The skulls of Glengarrisdale, Jura.

We made our way up to the former shepherd's house which is now a well maintained MBA bothy. The last shepherd left the glen in about 1947.

 On this occasion the bothy was empty but we soon...

...had it feeling homely by lighting the fire with a bag of charcoal and the last few logs which we had brought.

 We also lit the macabre skull candle holder on the mantle-shelf above the fire.

 It was most satisfying to be able to cook a hot dinner in the shelter of the bothy, wash it down with a mug of hot tea then write up our story in the Bothy log book.

 After we had warmed up and cleaned the bothy, we went out for a little explore. David was most taken with this whale jaw bone...

...but not even his veterinary skills could resuscitate any of the patients in this box. Glengarrisdale has a long history of bones and skulls. It used to be called...

...Maclean's Skull Bay. A gruesome skull and femurs sat on a rock at the edge of the bay for many years. They disappeared in the 1970's. The skull had a "sword" cut in it and allegedly belonged to one of the defeated Macleans from a battle in 1647. Modern legend says it was situated in a cave at the east of the bay. However, in John Mercer's book "Hebridean Islands, Colonsay, Gigha, Jura" published in 1974, the above photo shows the sad relics on a rock at the west end of the bay. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

Some very unpleasant things happened in Scotland's history.

Glengarrisdale was a Maclean stronghold in the mid 17th century. Their stone built fortification, Aros Castle, no longer remains but its site is marked by an isolated stand of trees not far inland from the bothy. It was here that the Macleans were defeated by their nemesis the clan Campbell.

 Time had now marched on and we retraced our footsteps to the bothy to collect our things...

 ...and make our way back down to the waiting boats. In the distance the flood tide was still pouring out of the Corryvreckan and I rather hoped that Maurice and Sam did not notice the large tourist RIBS that were buzzing about and regularly disappearing in breaking standing waves.

I think Maurice must have seen the white water in the Corryvreckan because as we carried the boats the short distance to the water* he asked "What do you think it will be like?"

"What will what be like?" I replied, ever so innocently.

"The Corryvreckan." said Maurice in a very hushed tone.

"Oh, that....it will be flat as a millpond." I said, confidently. I could see Maurice was far from convinced.

*note the impeccable timing!

Read Ian's account here.

Waiting for the Corryvreckan tide at Glengarrisdale.

As we were finishing second breakfast, the chilly silence of Corpach Bay was broken by the rumble of engines. The SC Nordic, a Danish pallet carrier of 4,786 gross tonnage, was making her way NE between Colonsay and Jura towards the Sound of Mull. She was enroute from Greenock on the Clyde to Skogn in Trondheimsfjorden, Norway. Soon she was out of earshot and silence again fell over the bay of the dead (Corpach Bay).

 Once on the water again, too much north in the wind kept our sails furled but steady progress...

...saw the brooding bulk of Scarba increasingly dominate our view ahead.

Scarba marks the northern side of the fearsome Gulf of Corryvreckan and its steep slopes plunging into the rushing tides add to the intimidating nature of the place...but more of that later.

We were able to launch the sails again as the onshore breeze backed to a tight reach. Above the rough hills our eyes were drawn to...

 ...the magnificent sight of a pair of...

 ...white tailed sea eagles soaring on the same onshore wind (which we were paddle sailing in) creating an up draught above the slope.

This one either had a white tag on its wing or was missing some feathers. Maurice was amazed. He had gone from never having seen a sea eagle to seeing 4 within 24 hours. It did occur to me that this might be the same pair that we had seen the previous day, some 25km to the west on the east coast of Colonsay. However, they are lazy big birds and once they have a mate and territory they tend not to stray far. On average a sea eagle's territory is about 8km in diameter.

 There are very few places to land on this rough coast pathless which is the domain...

...of these nimble goats.

Neither Maurice nor Sam had been through the Corryvreckan before and they fell behind in some deep discussion about what to expect.

Neither of them seemed convinced....

 ...by my reassurances that it would be flat as a pancake, especially as we drew ever nearer to the Gulf. Perhaps this was because the previous evening, Ian and I had given a dramatic account of our last trip through the Corryvreckan.  This had involved breaking standing waves and moving backwards. This was despite paddling forward at full pelt, the tide had turned against us and threatened to carry us back the way we had just come.

On this trip, the west going spring flood was still in full flow at 8 knots and as we wanted to traverse the Gulf to the east it was time for a sharp...

 ...exit to the right, where we entered Glengarrisdale Bay where the eponymous...

 ...red roofed bothy lay at the back of the bay. It would make an ideal shelter from the cold wind for our three hour wait for the tide to turn.

 So we landed on the sands of the bay and...

 ...warmed up by carrying the boats well up the beach...

...so that we would be sure the tide would not carry the boats away during an extended Glengarrisdale luncheon.

A traverse of the Corryvreckan: "Beware of the flood in a sudden calm preceded by several days of strong west winds."

