where I had found him at the first, and lay, with his face in the bracken, panting like a dog.

hiding from the redcoats

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:24:17 +0000

At that word (which I could hear quite plainly, though it was to the soldiers and not to me that he was crying it) my heart came in my mouth with quite a new kind of terror. Indeed, it is one thing to stand the danger of your life, and quite another to run the peril of both life and character. The thing, besides, had come so suddenly, like thunder out of a clear sky, that I was all amazed and helpless. The soldiers began to spread, some of them to run, and others to put up their pieces and cover me; and still I stood. "Jook* in here among the trees," said a voice close by. Indeed, I scarce knew what I was doing, but I obeyed; and as I did so, I heard the firelocks bang and the balls whistle in the birches.

in the wood of lettermore

kidmapper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:25:03 +0000

This was a wood of birches, growing on a steep, craggy side of a mountain that overhung the loch. It had many openings and ferny howes; and a road or bridle track ran north and south through the midst of it, by the edge of which, where was a spring, I sat down to eat some oat-bread of Mr. Henderland's and think upon my situation.

Kidmapper Vodcast 8.2: 6th July (cf Chapter 18)

kidmapper — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:17:42 +0000

Kidmapper Vodcast 8.3: 6th July (cf Chapter 19)

kidmapper — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:32:16 +0000

this is the way to pass the news

kidmapper — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:40:19 +0000

Kidmapper Vodcast 9: 7th July (cf Chapter 20)

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:27:38 +0000

steps

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:34:46 +0000

Once there, he let down his leathern girdle; and with the aid of that and a pair of shallow footholds in the rock, I scrambled up beside him.

view from signal rock

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:35:12 +0000

The dawn had come quite, clear; we could see the stony sides of the valley, and its bottom, which was bestrewed with rocks, and the river, which went from one side to another, and made white falls; but nowhere the smoke of a house, nor any living creature but some eagles screaming round a cliff.

more signal rock

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:35:50 +0000

Then I saw why we had come there; for the two rocks, being both somewhat hollow on the top and sloping one to the other, made a kind of dish or saucer, where as many as three or four men might have lain hidden.

the view from signal rock

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:36:32 +0000

Even now we were on the rock he said nothing, nor so much as relaxed the frowning look upon his face; but clapped flat down, and keeping only one eye above the edge of our place of shelter scouted all round the compass.

on top of signal rock

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:37:10 +0000

Accordingly, I lay down to sleep; a little peaty earth had drifted in between the top of the two rocks, and some bracken grew there, to be a bed to me; the last thing I heard was still the crying of the eagles.

more stream

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:39:05 +0000

The first peep of morning, then, showed us this horrible place, and I could see Alan knit his brow. "This is no fit place for you and me," he said. "This is a place they're bound to watch."

big jump

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:39:50 +0000

I was now alone upon the rock, which gave me the more room; the brandy was singing in my ears; I had this good example fresh before me, and just wit enough to see that if I did not leap at once, I should never leap at all. I bent low on my knees and flung myself forth, with that kind of anger of despair that has sometimes stood me in stead of courage.

downstream

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:40:42 +0000

Sure enough, it was but my hands that reached the full length; these slipped, caught again, slipped again; and I was sliddering back into the lynn, when Alan seized me, first by the hair, then by the collar, and with a great strain dragged me into safety.

the crossing?

