I started with thanks to my friend Colin who came to visit for a couple of days on his way back home to Yorkshire from a climbing trip further north, in the Torridon area. I had hoped we might take a drive out around the Borders one day, but Colin had other ideas! Most of you know I am not good at being tidy and organised, but lately things have just got to the Where do I start? stage. Colin had the answer to that! He just set to and did it! Bin it! Bin it! was his cry! Together we cleared out loads of stuff, and finally took it all down in his van to the local recycling centre! Suddenly I have space again - AND he put vinyl down on my kitchen floor for me! It's been needing that for about 5 years! So, once again, thanks, Colin - and I WILL try to keep it tidy now!
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So, back to Doune and the lace week! I've already introduced you to the place and the lacemakers, so now want to take you for a closer look at Doune and the people who live there!
Doune was the biggest settlement in the area in the 1840s, until the landowner, like so many others, decided that sheep and deer were going to bring in more income than a few hundred poor peasants struggling to make a living on what was essentially a bogland. The tenants of several shoreline settlements were evicted, sometimes forcibly, and their homes pulled down. Many of these displaced highlanders, not only from Knoydart, found themselves on ships bound for the New World, leaving behind all they ever knew; their impoverished homes to fall into disrepair and their carefully tilled land to return to the soggy wilderness they must have fought hard to control. Today there is still evidence of the sad stony outlines of cottages on the shore and up the hillside, and heather covered turf and stone walls that were once boundaries of fields. Don't think of anything pretty when you think of these cottages. They were basically four stone walls with a doorway, and heather thatched roofs. They earned the name "blackhouses" from the smoke from a central fireplace swirling around the room, blackening the walls with soot as it tried to find a way out! They must have been very unhealthy places to live in, especially as there was no sanitation and their animals - a cow or two and some hens, maybe - would also occupy a part of the house. The walls of one or two of the old blackhouses are still in fairly reasonable condition but most are just the first layer of stones, or have disappeared altogether leaving just a green grassy space in the bracken covered landscape. There are also the remains of an old corn kiln, and evidence of the old lazybeds - strips of land alotted to each family to cultivate.
The new Stone Lodges on the shore have risen from the foundations of a row of old blackhouses, with much of the old stone being used in their construction. However it was the White House that captured the imagination of Alan and Mary as they sailed past Doune during one holiday. It was itself a ruin at that time, the house that had been built for the factor, after the Clearance and introduction of sheep. It was just the sort of place they wanted to renovate, and after negotiations with the current landowner, they did just that! With the help of their two sons they rebuilt the house, learning a lot in the process, and then opened their new home to paying guests, many of whom returned time after time and are still friends of the family. 
There was a prehistoric vitrified fort (or Dun) on the headland, bits of it still visible to the educated eye - me, I just take their word for it! The lodge provided self catering accommodation for visitors but they all still seemed to gravitate back to the White House for Mary's excellent home cooking! 
So that Alan and Mary could reclaim their house as their own. the two Stone Lodges, housing dining room, kitchen and three well appointed guest bedrooms followed, and a house on the hill was built by Liz and Andy who had joined Alan and Mary in partnership by this time. Jamie, one of Alan's and Mary's boys, returned also to settle at Doune and join in the business, and until recently his house was the newest one. Mary has recently published a very interesting and enjoyable book of their 25 years at Doune, which describes the whole development of the business, the building of houses and boats, and the many adventures that befell them all. Almost against the odds they succeeded in creating something magical that people like me just keep wanting to return to. If you missed the link before, here it is again: http://www.doune-knoydart.co.uk/
Alan and Mary retired from the business a few years ago, selling the White House and Stone Lodges to Malcolm and Jane who have settled in so well and have helped expand the business even further. Alan and Mary went travelling but returned not long ago to build yet another new house at Doune - a beautiful wooden house that they designed themselves and called Ranzo, which I think must go back to Alan's young days singing in the pubs and folk clubs of the south of England. Reuben Ranzo was the subject of a sea shanty. 
Did I mention the book Mary has just published about their 25 years at Doune? Here she is signing a copy for one of the lace ladies!There is no road at Doune, the seven mile stretch of road between Inverie and Airor being a mile up the hill, so the simplest way of getting there is by boat from Mallaig, though walkers can always spend a couple of days walking in from Kinlochourn over the pass called Mam Barrisdale to Inverie, or over the mountains! There is no TV signal either, and televisions are used to play videos or DVDs. 
We were invited up to Liz's house one morning to see a film made by the area's school children, with the help of some professionals, for a competition last year - which they won! We climbed the hill path and crossed the bridge to the house - another beautiful wooden one - and were greeted by Ewan, Andy's and Liz's 10-year-old, who had himself taken part in the film making. We had decided to treat the visit like a visit to the cinema as Ewan had announced he had made popcorn for the occasion. We all duly paid a small entrance fee to Ewan as we arrived and he was delighted, not being a materialistic child for whom nothing is enough. Tickets were soon produced - small pieces of cut up card - which we all received graciously before being ushered to our seats in the living room and provided with a bowl of popcorn each.
