Mansion, Lichens and Hillwalking

We were lucky enough to get invited to our friend Harry's 30th birthday which was spent a a swank mansion in the Highlands close to some good hill walking.

View of the Cuilin Mountains on the Isle of Skye

The pictures really don't do the size of this place justice. It was massively spacious. This is living room #1.Living room #2

The upstairs hallway.

There was about 10 bedrooms upstairs, so the place slept 20 in comfy beds. But if you wanted to cram folks in and sleep on the floor, I imagine you could easily fit 200 in.

The dining room.
Andy and Harriet did it justice by bringing one bottle of wine per person per day, along with plenty of gin and tonic and whiskey.

Scary control panel

We listened to the Beatles on LP!

The gardens

There were loads of cool lichens in the woods. I wish I could identify them all, but I would have needed my dissecting kit, a microscope, a big fat lichen key book and either a lichen expert to explain all the terms in the book or a whole lot of time. Regardless of this I was stoked after our two lichen classes and I'm seriously considering doing something lichen-focused for my thesis.

Funky foliose lichen.

Long rhizines (the 'rooty' bits underneath).

Cool cup lichen

White stream lichen

My favourite lichen of the day.

Close up of the apothecia - the spore-bearing sexual reproductive bits of the lichen.
Also known as 'jam tarts'.

We hiked up some peak as well.

Successful destressing after spending too many hours in front of a screen.