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:41:20 +0000

upriver3

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:42:08 +0000

The next minute Alan had set the brandy bottle to my lips, and forced me to drink about a gill, which sent the blood into my head again. Then, putting his hands to his mouth, and his mouth to my ear, he shouted, "Hang or drown!" and turning his back upon me, leaped over the farther branch of the stream, and landed safe.

upriver2

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:42:43 +0000

The same look showed me the water raging by, and the mist hanging in the air: and with that I covered my eyes again and shuddered.

upriver1

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:43:22 +0000

When I saw where I was, there came on me a deadly sickness of fear, and I put my hand over my eyes. Alan took me and shook me; I saw he was speaking, but the roaring of the falls and the trouble of my mind prevented me from hearing; only I saw his face was red with anger, and that he stamped upon the rock.

white water

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:43:50 +0000

So there we stood, side by side upon a small rock slippery with spray, a far broader leap in front of us, and the river dinning upon all sides.

the big rock

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:44:47 +0000

And with that he ran harder than ever down to the water-side, in a part where the river was split in two among three rocks. It went through with a horrid thundering that made my belly quake; and there hung over the lynn a little mist of spray. Alan looked neither to the right nor to the left, but jumped clean upon the middle rock and fell there on his hands and knees to check himself, for that rock was small and he might have pitched over on the far side.

steps

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:45:17 +0000

But for the details of our itinerary, I am all to seek; our way lying now by short cuts, now by great detours; our pace being so hurried, our time of journeying usually by night; and the names of such places as I asked and heard being in the Gaelic tongue and the more easily forgotten.

glencoe ahoy

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:45:44 +0000

For all our hurry, day began to come in while we were still far from any shelter. It found us in a prodigious valley, strewn with rocks and where ran a foaming river. Wild mountains stood around it; there grew there neither grass nor trees; and I have sometimes thought since then, that it may have been the valley called Glencoe, where the massacre was in the time of King William.

looking back towards jimmy stewart's house

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:46:12 +0000

Sometimes we walked, sometimes ran; and as it drew on to morning, walked ever the less and ran the more. Though, upon its face, that country appeared to be a desert, yet there were huts and houses of the people, of which we must have passed more than twenty, hidden in quiet places of the hills. When we came to one of these, Alan would leave me in the way, and go himself and rap upon the side of the house and speak awhile at the window with some sleeper awakened.

looking down

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:46:57 +0000

many rivers to cross

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:47:47 +0000

oldsheepfold

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:48:23 +0000

towards glencoe

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:49:00 +0000

looking up the hill

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:49:46 +0000

to the rock 2

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:51:30 +0000

to the rock 1

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:52:22 +0000

signal rock storyboarded

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:53:15 +0000

there is no evidence to support this story

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:53:38 +0000

climbing up signal rock

kidmapper — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:54:26 +0000

radio silence (and no singing!) commences til 13th july

kidmapper — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:27:01 +0000

Kidmapper Vodcast 10: 8th July (cf Chapter 20)

kidmapper — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:19:17 +0000

a view of where I've come from

kidmapper — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:27:04 +0000

Seemingly he was well pleased, and he must certainly have judged us out of ear-shot of all our enemies; for throughout the rest of our night-march he beguiled the way with whistling of many tunes, warlike, merry, plaintive; reel tunes that made the foot go faster; tunes of my own south country that made me fain to be home from my adventures; and all these, on the great, dark, desert mountains, making company upon the way.

towards the Heugh

kidmapper — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:27:30 +0000

The way was very intricate, lying up the steep sides of mountains and along the brows of cliffs; clouds had come in with the sunset, and the night was dark and cool; so that I walked without much fatigue, but in continual fear of falling and rolling down the mountains, and with no guess at our direction.

I'm Back & Heading For Rannoch Moor

kidmapper — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:07:49 +0000

Listen!

View at audioboo.fm

incessant hard travel

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:23:31 +0000

Kidmapper Vodcast 11: 13th July (cf. Chapter 21)

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:26:34 +0000

steep paths

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:50:07 +0000

"We are here in a desert place, which yet we dare not leave; and unless ye get the fowls of the air to be your messengers, I see not what we shall be able to do."

through the woods

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:50:18 +0000

"We are here in a desert place, which yet we dare not leave; and unless ye get the fowls of the air to be your messengers, I see not what we shall be able to do."

another road to nowhere

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:50:24 +0000

"We are here in a desert place, which yet we dare not leave; and unless ye get the fowls of the air to be your messengers, I see not what we shall be able to do."

