A flying visit to Campbeltown.

The MV Isle of Arran entered Campbeltown Loch to the north of Davaar Island and it's lighthouse. The fishing boat CN17 Perserverance was dropping her pots not far offshore.

Tony and I made our way down to the car deck to get ready to embark at 16:30.

We launched from this slipway just to the north of the ferry terminal. Amazingly we were on the water by 16:56. This was to be a flying visit to Campbeltown as we hoped to get well up the east coast of Kintyre before nightfall. Leaving the slipway we passed MV Fame from Bergen. She is a general cargo ship and is often seen round the Clyde.

Although Campbeltown is a pretty quiet place these days at various times it has had a huge fishing fleet, a coalmine, a canal which was superseded by a railway, 30 odd whisky distilleries, a huge military airbase and extensive farms in the surrounding countryside.

It was not just the ferry that was bringing visitors to Cambeltown. This was the 18:05 FlyBE flight coming in from Glasgow.

The MV Isle of Arran soon swept out of Cambeltown Loch...

...and we followed in her wake, leaving Campbeltown quickly behind. A nice little tail wind got up so we wasted no time in...

...launching our Flat Earth kayak sails.

In no time we were at the mouth of the loch and caught sight of a distant Ailsa Craig on which we hoped to camp in three nights time but...

...for now we turned our bows north to paddle sail up the east coast of Kintyre towards the Kilbrannan Sound and the soaring granite peaks of Arran beyond. Our adventure had started...

Life in the raw but not the buff at Cleats Shore.

 Paddling along the south coast of Arran with a tail wind we quickly left Ailsa Craig in the distance.

Ahead (in the dip where Campbeltown Loch bites into the Kintyre peninsula) we could see Davaar Island with its lighthouse glinting in a shaft of sunlight.  Given the weather forecast, we were glad we were not setting off on a 20km crossing of the Kilbrannan Sound

 As we passed Clachaig farm we noticed this old and very large lime kiln. From the late 18th to the mid 19th century lime was used extensively to improve the land. Initially the kilns burned locally mined limestone but latterly the kilns used  limestone which was imported from Ireland. Our destination was...
.

 ...Cleats Shore. As we approached, a pair of shelduck were making their way along the coast with their...

 ...large brood. All of a sudden a black backed gull swooped down and flew off with one of the chicks. As the gull tried to swallow the chick alive, the male shelduck repeatedly attacked it but the chick was swallowed whole. Even then the shelduck kept up the attack until the gull managed to escape. It was a horrible sight of nature in the raw but that is what nature is, the gull also has chicks to feed.

 As we drew our kayaks up the sands it was still not quite 9am so it was definitely time for...

 ...breakfast. We had intended going up to the ruins at Cleiteadh but there were nesting ringed plovers on the upper shore so we stayed on the lower beach. The fresh wind was bitingly cold but we got plenty shelter from the dyke to...

 ...cook up our victuals, which we consumed while watching...

 ...this otter teaching her cub to hunt in the...

 ...lee of Cleiteadh Mor.

 All to soon it was time to wash up and...

...return to the boats. The sun came out which was rather a pleasant surprise as rain was forecast. Indeed it was pouring in the north of the island, so we had chosen well to circumnavigate clockwise and do the south first!

We  may have seen life in the raw at Cleats Shore but despite it being the only official naturist beach in Scotland there was not a nudist in sight. Given the air temperature, we decided not to exercise our legal right to go for a swim in the nude.

A four pointed cross on a two pointed island.

As we approached the mouth of Campbeltown Loch our eyes were drawn to the NE and the Isle of Arran which lay on the far side of the Kilbrannan Sound. It looked very enticing in the early evening light. That had been our poor weather alternative route back to Ardrossan but since the weather was fair we turned our eyes south towards the...

 ...causeway that links the west point of Davaar island to the mainland of Kintyre. We were amazed at the number of gannets, guillemots and razorbills we saw in the air and waters around us.

There was still just under 3 hours till local HW and the causeway was still dry so we set off round the outside of Davaar island which would add about 2 km to our route south, towards the Mull of Kintyre.

The attractive, white cottage (called the Lookout), which blends so well with the magnificent scenery, is now a holiday rental home. Its rather utilitarian architecture can perhaps be blamed on WW2 austerity. It was built for Royal Navy crews to watch shipping entering the loch and operate anti-submarine nets and cables.

The lighthouse was built in 1854 by David and Thomas Stevenson. It was automated in 1983. The light has a double white flash every 10 seconds.

Davaar is derived from the Gaelic "Da-Bharr" which means two points. We now approached the second, northern point.

This can be a lively place at the height of a flood tide (if the wind is from the north) but all was calm as we rounded the point and caught our first sight of the rocky monolith of Ailsa Craig.

 Once we were in the lee of Davaar Island, the wind dropped but soon picked up as...

...we cleared its southern cliffs. We did not have time to stop but on a previous visit....

 ...Tony and I had entered a cave with two entrances at the back of which...

 ...stood a wooden cross.

As our eyes became used to the darkness we saw a painting of Christ on the back wall of the cave. It was pained in 1887 by Archibald MacKinnon who was a local teacher. It has been restored several times by art teachers from the school in Campbeltown. In 2006 it was vandalised when someone painted a copy of Jim Fitzpatrick's image of Che Guevara over Christ's face.

It was a relief  to feel the pull of the sail in the free air as we cleared Davaar Island. My injured left shoulder was already hurting and we had nearly 200 km to go before we got back to Ardrossan...