RUSSELL Leadbetter's piece on the Holy Loch's tenants fairly stirred up the memories ("First arrivals at the Holy Loch, 1961", The Herald, November 28). As a long-time "on and off "resident I look out at this moment in time from my window at where this amazing piece of the past used to sit and I am reminded of my father, who lived in Strone, calling me at my work in Glasgow in October, 1962 to tell me that the whole kit and caboodle had gone overnight and wondering why.

It was of course Defcon 2 and the Cuban crisis.

I used to console him with the thought that if it became a shooting nuclear war we in Dunoon wouldn't feel a thing compared to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims who survived the blast.

Anyway, lovely peaceful scene here at the aptly named Lazaretto Point.

Tom Law, Argyll.