another guddling pool

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:50:37 +0000

"We are here in a desert place, which yet we dare not leave; and unless ye get the fowls of the air to be your messengers, I see not what we shall be able to do."

hard travel ahead

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:51:43 +0000

"We are here in a desert place, which yet we dare not leave; and unless ye get the fowls of the air to be your messengers, I see not what we shall be able to do."

farewell the heugh

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:51:52 +0000

"We are here in a desert place, which yet we dare not leave; and unless ye get the fowls of the air to be your messengers, I see not what we shall be able to do."

the view looking back

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:52:59 +0000

"We are here in a desert place, which yet we dare not leave; and unless ye get the fowls of the air to be your messengers, I see not what we shall be able to do."

farewell to ballacullish

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:55:56 +0000

"We are here in a desert place, which yet we dare not leave; and unless ye get the fowls of the air to be your messengers, I see not what we shall be able to do."

looking back at corrour lodge

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:19:16 +0000

a ford 3

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:19:34 +0000

a ford 2

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:19:46 +0000

a ford 1

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:19:59 +0000

the road to rannoch

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:20:10 +0000

"We'll have to play at being hares," said he. "Do ye see yon mountain?" pointing to one on the north-eastern sky. "Ay," said I. "Well, then," says he, "let us strike for that. Its name is Ben Alder. it is a wild, desert mountain full of hills and hollows, and if we can win to it before the morn, we may do yet." "But, Alan," cried I, "that will take us across the very coming of the soldiers!" "I ken that fine," said he; "but if we are driven back on Appin, we are two dead men. So now, David man, be brisk!"

have they seen me?

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:20:19 +0000

With that he began to run forward on his hands and knees with an incredible quickness, as though it were his natural way of going. All the time, too, he kept winding in and out in the lower parts of the moorland where we were the best concealed. Some of these had been burned or at least scathed with fire; and there rose in our faces (which were close to the ground) a blinding, choking dust as fine as smoke. The water was long out; and this posture of running on the hands and knees brings an overmastering weakness and weariness, so that the joints ache and the wrists faint under your weight.

not suitable for motor vehicles

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:20:33 +0000

every path is a stream

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:20:43 +0000

It grew cooler and even a little darker (but not much) with the coming of the night. The sky was cloudless; it was still early in July, and pretty far north; in the darkest part of that night, you would have needed pretty good eyes to read, but for all that, I have often seen it darker in a winter mid-day. Heavy dew fell and drenched the moor like rain; and this refreshed me for a while. When we stopped to breathe, and I had time to see all about me, the clearness and sweetness of the night, the shapes of the hills like things asleep, and the fire dwindling away behind us, like a bright spot in the midst of the moor, anger would come upon me in a clap that I must still drag myself in agony and eat the dust like a worm.

peter's stone

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:20:56 +0000

I did not think of myself, but just of each fresh step which I was sure would be my last, with despair--and of Alan, who was the cause of it, with hatred. Alan was in the right trade as a soldier; this is the officer's part to make men continue to do things, they know not wherefore, and when, if the choice was offered, they would lie down where they were and be killed. And I dare say I would have made a good enough private; for in these last hours it never occurred to me that I had any choice but just to obey as long as I was able, and die obeying.

all that's left of the old lodge

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:21:07 +0000

hiding

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:21:16 +0000

overlooked by hills

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:21:25 +0000

where david & alan walked

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:21:37 +0000

The mist rose and died away, and showed us that country lying as waste as the sea; only the moorfowl and the pewees crying upon it, and far over to the east, a herd of deer, moving like dots. Much of it was red with heather; much of the rest broken up with bogs and hags and peaty pools; some had been burnt black in a heath fire; and in another place there was quite a forest of dead firs, standing like skeletons. A wearier-looking desert man never saw; but at least it was clear of troops, which was our point.

