Dalmally

So Julie is joining us from the shed that fed two and now three million children.

It's the headquarters of Mary's Meals in Dalmally in the Scottish Highlands, hidden away on the edge of the globe, if you don't mind me saying that, down from London.

And it's the shed where Mary's Meals started and still the headquarters.

And when did Mary's Meals start, Julie?

They thought that was their good deed done.

They joined a convoy of like minded people going out from the UK and got a little ferry over from Dover and everything, drove through Europe.

And when they delivered their goods, they genuinely thought their good deed was done and on their return home here to to Dalmally, this tiny tiny little village as you say in the west coast of Scotland, they found this shed and all the other sheds around and the house overflowing with donations and streams of people coming up this single track farm road giving what they could to help the people who were suffering so desperately in the former Yugoslavia.

So Magnus said the Lord made it very clear to him that this was not a one-off thing.

They've dear ones, but they've got cheap ones.

Are you gonna buy a lamb at Dalmally?

I was maybe gonna go up to Lanark tomorrow.

Yes.

Okay.

Why, why Lanark over Dalmally?

I don't know.

Just, well, just thought maybe just go to Lanark tomorrow.

The county is sparsely populated, with many islands and sea lochs along its coast, and the inland parts are mountainous.

Six towns in the county held burgh status: Campbeltown, Dunoon, Inveraray, Lochgilphead, Oban, and Dalmally.

Argyll borders Inverness-shire to the north, Perthshire and Dunbartonshire to the east, and, separated by the Firth of Clyde, neighbours Renfrewshire and Ayrshire to the southeast, and the county of Bute to the south.

The Kilmartin Glen has standing stones and other monuments dating back to around three thousand BC and is one of the most significant areas for Neolithic and Bronze Age remains in mainland Scotland.

Eh, that's what I was gonna ask you about though, just to finish this podcast, build a bit of hype.

Dalmally's coming.

I know.

Dalmally's coming.

At Ballymena, I don't know if you've seen the prices over there.

Aye, I did.

I thought he'd lost it completely, but he's still got it.

[laughs] Aye.

Next morning first we viewed a mound, memorial of some saint renowned, and then the mouldered ditch and ramp which marked an ancient Roman camp.

Then past Lubnaig on we went, gazed on Ben Ledy's steep ascent, and passed by lovely stream and valley through Dochart Glen to reach Dalmally, where on a rough and winding track we wished ourselves in safety back, till on our left we gladly saw the spreading waters of Loch Awe, and still more gladly, truth to tell, a very up-to-date hotel, with Conon's church within its ground which gave it quite a homely sound.

Thither we came upon the Sunday, viewed Kilchurn Castle on the Monday, and Tuesday saw us sally forth, bound for Oban in the north.

We came to Oban in the rain, I need not mention it again, for you may take it as a fact that in western Highland tract it sometimes spouts and sometimes drops, but never, never, never stops.