Thousands of years in defence of the realm in the Sound of Bute.

When we rounded Garroch Head at the south end of Bute we caught first sight of our destination for our night's camp. Low lying Inchmarnock was still 10km away but already we could make out the light quartzite beach at its south end.

 On the way up the west coast of Bute we passed the Iron Age hill forts at Dunagoil and...

 ...Dunstrone and...

 ...Ardscalpsie. This was clearly a land that was worth defending.

 As we paddled up the Sound of Bute towards Inchmarnock the sun was lowering.....

...when a Type 23 frigate roared down the Sound at her full 28 knots towards the measured mile.Although too far away to identify her number, she is almost certainly HMS St Albans. She was built on the Clyde in 2000 and has just undergone a major refit and is now completing sea trials before re-entering service in the summer of 2014.

Thirty glorious hours in the Firth of Clyde.

It was with some sadness that we left the north end of Inchmarnock. Our adventure round the isles  and peninsulas of the Firth of Clyde would soon be over.

 Gradually the isles of Inchmarnock and Arran and the distant Kintyre peninsula (where we had set off from that morning)...

 ...receded into the haze and patches of sea mist behind us.

 Soon we were paddling across Ettrick Bay on Bute towards Kildavanan Point near where we had set out just the previous day...

 ...only 30 hours previously. We each commented that it seemed we had been on our adventure for a much longer time. It was as if we had entered another time zone where time ran more slowly.

 As we looked out at Ardlamont Point on the right to distant Kintyre then to mountainous Arran and low lying Inchmarnock on the right, we realised that we had experienced true wilderness and an amazing variety of wildlife so very close to home. You do not need to travel to the far corners of the World to find adventure, it is much closer than you think. We didn't even paddle very far....

...we covered just 55km over the two days.


Postscript.

 Ian's wife arrived with a car to run the shuttle back to Rothesay to pick up Mike's car. While they were away I slowly carried the bags of our gear up the beach to near the road. When I finished, I sat down to enjoy, for the last time,  the wonderful panorama of where we had been during those 30 hours. Behind me the woodland and fields were alive with bird song.Cheeky chaffinches hopped round my feet looking for crumbs from my last biscuit and in the air high above a meadow pippit was descending slowly with its wonderful trilling song.

 Shortly afterwards Ian, his wife...

 ..and Mike arrived to load the kayaks onto the cars for the journey home.

While we were waiting at the ferry terminal Ian ran back to Zavaroni's to get some tubs of ice cream. I kept having to move round to get the photo of Ian with the cones in the background. Real men don't eat ice cream in cones!

We did not have long to wait for the ferry and soon we were leaving Rothesay (framed by the distant Arran mountains) behind in the wake of the ...

 ...MV Bute.

When we passed Toward lighthouse and could see the houses of Wemyss Bay, we knew our adventure was over.

A tale of a Queen, a Saint and a Lord on Inchmarnock.

Our voyage now took us north where we entered the sheltered Inchmarnock Sound which separates the lovely isle of Inchmarnock from the larger island of Bute. Inchmarnock means isle of St Marnock who was a seventh century Christian missionary ( he also had churches named after him at Kilmarnock or Cille Marnock and elsewhere  in Scotland). After his death, St Marnock's head was frequently carried in procession to ensure good weather for harvests etc. (I do hope he did not die from decapitation.) Long before Marnock's day it was also home to the Queen of the Inch. We planned to pass her burial spot later.

As we would now be paddling in sheltered coastal waters, we had ditched the dry suits and were now much more comfortable. The east coast of Inchmarnock is less rugged and more fertile than its wilder west coast. It is said that people suffering from alcohol problems from Bute were once marooned here as there was no pub on the island (as you will have  read previously, we made judicious provisioning and brought our own supplies).

 Soon we passed below the sad ruins of the deserted Mid Park farm buildings and...

 ...its still fertile fields. Although Inchmarnock has not had a resident population for many years, it was bought in 1999 by Robert Smith, the Rt. Hon. The Lord Smith of Kelvin, KT, Kt. He introduced a herd of pedigree highland cattle which are farmed organically.

A little north of Mid Park, we came to the new landing place, where the MV Marnock was moored. Lord Smith commissioned her from the Ardmaleish boatyard on the neighbouring island of Bute. Her main task is related to the island's farm. As I approached I heard a chif chaff's distinctive call. I was rather surprised to see it perched on one of the Marnock's aerials. Although you often hear chiff chaffs, you seldom see them in the open, they prefer to flit unseen through the leaf canopy in woodland.

 A little breeze got up and Mike and I put our sails up but Ian was not left behind as...

 ...it never reached the forecast force four.