the abandoned lodge

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:21:52 +0000

By what I have read in books, I think few that have held a pen were ever really wearied, or they would write of it more strongly.

rocks and distant hills

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:22:01 +0000

another pose

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:23:28 +0000

The aching and faintness of my body, the labouring of my heart, the soreness of my hands, and the smarting of my throat and eyes in the continual smoke of dust and ashes, had soon grown to be so unbearable that I would gladly have given up. Nothing but the fear of Alan lent me enough of a false kind of courage to continue.

loch ossian

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:23:38 +0000

down to blackwater reservoir

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:23:46 +0000

In front of us there lay a piece of low, broken, desert land, which we must now cross. The sun was not long up, and shone straight in our eyes; a little, thin mist went up from the face of the moorland like a smoke; so that (as Alan said) there might have been twenty squadron of dragoons there and we none the wiser.

the new lodge

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:24:17 +0000

At length, in the first gloaming of the night, we heard a trumpet sound, and looking back from among the heather, saw the troop beginning to collect. A little after, they had built a fire and camped for the night, about the middle of the waste.

view from the lodge

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:24:28 +0000

the old lodge

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:24:37 +0000

Out on yon bald, naked, flat place, where can a body turn to? Let the red-coats come over a hill, they can spy you miles away; and the sorrow's in their horses' heels, they would soon ride you down. It's no good place, David; and I'm free to say, it's worse by daylight than by dark.

a place to hide

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:24:48 +0000

Now and then, indeed, where was a big bush of heather, we lay awhile, and panted, and putting aside the leaves, looked back at the dragoons. They had not spied us, for they held straight on; a half-troop, I think, covering about two miles of ground, and beating it mighty thoroughly as they went.

kidmapper pose

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:24:56 +0000

Kidmapper Vodcast 12: 14th July (cf. Chapter 22)

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:54:41 +0000

lost on the moor

kidmapper — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:57:24 +0000

the fate of scottish soldiers: afghanistan not 'trending'

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:27:06 +0000

the stags are bellowing up there

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:28:04 +0000

where am i going?

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:28:18 +0000

a crossing

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:28:29 +0000

all the way down here

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:28:36 +0000

what consititutes a road

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:28:48 +0000

holes to fall into

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:29:08 +0000

a place for syping on stags

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:29:17 +0000

where am i?

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:29:26 +0000

another pool

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:29:36 +0000

my so-called route

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:29:45 +0000

lonely moor

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:29:53 +0000

cluny's cage?

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:30:05 +0000

kidmapper still lost

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:30:15 +0000

anoter burn

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:30:28 +0000

kidmapper lost

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:31:51 +0000

HPIM1331

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:32:12 +0000

the wrong valley

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:32:29 +0000

burn

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:32:57 +0000

pool

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:33:34 +0000

peat

kidmapper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:35:25 +0000

Kidmapped Vodcast 14: 18th July (cf Chapter 24)

kidmapper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:49:47 +0000

moss

kidmapper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:15:28 +0000

And we fell back into our former silence; and came to our journey's end, and supped, and lay down to sleep, without another word.

from ben alder to errocht

kidmapper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:16:48 +0000

Alan and I were put across Loch Errocht under cloud of night, and went down its eastern shore to another hiding-place near the head of Loch Rannoch, whither we were led by one of the gillies from the Cage.

steve on the shore of errocht

kidmapper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:18:51 +0000

"I will only say this to ye, David," said Alan, very quietly, "that I have long been owing ye my life, and now I owe ye money. Ye should try to make that burden light for me."

the boat house

kidmapper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:19:58 +0000

steve on the beach

kidmapper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:21:33 +0000

These were the two things uppermost in my mind; and I could open my mouth upon neither without black ungenerosity. So I did the next worst, and said nothing, nor so much as looked once at my companion, save with the tail of my eye.

