Wednesday 15 August

Although it was marginally less warm today, the 20C felt absolutely sublime in the blazing sunshine and strong easterly wind. The southwest of Scotland was being lashed by rain and near-gale force winds; our breeze measured 25 mph. Went for a 3 mile walk to Sandwick and Plasterfield, east and northeast of Stornoway. Plasterfield is quite high up, and the vantage point showed me - a big column of smoke rising from beyond the Castle Grounds. Once more, we have a wildfire, and it was a big thing. In the half hour it took me to walk back to town, the column grew in density (getting more brown) and firecrews from all over the island congregated on the Castle Grounds to put the blaze out. Police are anxious to speak to anyone who may have seen suspicious activity in the Deer Park area. I have not yet uploaded to Flickr any pics of the walk, except for a selection on Facebook. Will post the pics on here in a separate post tomorrow.