The Dead of Appin

Travel Guide

Appin, Scottish Highlands

DI Blue and DS McCader cross the Connel Bridge to reach the cottage where a body has been found in a burnt-out car.

Dawn was already colouring the eastern sky as they set off. That was good – they’d be able to get a good look at the car and its contents in daylight. They were soon crossing the Connel Bridge, a former railway bridge that now carried the road over Loch Etive. Across the bridge, McCader drove on for a few hundred yards, then turned right opposite the entrance to the airport into the road that ran along the north side of the loch.

DI Blue and forensic archaeologist Alison Hendickx visit the Jubilee Bridge, where a body will later be found.

On the way back, not far out of Port Appin, theyʼd just passed a small caravan park, when Blue pulled into a parking area on the seaward side of the road. He led Alison along a path until they could see, stretching across the mouth of a small loch, a narrow bridge of wood faded to grey, and perhaps a hundred yards long.

“Thatʼs the Jubilee Bridge,” he told her, “It runs across the mouth of Loch Laich. It was built so people could cross the salt marsh here to the church. Now itʼs used mainly by walkers. It’s where Archie’s standing on his book cover. Thereʼs a great view of Castle Stalker from here too.”

“They looked out at the castle, poised on a tiny islet further off in Loch Laich. After its restoration, the square tower house made a romantic and impressive building, used by film-makers more than once. One could imagine the highland hero or the fugitive prince being rowed out to the castle by his trusty henchman (or woman), to await the ship that would carry him into exile.”

“Then they walked on, and across the bridge, so narrow they were obliged to walk single file. At the other side, a causeway took them to a gate leading onto the disused railway line, another favourite for walkers. “If we followed the track, weʼd soon reach the Old Inn at Portnacroish, thatʼs another great place to eat. We should do that one day.”

“On the way back they took a detour to look at the old ruined church at Appin, and read the inscriptions on the tombstones. Lives encapsulated in a few words. Names preserved in stone, memories of those named fading as the letters themselves were faded by the wind and the rain.”