The peace of our crossing to Loch Ranza in NW Arran was temporarily broken by the rumble of the MV Loch Tarbert's engines. She was running on the route from Lochranza to Claonaig on Kintyre. She soon passed on and silence returned....well not quite. The eerie calls of the divers in mid-channel were replaced by a cacophony of cuckoos calling from the corries..
There seemed to be at least four cuckoos. One in Glen Catacol to the south. One in the Coille Mor corrie, high above Lochranza village,...
...one from a corrie high on the slopes above the NE side of Loch Ranza and...
...at least one more, high in one of the corries above Glen Chalmadale. What an aural welcome the cuckoos made as we paddled into misty Loch Ranza as these...
...two yachts were preparing to leave. It was with some satisfaction that I told their crew we had been up early and had already crossed from Kintyre!
We continued up Loch Ranza as far as the peninsula upon which...
...the ancient walls of...
Lochranza Castle had stood for centuries..
Like
Skipness Castle across the Kilbrannan Sound (which we had passed the previous day), Lochranza Castle had originally been built by the MacSweens to control the north end of the Kilbrannan Sound. With the sound of the Lochranza cuckoos echoing round the hills, we decided to stop and explore....