All too soon we neared the north of the isle and spotted the remains of North Park farm above the yellow gorse bushes by the shore.

At the north end of Inchmarnock there is a large colony of common seals. They like to haul out near the shingle beach...

.... above which the 4,000 year old remains of...

...the Queen of the Inch were discovered in a stone cist. The above photo of the cist was taken in 2007 when the disinterred Queen's remains were being studied by archaeologists from Headland Archaeology. I contacted Inchmarnock Estate by email, asking for more information. Lord Smith himself  kindly phoned back and explained that he intended to have her remains re-interred on the island, which subsequently happened in 2010. I enjoyed a fascinating hour talking to Lord Smith about the history of Inchmarnock. He has a deep interest in the island and funded an archaeological dig by Headland Archaeology. Their results were published in 2008.

For the full StereoVision experience see Ian's account here.

There is nothing in our club's constitution to prevent our members taking an early luncheon...

When we landed at Inchmarnock it was high water. Our temperatures were also high and we were so hot that we wasted no time in getting out of our hot dry suits.

Though Mike showed better judgement, Ian and I threw ourselves headlong into the inviting cool looking waters of the Sound of Bute. The air temperature may have been 18C but what I can tell you is that a water temperature of 7.5C is scarcely compatible with human metabolism and life. Ian and I staggered out of the icy waters after only a few seconds. After some time, we regained the power of speech and assured Mike that it had been wonderfully refreshing.

Fortunately there was no wind and the sun had warmed the pebbles on the beach. We warmed up nicely as we enjoyed our first luncheon. Ian and I are often quizzed on the difference between third breakfast and first luncheon. It is really very simple. As we had enjoyed a snifter of 15y old Dalmore with our meal, this was first luncheon. We are most abstemious and NEVER take liquor with breakfast of any description. It is the only rule in our little sea kayaking club. Of course, there is nothing in our club's constitution to prevent our members taking an early luncheon...

It was difficult to imagine anywhere in the World where we would rather be. There was not another soul, boat, ship or building in sight. The only sound was the occasional lapping of a wavelet on the shingle of the beach. We enjoyed a wonderful view over the Sound of Bute to the mountains of Arran beyond. All this yet I was only 50 kilometres from my home in Glasgow!

We savoured the environs of Inchmarnock for over am hour before we somewhat reluctantly took to the boats again and...

...paddled out of Inchmarnock's beautiful lagoon.

For the full StereoVision experience see Ian's account here.

Fog, Hercules, porpoise and greylag on the morning run to Inchmarnock.

We paddled round the north coast of  the Cock of Arran until our GPS showed the distance to our next waypoint on the isle of  Inchmarnock had stopped falling. 

We then set off on the second crossing of the day. The south end of Inchmarnock was 9km across the Sound of Bute but although the sky was clearing there was still fog at sea level and...

 ...there was not a sign of Inchmarnock on the horizon.

We set off on a compass bearing but shortly after leaving the coast of Arran the GPS showed the flood tide was drifting us to port so we continued on a ferry angle to starboard.

A roar of turboprop engines while we were mid-crossing announced the arrival of this RAF Hercules transport plane. They must have enjoyed a nice tour of the SW of Scotland as my wife saw it flying over the Solway Firth (125 km distant) a little earlier in the day.

 Just as the mist cleared allowing us to see Inchmarnock a solitary porpoise surfaced ahead of us.

At last the skies cleared revealing the...

 ...bright quartzite beach at the south end of Inchmarnock. The heat of the day was building and we had chosen to wear dry suits for the open crossings as the water temperature was only 7.5 degrees C and the wind had been forecast to get up to F4 southerly.The wind never appeared with the result was that we were boiled in the bag. The air temperature was 18C on the coast (24C inland) and it was the hottest day of the year so far.

As we approached the reefs of Inchmarnock a flight of greylag geese passed by. These large geese are not resident in the Clyde and migrate further north in the summer. It was the 29th of April and the other species of migratory geese had long since gone. The greylags do lag behind the other geese somewhat as they are always the last to leave in the spring.

All quiet on the Sound of Bute.

As we approached the south end of Inchmarnock, we knew we were entering our home waters again when we caught our first sight of the Galloway Hills rising above the low plains of Ayrshire. To the left of Phil a long line of mountains leads to the Merrick (843m) some 85 km to the SE. Just to its left, the smaller summit is Mullwharchar 692m.

The reefs off Inchmarnock could be seen deep below our keels as we swung round the south end of the island and...

 ...caught sight of our next destination the Isle of Bute.

 As we left Inchmarnock a gentle breeze got up and we wasted no time in hoisting our sails...

...as we set off on the 8 km crossing to Dunagoil Bay on Bute. Little did we know that our peace would soon be disturbed....