And they say there is no "Oa" in Paradise!

 From Laphroaig we had intended paddling across Caolas an Eilein to the island of Texa. However, the north wind was by now rather strong and we didn't particularly fancy getting blown past the Mull of Kintyre towards Ireland!

So we hugged the coast round to Port Ellen, where the MV Isle of Arran was lying at her berth. The wind was whistling out of Kilnaughton Bay. We used the lee of a series of skerries to hop half way across the Bay. Then Tony and I had to paddle across the exposed other half using a very high ferry angle and a lot of puff!

It was a relief to get into the shelter of the Carraig Fhada lighthouse. It was built by the Laird of Islay in 1832 to commemorate his wife who had died aged 36 years. We rested here for some time till we caught our breath...

...only to loose it again with the breathtaking beauty of the Mull of Oa (pron. Oh) coast.

 It was only 4pm but we had arrived in Paradise so...

...there was no point in going any further.

P.S. Tony mentioned the built in shower...

At the back of the beach, a burn cascaded over the top of the cliffs to form a natural shower. This was not just Paradise, it was Paradise with mod cons!

The State of Texa

The island of Texa lies just a kilometer off the SE coast of Islay in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. While we were cruising down Texa's west coast we spied two gable ends high on the hill above us.


We landed at a little quay below the building. Famished and quite exhausted by our exertions since second breakfast, we decided to partake of a long and leisurely third breakfast prior to any exploration of the isle.


Pushing our way through shoulder high bracken, we made our way up to the ancient lichen encrusted walls. It turned out to be a chapel which was built in the 14th century. St Kenneth(whose chapel we visited last year on lovely Inch Kenneth) was a friend of St Columba and stopped off on Texa while travelling between Iona and Ireland. It is likely that the current chapel was built on the site of an earlier chapel dating from St Kenneth's time.

Texa remained inhabited until the 19th century and its population were known as Texans. Not many people know that St Kenneth was a Texan.

Tony, David and myself decided we would try and head out west round Islay's Mull of Oa. Billy and Mair decided to explore Kilnaughton Bay and Port Ellen. Given how long we had dallied, the approaching weather front and how the tide was running, the latter option was to prove eminently more sensible.

13/07/2008

Mulling it over with a dram of malt on Islay

From Eilean Imersay we were now bound for the Isle of Texa on Islay's SE coast. To the east, the distant mountains of Arran rose above the long peninsula of Kintyre.


Note how Tony is looking wistfully at the distant Mull of Kintyre!


On our way to Texa we passed two of the three whisky distilleries that grace this part of Islay's coastline. The first was Ardbeg, a superb peaty malt.


The second was Lagavulin, producers of another fine malt whisky. Sadly we decided to pass them by as we had thoughts of rounding the still distant Mull of Oa later in the day.

I am now off on my own holiday to the Solway, so posting on our Islay trip may be irregular. If you want to read more of Islay I can recommend two blogs by other visitors to this fantastic island: Armin's Islay Blog and Ron's Islay Weblog.

13/07/2008