Hill farmer's true love...
A love story spanning six decades is just one of the true tales featured in writings of Appin hill farmer and holiday park founder Ian Weir.
This week sees Mr Weir and wife Sheila celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary.
The 87-year-old has published memories of his rural upbringing in two books and his stories have been aired and much-loved on Oban FM, winning listeners' hearts.
In a chapter in his first book A Life On The Land - Up The Airy Mountain, Mr Weir recounts how he and his wife first met – he was selling worms for fishing bait and she was sitting on the cross-bar of her dad's bike.
Little did either know at that time that 10 years later she would be partnering him at the Farmers' Ball in Oban's Royal Hotel – and a few years after that they would be married. The couple went on to have four children, seven grandchildren and a great-grandson.
Sheila's father was Bobby Kidd, the Benderloch station master and a keen fisherman, who had arrived by bike to buy bait that Ian had dug out of the farm's dung heap.
'I would perhaps have charged her dad less for the worms had I known what fate had in store,' said Ian. Because of the renewed interest in his first book, thanks to the radio airwaves, Mr Weir had it reprinted in November 2021 and just one month later brought out a sequel, called Down The Rushy Glen.
Both books are available from Waterstones in Oban, Albany store on Albany Street, Oban, as well as Connel and Port Appin shops.