loch errocht

kidmapper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:22:56 +0000

my companion between rannoch & errocht

kidmapper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:23:55 +0000

This fellow carried all our luggage and Alan's great-coat in the bargain, trotting along under the burthen, far less than the half of which used to weigh me to the ground, like a stout hill pony with a feather; yet he was a man that, in plain contest, I could have broken on my knee.

steve reads for us

kidmapper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:25:55 +0000

"David," says he, "this is no way for two friends to take a small accident. I have to say that I'm sorry; and so that's said. And now if you have anything, ye'd better say it."

sheep on a hill

kidmapper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:27:14 +0000

Doubtless it was a great relief to walk disencumbered; and perhaps without that relief, and the consequent sense of liberty and lightness, I could not have walked at all. I was but new risen from a bed of sickness; and there was nothing in the state of our affairs to hearten me for much exertion; travelling, as we did, over the most dismal deserts in Scotland, under a cloudy heaven, and with divided hearts among the travellers.

steve heads for the control room

kidmapper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:29:14 +0000

For long, we said nothing; marching alongside or one behind the other, each with a set countenance: I, angry and proud, and drawing what strength I had from these two violent and sinful feelings; Alan angry and ashamed, ashamed that he had lost my money, angry that I should take it so ill.

big water pipe

kidmapper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:31:32 +0000

At last, upon the other side of Loch Errocht, going over a smooth, rushy place, where the walking was easy, he could bear it no longer, and came close to me. "David," says he, "this is no way for two friends to take a small accident. I have to say that I'm sorry; and so that's said. And now if you have anything, ye'd better say it."

the dam control room

kidmapper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:33:57 +0000

looking towards ben alder

kidmapper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:37:22 +0000

I never yet failed a friend, and it's not likely I'll begin with you

kidmapper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:21:30 +0000

From Loch To Loch With Love

kidmapper — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:57:30 +0000

Listen!

View at audioboo.fm

Kidmapped Vodcast 15: 19th July (cf Chapter 24)

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:37:39 +0000

now we are five. will you be next?

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:56:50 +0000

a glimpse of the loch

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:10:27 +0000

During all these horrid wanderings we had no familiarity, scarcely even that of speech. The truth is that I was sickening for my grave, which is my best excuse. But besides that I was of an unforgiving disposition from my birth, slow to take offence, slower to forget it, and now incensed both against my companion and myself. For the best part of two days he was unweariedly kind; silent, indeed, but always ready to help, and always hoping (as I could very well see) that my displeasure would blow by. For the same length of time I stayed in myself, nursing my anger, roughly refusing his services, and passing him over with my eyes as if he had been a bush or a stone.

the four recruits

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:11:01 +0000

I would be aroused in the gloaming, to sit up in the same puddle where I had slept, and sup cold drammach; the rain driving sharp in my face or running down my back in icy trickles; the mist enfolding us like as in a gloomy chamber--or, perhaps, if the wind blew, falling suddenly apart and showing us the gulf of some dark valley where the streams were crying aloud.

bouncy bridge

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:11:42 +0000

ingrid crosses the bridge

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:12:15 +0000

another intrepid campbell

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:13:03 +0000

gates

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:13:46 +0000

the weather coming in

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:14:23 +0000

This was a dreadful time, rendered the more dreadful by the gloom of the weather and the country. I was never warm; my teeth chattered in my head; I was troubled with a very sore throat, such as I had on the isle; I had a painful stitch in my side, which never left me;

ingrid versus the wind

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:14:46 +0000

We set forth accordingly by this itinerary; and for the best part of three nights travelled on eerie mountains and among the well-heads of wild rivers; often buried in mist, almost continually blown and rained upon, and not once cheered by any glimpse of sunshine.

the open road

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:15:21 +0000

By day, we lay and slept in the drenching heather; by night, incessantly clambered upon break-neck hills and among rude crags. We often wandered; we were often so involved in fog, that we must lie quiet till it lightened.

