The Beaches of Scotland by Dr Stacey McGowan Holloway: Book Review

This beautiful book is an illustrated  guide to over 150 beaches scattered round the 19,000 km coast line of the Scottish mainland, the Hebrides and the Northern Isles. 

I particularly liked the introduction in which the author discusses beach safety, how to visit (responsible access), types of beach, seascape and geology (contributed by the author’s husband who is an oceanographer), how and when to travel (this includes valuable advice for those who choose to travel by car or camper van rather than by foot, cycle or public transport). I especially liked why the author has chosen the beaches included in the book. 

“The reasons for a beach being chosen for this book were multifactorial, based on its beauty, uniqueness, location and importantly whether it has the infrastructure in place to sustain tourism.” 

I applaud the author for this approach. Several of my favourite beaches are not in this book and I am pretty sure the author knows them well. However, each has some sort of issue that would be exacerbated by a significant increase in visitor numbers, such as threat to wildlife habitat or access problems including car parking and serious erosion of access paths. This approach might be considered by some as elitist but the publication of a recent guide to mountain bothies has already resulted in the closure of two bothies as a result of overuse and indiscriminate parking.  Another example of attracting too many people to a limited natural resource is the Fairy Pools in the Skye Cuillin which have now been well and truly "Instagrammed". In contrast, this book will disperse visitors over a very wide area.  In doing so, it serves as a wonderful introduction to Scottish beaches and leaves the visitor the joy of exploration and discovery of “new” beaches in each area.

Each beach is illustrated with a photo and descriptive text. There are also key facts including access, toilets and activities. In a guide like this there is not enough room for small scale maps of individual beaches so, for many of the less accessible beaches, an OS map will be useful and the key facts include Lat/Long co-ordinates (for GPS input) and OS map grid references. There are large scale maps showing the location of multiple beaches, which will be invaluable when planning a trip to an area.

This book will have wide appeal to walkers, swimmers, cyclists, kayakers and paddle boarders. I recommend it thoroughly.

PS I have contributed a photo of one of the remoter beaches in the book. The publisher contacted a friend, who is an accomplished photographer and author of guidebooks to see if he had a photo of this beach. His reply was “If anyone randomly has a photo of an obscure and remote 1km-long beach in the Western Isles sitting on his hard drive, it’ll be him…” I guess that qualifies me to both review the book and comment on the choice of included beaches.

The Beaches of Scotland, Dr Stacey McGowan Holloway, Vertebrate Publishing, publication date 7/4/2022, ISBN 978183981078

 

Oilean, 2nd edition, David Walsh, Pesda Press Review.

I have been reading  David Walsh's Oileán –The Irish Islands Guide published by Pesda Press. It covers 574 Irish Islands that can be visited by kayak or small boat. David has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the islands having visited 503 of them!

Since the first edition, this book has grown from 218 pages to 292 pages and the number of islands covered has risen from over 300 to over 570. It is therefore definitely worth buying, even though you have the first edition. This Irish volume differs from the Pesda sea kayaking Guides to the British coast. Its pages include fewer maps and most of the photos are smaller and so it contains a lot more text. Although the book is primarily about the islands, it contains essential tidal information for major mainland headlands and of course relevant tidal information required for island crossings. It also includes a great many launch points on the mainland. Unlike the other guides it makes few suggestions for recommended routes but where tidal conditions dictate David does suggest a preferred option. Although it has been written by a sea kayaker it would equally be of interest to anyone with a small seaworthy boat. For yachties it complements the existing pilots (which lack this book's detail on the islands) but for them, pilots are still necessary as this book does not cover anchorage information. It is designed to be read with the appropriate maps and full grid references are given for key locations.

The concept of the book occurred in 1993 when David and Fred Cooney attempted to land on Davillaun island. They failed to find a landing spot and were later disappointed to discover that there was a hidden cove with easy landing. The core of the book is the description of the islands. Primarily this covers landing sites, camping possibilities, sources of drinking water and tides. Due to the comprehensive nature of this book and the sheer number of islands and launch sites I do not think there is any danger that it will create honeypot destinations which might suffer from undue numbers of visitors. If anything this guide will spread the load of increasing numbers of visitors to the islands which can only be good for both the islands and the visitors. It also includes fascinating insights into ownership of the islands and access (Ireland has no equivalent of the Scottish Land Reform Act). The book includes a wealth of historical information and describes the wildlife that may be encountered on and between the islands. The author has the gift of instilling the essence and character of each island into what may just be a paragraph for a smaller island.

