Walks

Dun I

Distance: 1.41 miles
Ascent: 94 metres
Duration: 32 minutes

Iona's Hill

Rising to 100 metres above sea level (and another metre if you include the summit cairn), Dun I is Iona's hill - both in name and in fact. From here the entire island unfolds: the farmland to the north contrasting with the rough moorland of the south. Between them, the "big village" Baile Mòr and on its outskirts, the Abbey.

The short walk from the Abbey to Dun I's summit may be straightforward, but there's still a strong sense of achievement as the viewpoint reveals that you are indeed standing on an island, with water visible between the horizon and the land in three hundred and sixty degrees.

On a clear day the view is phenomenal. The three Paps of Jura can be clearly identified to the south-east; directly south you may be able to make out the lighthouse at Dubh Artach fifteen miles away. The line on the horizon to the north-west marks Coll and Tiree, the outermost Inner Hebrides while to the north-north-east the furthest landmarks beyond Mull are the hills of Rùm, Eigg and Skye.

This walk is well worth an hour of anyone's time on Iona; even if just visiting for the day I'd say it's an essential part of your trip.

Memories , Personal , Tech

Mathematical puzzles and diversions

Martin Gardner died at the weekend. He was 95.

I didn't read much of his work but I know Dad was a big fan, and through him Martin's writings influenced me a great deal. Without Martin would I have written an endless stream of computer programs in the late '80s exploring abstract topology? Is Martin why one of Dad's car number plates included the sequence "1-3-5" while mine runs "8-4-2"? Without him would I have given a second thought to the simultaneous alphabetic and chronological ordering of my family's initials? Is my penchant for arranging objects in patterns traceable back to columns in Scientific American which I didn't ever see?

Sometime before I was nine years old I remember Dad asking us children whether the sum of an even number and an odd number would be odd or even, then challenging us to prove it. It was classic Dad, and the kind of thing which Martin Gardner approached in his columns.

I've been looking sideways at number ever since, finding heaven in the ordinary, whether recognising the Fibonacci sequence encoded in the artwork of U2's No Line on the Horizon, devising an elegant algorithm, or looking down from a coast path at the pattern of waves in a cove.

Thanks Martin.

Comment

Elected

Every time I hear a Conservative politician complaining about a Prime Minister "not elected by the British people" (as Lord Hurd and William Hague have on live TV just now), I wonder if they really know anything about our electoral system. I don't ever remember getting the opportunity vote for a Prime Minister, only a local Member of Parliament.

Why do broadcasters never challenge this?

Any why for that matter to such politicians also seem to conveniently forget that John Major was in the very same position in 1990? Surely they know; the only conclusion I can come up with is that they are deliberately trying to manipulate the public.

Conservatives: ignorant, forgetful and manipulative. Not exactly what I would hope for out of a Government.

Comment

A bitter taste

So what flavour did you get?

We were left with the same Westminster career politician who - on the three times I've taken to write to her - has ignored my questions, responded dismissively, and provided a regurgitation of Tory HQ documents instead.

Earlier in the day there were queues at our polling station and I was swelled with hope. Unfortunately it looks like once again I'm left with the bitter taste of an MP who seems to have no interest in dialogue with her constituents. It's not a good result.