Slack water after the Corryvreckan flood was at 16:10 on 19/04/2017. To give ourselves time to get to the west end of the Corryvreckan where the incoming swell would meet the flood tide we set off from Port nam Furm at 15:24.

As we rounded the headland at the north end of Jura we came across the Sea Leopard II tour boat from Craignish Cruises.  Her alert skipper immediately throttled back to reduce her wake. This was very appreciated as wake combines with the Corryvreckan currents to produce very irregular waves. Several times in the Corryvreckan I have had to battle against such wake waves from thrill seeking power boats. To be fair I have never met anything but courtesy from the professional tour boats. Anyway after a big wave of thanks to the Sea Leopard II we set on our way.

Ahead, our eyes were now drawn to the open sea. I was quite glad that neither Ian nor Mike seemed to notice the large standing waves to our right which were forming over the pinnacle in the fairway of the Corryvreckan where the whirlpool forms.

It had been very windy from the west until the early hours of the morning, so we approached the west end with some trepidation. The pilot books warn: "Beware of the flood in a sudden calm preceded by several days of strong west winds. On the last of the flood an overfall can form as the tide meets the swell and form a solid wall of water across the Gulf." However, all was calm as we made our way through the narrowest part of the Gulf but...

 ...as we caught sight of the first of the islands on the south shore, we met the first of a series of large large swells that were marching in against the outgoing tide.

At this point the flood tide was still running west at 6km/hour though out beyond the islands it appeared to be approaching slack water.

 We were approaching the gap between Aird Bhreacain and Buige rock (just to the NW of the 68 on the map) and where the water is shallower when all of a...

...breaking standing wave reared up right across the channel. The tide was carrying me towards it at 6km/hour and there was no way round so I just dug my paddles in to pick up some momentum. I got a face full of water but I was safely through. As I was then left trying to clear my flooded sinuses I have no idea whether the others had to face the same. It was now 16:08 just about bang on slack and we had got through the Corryvreckan! However, the tide had now turned and was now trying to push us back into the Corryvreckan. I had set a destination waypoint on my GPS and the velocity made good fell until it was reading -1.6km per hour. Time for a sharp exit!

George Orwell nearly came to grief here in 1947 with his son, nephew and niece when his motor dinghy got swamped. Fortunately the tide carried them onto Eilean Mor where they scrambled up the rocks. Some hours later a passing fishing boat  plucked them to safety.

 After 2.5km of somewhat strenuous paddling we arrived in the shelter of Bagh Uamh nan Giall. We had made it through the Corryvreckan. I have traversed the Corryvreckan many times E-W W-E on both the north and south shores, NW-SE, SW-NE and straight through the middle. I have no doubt that exiting the SW corner is the most committing though in 2008 Tony and I had a somewhat thrilling entrance, W-E on the north shore while the west going flood was still in full pelt.

On that occasion we took advantage of an east going eddy that runs along the Scarba shore on the flood. This eddy then swings out from the shore into the vortex that forms the whirlpool! Your breaking out skills need to be pretty sharp to avoid ending up in the whirlpool!

I have written extensively on the geography, history, mythology, and route planning of the Corryvreckan in previous posts which you can read here.

Sitting it out in Port nam Furm while waiting for the tide in the Corryvreckan

As we made our way up the coast of NE Jura a southerly breeze began to pick up and...

 ...it was strong enough to take an occasional rest to admire the local inhabitants.

Goats and particularly deer greatly outnumber the human inhabitants. Indeed Jura is one of the least densely populated areas in Scotland.

 We made great speed up to the prominent house at...

 ...Barnhill. This remote spot was chosen by George Orwell (real name Eric Blair) to recover his health after the war. He rented Barnhill from the Fletcher family (who still own and rent it) from 1946 until he died in 1950. He wrote the novel "1984" here between 1946 and 1948.

Beyond Barnhill, the current in the Sound of Jura really picked up and it accelerated us up to 14.5km/hr and...

 ...on towards the eastern end of the Gulf of Corryvreckan which separates jura from Scarba.

Great boils of water rose from the inky black depths of the Gulf and given the swell we expected to meet at the western end, it would have been foolish to continue through the Gulf until the flood tide had eased.

 I knew of an eddy within the eastern end of the Gulf which is backed by...

 ...a tiny bay called Port nam Furm (Port of the Chair). I had told the others that this was Gaelic for Last Chance Saloon! I had camped here with Tony in 2007 and stopped here with Jennifer, Phil and Tony in 2010.

When Tony and I camped we had time to climb to the N end of Jura to watch the flood which was at neaps, on this occasion it was almost springs.

It was rather frustrating sitting in the shelter not being able to see round the corner to the dreaded west end of the Corry. We wanted to arrive there at slack water which was at 16:10 (see here for how to calculate slack in the Corryvreckan) so we decided to wait.

 Fortunately this otter provided...

 ...plenty of entertainment while...

...we sat it out in Port nam Furm.