A book of this type could easily have ended up as a dry gazetteer but not so with David Walsh's excellent writing. He displays an eye for keen observation and writes in a lively style with dry wit. For example in describing one island's wealthy owners desire for privacy and their concern for the welfare of the nesting bird population, he goes onto describes their unsightly rubbish dump which is out of sight of their house. He then describes their precious nesting sea birds and the tradition of harvesting their eggs. "Apparently the birds all feed on municipal dumps across on the mainland and the eggs do not taste fishy at all."

Oilean is highly readable, encyclopaedic and essential reading for those with an interest in the Irish islands. The book includes almost all of them. It even includes Rockall though I was somewhat disappointed to find no reference to Craggy Island. I must read it again!

New Pesda Guide: Oileán –The Irish Islands Guide 2nd edition by David Walsh

This completely revised second edition of  Oileán –The Irish Islands Guide was published yesterday by Pesda Press. It covers 574 Irish Islands that can be visited by kayak or small boat. David Walsh the author has an encyclopaedic knowledge of them, he has visited 503 of them! I have not seen this edition but the first was beautifully written, informative but also capturing the spirit and essence of each island.

New Pesda guide North & East Coasts of Scotland Sea Kayaking by Doug Cooper

This new Pesda Press sea kayaking guide book, North and East Coasts of Scotland will be published on 1st March 2014. It covers from Cape Wrath to Berwick upon Tweed. It is written by Doug Cooper who is Head of Paddlesports at Scotland’s National Outdoor Training Centre at Glenmore Lodge. I have not seen it yet but Doug's other two Pesda Books are classics: Scottish Sea Kayaking and  Sea Kayak Handling and Rough Water Handling.

I used to live in Dingwall and Edinburgh in the north and east of Scotland respectively and have done a fair bit of sailing and a little kayaking on this fabulous coast. Look out for Doug's book!



PS my own much delayed Pesda guide to the west and south west coasts of Scotland (from Mallaig to Gretna) is back on course. Unfortunately 5 major surgical and medical incidents since 2009 and subsequent ingestion of strong painkillers has rather blunted my creative writing but all the coastline has been paddled and all the photos have been taken and I am writing again..

Rough water Handling by Doug Cooper review.

Doug Cooper is head of Paddlesport at Glenmore Lodge in Scotland and is a renowned BCU level 5 sea kayak coach. I bought and enjoyed his previous book, Sea Kayak Handling, so I expected this to be a good book. What I was not expecting was just how good a book this would prove to be. It is remarkable how  much insightful information has been condensed into such a compact and clear volume.

However, this is no easy, cover to cover, bed time reading. The cover clearly identifies this as a practical manual and just as you wouldn't read all the chapters in the Haynes Honda CB500 Four '71-'75 manual to take the cylinder head off, so it is with Doug's new book. It is an ideal manual to support your learning of how to handle a particular set of conditions, which strokes to use, how and why. I much prefer this type of problem orientated approach, presented with solutions rather than the alternative: a blow by blow account of how to do each stroke that then leaves you to sort out when to use it.

There is a useful introductory chapter on how to best use this book. The main chapters cover: High Winds, Moving Water, Surf, Tide Races, Rock Hopping, Open Crossings and Rolling but there are two excellent supplementary chapters on Physical and Psychological Considerations. These are vital areas to safe performance at high level, which are often ignored or glossed over in other books.

I like the overall tone of this book a lot. Repeatedly the author talks of "to gradually build your skills", "build up gradually to those more committing environments" "set yourself appropriate goals". All too often, rough water rescue reports are examples where over enthusiasm "to push themselves" has led to trouble for those who are not experienced enough to realize that the conditions were well beyond their experience.

As each chapter unfolds, techniques to handle a variety of conditions are clearly  broken down into a set of bullet points and illustrated by very clear, though small photographs. I was delighted to see that most useful of "saviour" strokes, the bracing stern rudder, gets an early mention.

There are a number of guest "Coaches top tip" boxes placed at relevant positions in the text. Each of these is an excellent addition to the text and they also act as a reminder of the respect in which Doug Cooper is held among his fellow coaches. (I particularly enjoyed the Howard Jeffs photo (with a crab) a reminder of a 2006 sea kayaking trip based on an old trawler.) Only Fiona Whitehead's tip had little relevance to me but others may find it rather more helpful!

A very minor semantic criticism might come in the surfing section. Doug describes a turn at the top of the wave as a top turn. Surfers, kayak surfers and windsurfers might disagree. A true top turn comes after carving backup the wave face (nose first), following a bottom turn and that would be a fine trick in a sea kayak!

In the book Doug is careful to identify situations where you might be learning techniques in remote and potentially dangerous situations. He refers the reader to other texts such as Gordon Brown's Sea Kayak and Franco Ferrero's Sea Kayak Navigation for advice about safe journeying.