Then we sat back to await the curtain opening - he'd set that up too - and watch the film which was about the cutting down of the forest and what the trees mean to everyone. It was a very entertaining morning, with Ewan on tea duty after the film. Here is a link to the film - Munch a tree a forest! http://www.filmstreet.co.uk/article.aspa?PageId=675&NodeId=175
We were invited up to Liz's house one morning to see a film made by the area's school children, with the help of some professionals, for a competition last year - which they won! We climbed the hill path and crossed the bridge to the house - another beautiful wooden one - and were greeted by Ewan, Andy's and Liz's 10-year-old, who had himself taken part in the film making. We had decided to treat the visit like a visit to the cinema as Ewan had announced he had made popcorn for the occasion. We all duly paid a small entrance fee to Ewan as we arrived and he was delighted, not being a materialistic child for whom nothing is enough. Tickets were soon produced - small pieces of cut up card - which we all received graciously before being ushered to our seats in the living room and provided with a bowl of popcorn each.
Then we sat back to await the curtain opening - he'd set that up too - and watch the film which was about the cutting down of the forest and what the trees mean to everyone. It was a very entertaining morning, with Ewan on tea duty after the film. Here is a link to the film - Munch a tree a forest! http://www.filmstreet.co.uk/article.aspa?PageId=675&NodeId=175How many spoonfuls of sugar?
Ewan's dad Andy was away most of the week on board "Mary Doune" with a group who had chartered the boat to explore the western isles, but we caught up with him on our last morning as he helped to load our bags back on board Gripper for our return trip to Mallaig.......and here's Liz having a well deserved long cold drink in the kitchen after dinner one night. 
Liz looks after the Lodge we stay in, but also works in the kitchen cooking up the most wonderful breads and cakes, soups, main courses and desserts! Mealtimes are a true gastronomic delight! She also grows veggies and herbs in a polytunnel in her garden behind the house.
After our film show we had a guided tour!
Martin, who as well as being in charge of the restaurant, is boatman (on Gripper) and errand boy, collecting stores and visitors from Mallaig - and returning the visitors there in due course - and as in the photo, fetching prawns from the prawnman at Croulin a little way along the coast, and bringing in any other local necessities. There is no rubbish (garbage) collection over there either so every time there is a trip to Mallaig a few rubbish bags go too - not that there's much after paper. etc. has been burnt and leftover food fed to the chickens..... Doune is very eco-friendly. 
Jane, Martin's wife (left, Liz on right) has become a dab hand at setting and lifting the crab pots out in the bay and can often be seen tootling off in the RIB - rigid inflatable boat - towards the buoys marking their locations. She also looks after the chickens, collecting their wonderfully free range eggs whose yolks are not just yellow but almost orange!
(Maybe that's got something to do with the hens browsing the seaweed for sand hoppers etc.) She also grows fruit and veggies in the garden, and tomatoes in the greenhouse attached to the house; works in the kitchen and dining room as well as looking after the Stone Lodge guest rooms, which involves laundry duties too of course.... A if that wasn't enough she always has time for a wee blether (a bit of a conversation) with the visitors, and will sometimes entertain us with her opera singing. What a voice!
Jane, seated, enjoying a joke with Gisela and Christy.
Jane and Martin have two daughters who are growing up fast and doing their own thing these days. They weren't at home during the week so we didn't see them this time. Jamie, Alan's and Mary's son, completes the partnership at Doune, being in charge of sailing trips on the "Eda Frandsen", a former Danish fishing boat, lovingly rebuilt and transformed at Doune, into their own tall ship. Sometimes "Eda" returns to Doune before we leave but we were to miss her and Jamie too this time as they were off on an extended cruise.
The rest of the Dounies are mainly seasonal helpers, doing whatever jobs need to be done, from weeding to waiting at table in the dining room..... We have met a succession of wonderful helpers at Doune, including Christy (above), some of whom remain in the area after their work time is up! Anne Marie and Christine both worked in the pub in Inverie. Daniel is also in Inverie making beautiful and very special flute like whistles. Alastair married Anita and both returned this year for a second season, though they will be off to Canadian pastures new come the end of this year.
One more person has to be called an honorary Dounie, and that is Gisela (see above), a delightful German lady who once came as a visitor, but who has returned for a few weeks summer after summer as a friend and helper . When Ewan was a baby she carried him around in a baby pack on her back as she went walking, and as he grew up she was his babysitter and companion. Nowadays they still go off on expeditions together, Ewan running back and forth, turning cartwheels and leaping over rocks. How she has the energy to keep up with him.....! 
Oh and I mustn't forget the latest addition to the Doune residents! Ron is a very lovely little 5 month old collie/labrador cross, who is very exuberant and bouncy right now! She is full of life - yes, Ron IS a she (don't ask!) - but will benefit from some training in NO, HEEL, SIT, STAY, before long, to ensure that she doesn't go running off with one of Joan's shoes or her pincushion - full of pins I might add - next year!!!!!!
So there we are! Doune and the Dounies! And I shouldn't forget a picture of the boats, Gripper II and Mary Doune as they too began new lives at Doune!
The white yacht is a visiting boat, Gripper is in the middle with Mary Doune on the right.
Next time I'll show you the lacemaking pictures!Talk again soon.
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