cashlie

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:15:51 +0000

Alan gave way at last, but with only half a heart. "It's one of the dowiest countries in Scotland," said he. "There's naething there that I ken, but heath, and crows, and Campbells. But I see that ye're a man of some penetration; and be it as ye please!"

glen lyon

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:16:27 +0000

Alan was little pleased with a route which led us through the country of his blood-foes, the Glenorchy Campbells. He objected that by turning to the east, we should come almost at once among the Athole Stewarts, a race of his own name and lineage, although following a different chief, and come besides by a far easier and swifter way to the place whither we were bound.

a hovel

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:16:58 +0000

steve strides out down glen lyon

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:17:47 +0000

The gillie put us across Loch Rannoch in the dusk of the next day, and gave us his opinion as to our best route. This was to get us up at once into the tops of the mountains: to go round by a circuit, turning the heads of Glen Lyon, Glen Lochay, and Glen Dochart, and come down upon the lowlands by Kippen and the upper waters of the Forth.

my fellow kidmappers

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:45:40 +0000

more pipe

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:46:15 +0000

glen lochay

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:46:42 +0000

filming in glen lochay

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:47:07 +0000

kidmapper and the pipeline

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:47:31 +0000

hiding from the wind

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:48:03 +0000

eager to join the pack

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:48:43 +0000

up into the hills again

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:49:11 +0000

pipeline

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:49:37 +0000

glen lochay

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:50:06 +0000

climbing the weir

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:50:33 +0000

Kidmapped Vodcast 16: 20th July (cf Chapter 24)

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:16:24 +0000

Lunacy, lunar landings and a confusion of Armstrongs

kidmapper — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:38:34 +0000

It doesnt surprise me at all to find comments on the blog referring to journeys and physical challenges currently in the news that mirror precisely what were doing here in terms of following a prescribed route, using manuals, never stopping despite what is thrown at us and unspooling a compelling narrative for others to enjoy and emulate. Yes, Im talking about the moon landing of 40 years ago involving Armstrong *N* and the Tour de France involving Armstong *L*. If only an Armstong had won the Open also, we would have had a triumvirate of parallel events. Are there any others we havent thought of yet? http://www.timwright.typepad.com/kidmapper

Kidmapped Vodcast 17: 21st July (cf. Chapter 24)

kidmapper — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:46:54 +0000

farewell to the hills, hello Rob Roy

kidmapper — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:05:46 +0000

memorial

kidmapper — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:16:05 +0000

I knew it was my own doing, and no one else's; but I was too miserable to repent. I felt I could drag myself but little farther; pretty soon, I must lie down and die on these wet mountains like a sheep or a fox, and my bones must whiten there like the bones of a beast. My head was light perhaps; but I began to love the prospect, I began to glory in the thought of such a death, alone in the desert, with the wild eagles besieging my last moments.

inverlochlarig

kidmapper — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:16:59 +0000

Here were Stewarts and Maclarens, which came to the same thing, for the Maclarens followed Alan's chief in war, and made but one clan with Appin. Here, too, were many of that old, proscribed, nameless, red-handed clan of the Macgregors.

up the hill

kidmapper — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:17:38 +0000

my very clothes "abhorred me." I was dead weary, deadly sick and full of pains and shiverings; the chill of the wind went through me, and the sound of it confused my ears.

down the valley

kidmapper — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:18:10 +0000

All the while, I was growing worse and worse. Once I had fallen, my leg simply doubling under me, and this had struck Alan for the moment; but I was afoot so briskly, and set off again with such a natural manner, that he soon forgot the incident. Flushes of heat went over me, and then spasms of shuddering.

a good site for a reading

kidmapper — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:18:54 +0000

At this the last of my anger oozed all out of me; and I found myself only sick, and sorry, and blank, and wondering at myself. I would have given the world to take back what I had said; but a word once spoken, who can recapture it?