The chapter on physical considerations contains some excellent dietary and training advice and  Doug moves even higher in my estimation as he is clearly enjoying a pint of Guinness in one photo! The chapter on psychological considerations addresses that fine line between self confidence and overconfidence, which can be particularly difficult to get right in the learning stages.

A significant part of the success of this book must be due to the high quality photographs (many by Lara Tipper), which, despite their small size, clearly illustrate the techniques. The photos were all taken in good lighting conditions, which must have been a challenge in itself, given most are of Scottish locations.

In conclusion this is a remarkable book which will help lead the progression of rough water handling skills of intermediate and advanced paddlers. It is not presented in a gung-ho, bravado fashion that might encourage foolhardy emulation before a kayaker is truly ready. Rather it emphasises building up experience, setting appropriate goals and taking advantage of coaching when necessary. The techniques are clearly illustrated and presented in the context of a rough water situation where their correct use will help get the paddler safely through the problem. This is a stunning book which I expect to refer to and learn from for years to come. Buy it!

Finally, although I bought Doug's first book, this one was sent to me as a review copy by the publishers, Pesda Press. They needn't have bothered, I was going to buy it anyway.

Northern England & IOM, Jim Krawiecki

The latest in the Pesda sea kayaking guides to the UK coastline has just been published. Jim Krawiecki's Northern England & IOM has been four year's in gestation and the wait has been worthwhile. Jim writes in a fluid and concise style and the pages ooze the detail which comes from the author's familiarity and enthusiasm for the area. There are 50 full routes spread over 267 colour pages. These offer something for all levels of experience. The routes include open crossings, coastal waters, tide races, estuaries, rivers and canals! Some of the routes are really inventive, this is not just an A to B to C round the coast.

The book covers the Isle of Man, the Cumbrian Coast, the Lancashire Coast, the Trans-Pennine canal network, the Yorkshire Coast, the Tyne Tees Coast and the Northumberland Coast. There are even three forays into Scotland.

From the striking cover showing shafts of sun shining through a Filey arch, the photography throughout the book is both an eye opener and a showcase for the region. I for one will be making a point of visiting soon. Clearly I have an interest in Pesda sea kayaking guides as I am currently finishing off the guide to SW Scotland. However, I can say without any risk of bias that Jim has produced an absolute cracker of a book. Buy it now and visit soon!

The Outer Hebrides seakayaking around the isles & St Kilda

The thud at the front door this morning could mean only one thing. The new Pesda Press volume "The Outer Hebrides, sea kayaking around the isles and St Kilda" by Mike Sullivan, Robert Emmott and Tim Pickering had arrived.

You cannot possibly expect an unbiased and critical review from me on this beautiful book, which is well written and beautifully illustrated, mostly with the authors' own photos.

Two of the authors are my friends, it's an area I love, a few of my photos have even slipped in, as has one of my daughter's photos and I am currently writing another volume in the series; South West Scotland from Ardnamurchan to the Solway. So, as you can see, I am so, so biased.

I will therefore keep this short and factual. If you intend paddling the Outer Hebrides buy it. If you don't intend paddling the Outer Hebrides buy it anyway and you will change your mind!

Sea kayaking the Mull of Galloway

This map shows the Mull of Galloway tide race on the ebb. The race catches a number of kayakers out because the published information is not accurate, close inshore where kayakers will be. The tidal diamond on the chart is 3km SSE of the Mull and shows the west ebb flow starting at +0020 HW Dover at a spring rate of 4 knots.

The Cooper Reid book, Scottish Sea Kayaking says the WSW stream starts about 1 hour after HW Liverpool ( +0115 HW Dover). I know at least two kayakerswho have been caught out by this information. Rab says "This was certainly the biggest unplanned tide race that I had been in!" The ebb SSW flow close inshore at the Mull, where kayakers will be, starts at -0130 HW Dover, 2 hours and 30 minutes BEFORE the time in Cooper and Reid's book ( I have been in touch with both Doug Cooper and Franco of Pesda press and this will be corrected in the next edition.)

On Sunday I was keen to gather information for my forthcoming South West Scotland Pesda book and I was keen to experience the race first hand, at full belt. On Sunday it was 3 days before springs and HW Dover was at 0828, so the ebb started at -0130 HW Dover i.e. 0658. We timed our arrival at the Mull for 0958 to experience the full benefit of the flow.

