The wind and the rain battered the tents during the night. I arose shortly after dawn about 04:15 and looking west Bennan Head was looking rather wild as the flood tide met the NE wind. I went back to bed but we got up at 6am before any of the other campers had stirred. This is the view east to the Ayrshire coast and this...
is the view south to Ailsa Craig and Pladda. We decided to miss breakfast but boiled some water in the camp site kettle for coffee.
We were on the water shortly after seven so we would round Bennan Head about slack water.
The wind was from the NE and was cross offshore. It was very gusty about F4-5.
It was not long before Kildonan Point and Pladda...
...disappeared in our wakes and...
,,,Bennan Head loomed ahead. It woul;d have been fun for Mike and I to to hoist sails but above F4...
...Ian would never have been able to keep up. It seems difficult to believe but there is a
hidden harbour on this inhospitable shore. It is called
Port a' Ghille Ghlais but we did not feel much like taking time out to explore on this occasion. Our minds were on the approaching headland. Recently footprints of Isochirotherium herculis have been found in the Triassic sedimentary rock between the basalt dykes.
The seas round the Head had fortunately calmed somewhat since I had seen them at 04:15 and...
...we were able to admire the bold blade of rock of the headland and the Black Cave (which has a blow hole at the top).A tumbling waterfall completed the wild scene as we turned the most southerly point of Arran.
Round the head we entered the lee of the land and we could relax on the next stage of the paddle to Cleats Shore. This shore is sandy at high tide but very rocky at low tide so many potential camping spots are high tide only. A line of cliffs sits back from a raised beach and numerous basalt dykes radiate out from the shore. This coastline has been the scene of many ship wrecks not only because of the tides and rough waters but because many of the dykes extend for more than half a kilometre from the shore.