freya on the hill

kidmapper — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:19:31 +0000

Alan had stopped opposite to me, his hat cocked, his hands in his breeches pockets, his head a little on one side. He listened, smiling evilly, as I could see by the starlight; and when I had done he began to whistle a Jacobite air. It was the air made in mockery of General Cope's defeat at Preston Pans: "Hey, Johnnie Cope, are ye waukin' yet? And are your drums a-beatin' yet?"

freya strides out

kidmapper — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:20:09 +0000

In this poor state I had to bear from my companion something in the nature of a persecution. He spoke a good deal, and never without a taunt. "Whig" was the best name he had to give me. "Here," he would say, "here's a dub for ye to jump, my Whiggie! I ken you're a fine jumper!" And so on; all the time with a gibing voice and face.

low cloud

kidmapper — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:20:33 +0000

The third night we were to pass through the western end of the country of Balquhidder. It came clear and cold, with a touch in the air like frost, and a northerly wind that blew the clouds away and made the stars bright. The streams were full, of course, and still made a great noise among the hills;

green hills

kidmapper — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:21:16 +0000

"It's true," said I. "I'm by with it. O, let me get into the bield of a house--I'll can die there easier." I had no need to pretend; whether I chose or not, I spoke in a weeping voice that would have melted a heart of stone.

into bulquhidder

kidmapper — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:21:51 +0000

"Let me get my arm about ye," he continued; "that's the way! Now lean upon me hard. Gude kens where there's a house! We're in Balwhidder, too; there should be no want of houses, no, nor friends' houses here. Do ye gang easier so, Davie?"

prize cow

kidmapper — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:23:35 +0000

"O man, let's say no more about it!" said I. "We're neither one of us to mend the other--that's the truth! We must just bear and forbear, man Alan. O, but my stitch is sore! Is there nae house?" "I'll find a house to ye, David," he said, stoutly. "We'll follow down the burn, where there's bound to be houses. My poor man, will ye no be better on my back?"

looking down at rob roy's house

kidmapper — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:24:01 +0000

Chance served us very well; for it was a household of Maclarens that we found, where Alan was not only welcome for his name's sake but known by reputation. Here then I was got to bed without delay, and a doctor fetched, who found me in a sorry plight.

near Auchtoo, SCT, United Kingdom

kidmapper — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:50:19 +0000

Balquhidder, SCT, United Kingdom

kidmapper — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:59:49 +0000

You Promised Me A Rainbow

kidmapper — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:23:38 +0000

Listen!

View at audioboo.fm

the view down rob roy's valley

kidmapper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:29:02 +0000

machinery

kidmapper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:29:50 +0000

kidnappedtrail.pbworks.com/20th%20August

the water is rising

kidmapper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:30:50 +0000

kidnappedtrail.pbworks.com/20th%20August

back on the trail

kidmapper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:31:31 +0000

local flooding

kidmapper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:34:30 +0000

a chapel

kidmapper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:35:42 +0000

kidnappedtrail.pbworks.com/20th%20August

the river at its height

kidmapper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:36:41 +0000

kidnappedtrail.pbworks.com/20th%20August

flooded trees

kidmapper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:37:52 +0000

testing the posts

kidmapper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:38:47 +0000

fallen trees

kidmapper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:39:49 +0000

kidnappedtrail.pbworks.com/20th%20August

on the bridge

kidmapper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:40:25 +0000

the vandal of strathyre

kidmapper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:40:55 +0000

andy by a stream

kidmapper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:41:32 +0000

"It's a chief principle in military affairs," said he, "to go where ye are least expected."

Uam Var or Uam Mhor?

kidmapper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:00:07 +0000

Listen!

View at audioboo.fm

near Dunblane, SCT, United Kingdom

kidmapper — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 10:12:07 +0000

near Bridge of Allan, SCT, United Kingdom

kidmapper — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 12:41:16 +0000

crossing the teith

kidmapper — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 07:21:30 +0000