Crinan's pyroligneous past.

As we entered Loch Crinan, the setting sun lit the north shore with a crimson light. The lonely farmhouse of Ardifuir nestles in a bowl in the hills. The agricultural land between it and the sea is a former raised beach.


Further into the loch we passed below the ancient walls of Duntrune castle.


We entered the shade at the head of the loch and, as we paddled through the yachts in Crinan Bay,I thought I caught a whiff of woodsmoke. A tall chimney betrays an interesting facet of sleepy Crinan's past. It was a factory for making pyroligneous acid. The process involved distilling wood and it operated between about 1840 to 1890 until the market for pyroligneous acid evaporated.

It was high tide and we pulled our boats up the little slipway in the heart of the village as darkness gathered round us. It had been a really great day. We had covered 38.5km, albeit with some tidal assistance!

En route from Crinan, bound for...?

On a cold frosty morning in mid October, we found ourselves in Crinan on the west coast of Scotland's long Kintyre peninsula. We had come here because a floating pontoon would allow me to get easy access to the water despite my injured knee.


Crinan is the launch point for many peoples' nautical adventures.


It is at the north west end of its eponymous canal, which links the Firth of Clyde to the Sound of Jura by cutting across the Kintyre peninsula.


The Mull of Kintyre lies over 90km to the SSW, so for many the canal is a shortcut, which also avoids one of the most notorious tidal headlands on Scotland's west coast.


We left Loch Crinan with hardly a sideways glance at Duntrune Castle. Where were we bound for...?

From Loch Crinan to Loch Craignish

From the Crinan Canal we left the pub behind and paddled north across Loch Crinan to the sandy beach below Duntrune Castle.


This was a wonderful place to stop for a leisurely lunch.


From the mouth of Loch Craignish, looking out through the Dorus Mor to the Gulf of Corryvreckan.

After lunch we wanted to make sure the tide had built up to maximum flow in the Dorus Mor, so we took a little detour into Loch Craignish to give it some more time.

12/02/2008

Crinan, the gateway from the Clyde to the west coast.

Continuing our recent paddle in the waters of the Dorus Mor, we approached sheltered Loch Crinan. In the summer this bay will be full of moored yachts. Most of them will of course remain on the mooring for the summer with perhaps a weekend trip motoring up nearby Loch Craignish to Ardfern.


The village of Crinan stands on the rim of a steep promontory in the loch. It is sheltered by the wooded isle of Eilean da Mheinn. In the 1580/90s, Timothy Pont mapped this part of Scotland. He annotated the map thus "heir is a herbory for a ship at ylen Damein & also wthin the throat of the river".


The sea lock of the Crinan Canal.

Since his time, the Crinan Canal was built between 1794 and 1816 by John Rennie and Thomas Telford. It is 9 miles long, has 15 locks and rises to a height of 65 feet. It connects Ardrishaig on the Clyde with Crinan on the Sound of Jura. This saves the long and dangerous 128 mile long voyage round the Mull of Kintyre.

There is a fine hotel here with a very good public bar but for once we decided to make best use of the unseasonal sunshine and paddled on! We must return on a rainy day!

12/02/2008

A sailor's grave high above the Sound of Jura.

Leaving the islands of the Dorus Mor, we allowed the tides to carry us down and across the Sound of Jura. The lonely lighthouse of Ruadh Sgeir broke the southern horizon.


We were bound for the wooded coast of Knapdale but a high pressure haze hid the coastal features.


We passed below Ardnoe Point. A sailor's grave lies in the woods high above the point, overlooking the constantly moving tides. His name was John Black and he died from cholera on his schooner in 1832. My grandfather's name was John Black. The family were fishermen and sailors and came from this part of Argyll. I wonder if I am related to this sailor?


After paying our respects, Duntrune Castle announced our arrival at Loch Crinan.

12/02/2008

The hand-less piper of Duntrune Castle.

Loch Crinan is guarded on its north shore by the austere greyness of the tower of Duntrune Castle. It dates from the 12th century and was a Campbell stronghold for many centuries but has been owned by the Malcolm family since 1792. It is reputed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited buildings in Scotland and as such it is unfortunately not open to the public.

It is haunted by the ghost of a hand-less piper. He was a MacDonald who was captured in the early 1600’s. His life was spared, as he was known as a fine piper, but he was imprisoned with his pipes in a small room at the top of the tower. One day, from his high vantage point he saw his chief's (Coll MacDonald) galley approaching a Campbell ambush. He played a lament "Cholla mo Run, Seachain a Dun" or “My beloved Coll, avoid the castle”. The Campbells were so incensed by his warning that they cut his hands off so he would never play again.

Of course, there are often two sides to stories involving the MacDonalds and the Campbells. Coll had sent the piper as a spy into the Campbell Castle.

12/02/2008