This map above shows the ebb flow. From East Tarbert an eddy carries you with increasing velocity (12 km/hr) right into the heart of the race and the junction is quite confused with random pyramids of water. There are no nice surfable standing waves here. The main race comes right into the base of the rocks, there is no inside passage. You are now travelling at 14km/hr and ideally will now want to try and break out into the flatter eddy which is just round the corner, however it will be trying to push you back into the main race and the eddy line is quite challenging. With the greatest respect to Mr Gordon Brown's recent DVD, I employed none of the graceful strokes and edging he displayed when crossing eddy lines. Basically I PLFed with a liberal application of low braces. If you break out of the race as soon as possible, you will only be in it for 150m.In the top 3 photos in my post above, David and Phil are enjoying themselves far out in the race. They didn't want to get too close to the rocks because they thought it was clapotis. They PLFed a lot more than Tony, Jim, Jennifer and myself did. In the pub afterwards David refused to take his new Palm salopettes off!


Jim is sitting in the eddy looking back at the race we just paddled through...


...note the randomness of the water.


Tony attempted to paddle up the race by surfing on the waves but they were too irregular.


We were lucky there was just a light force 3 wind.


We have paddled the Mull of Galloway a few times recently, you have to treat it with respect. A mistake here and you will be carried far out into the North Channel. Midway between neaps and springs we found the flow to be 14km/hr which suggests a spring rate of about 19km/hr which is faster than the Corryvreckan.

We had a great time but if you are looking for a mellow trip from east to west, I suggest arriving at the Mull at -0130 Dover!

Calculating slack water in the Corryvreckan

I am currently writing a sea kayaking guidebook book for Pesda Press "Argyll and the South West, Ardnamuchan to the Solway Firth by Sea Kayak. (ISBN 978-1-906095). This is one of the most complex areas of the UK coastline and I am determined that it will be a piece of work which is thoroughly researched, both in terms of previously published information and also of first hand experience.

I think I am pushing the good will of Franco, the publisher, but I do not want to rush a guide based on my experience of a piece of coastline on one trip, one way, in one set of weather conditions. The Corryvreckan is an example of a serious bit of coast, a key point in the planning of any voyage in these parts. If you click the Corryvreckan tag link on the right, you will discover that we have passed through this Gulf E/W both ways, along both coasts, crossed it N/S both ways, at a variety of states of tide and in a variety of wind and swell conditions. We have camped on both its north and south shores and climbed into the hills of Scarba and Jura to photograph the various eddies and over falls.

For those of you who are interested in such a sea kayaking guide, I appreciate your patience, thank you.

According to published data, in the Corryvreckan, the west going flood starts at -0100 Dover springs and -0015 at neaps. The east going ebb starts at +0515 Dover springs and +0600 at neaps, a time difference of about 6.5 minutes per day between springs and neaps.

On the 16th October 2009 it was 2 days after springs, HW Dover occurred at 1025 and 2256, so the slack between the east going ebb and the west going flood should occur at -0047 HW Dover ie 0938 and the slack between the west going flood and east going ebb should occur at +0528 HW Dover ie 1553.

We entered the west end of the Corryvreckan at 1446 and landed at Camas nam Bairneach at 1500. We enjoyed a view of the flood in action and a short luncheon but were keen to be on the water, in mid channel, to observe the exact moment of slack water. We launched again at 1525.


Phil powering into the last of the flood at 1530. The current was still flowing west at 2.5kn.


At 1539 several yachts entered the Corryvreckan. At 1544, in mid channel, the current was still flowing west at 2kn (see map below).


Then at 1549, with the soaring ridges of Ben Cruachan in the distance,...


...the water turned oily calm and slack water had arrived. It lasted a whole 5 minutes until the ebb started with a bang and boils and eddy lines disturbed the surface again. In the distance, you can just see the small lighthouse on Reisa an t-Sruith in front of Tony's bow.


So the published start of the flood was calculated at 1553 and we observed slack water between 1549 and 1554. Pretty good Eh?

Well, err, actually no. There was no wind and we were in a high pressure system with preceding light winds and little swell. There are very many factors that can alter the change of tide in these parts and you need to go prepared to observe what you find on the day (and of course to have checked your calculations).

Thank you for your patience while I get the book right... :o)

Up to the elbows in it!

Many sea kayakers, the world over, know Gordon Brown of Skyak either from attending one of his courses, like I have, or attending the Scottish Sea Kayak Symposium. Many others will know him only through his excellent book "Sea kayak" published by Pesda Press.

I am delighted to hear that my friend, and fellow sea kayaker, Simon Willis is currently making a series of instructional DVDs with Gordon. As Gordon is one of the most respected BCU level 5 coaches and Simon is a very experienced journalist and broadcaster, these should be really worth watching out for.

As you can see, Simon is up to his elbows in hard work!

No 3, The Street and the silent poem of the people of St Kilda

It was early June 2008. Leaving the burial ground, I walked slowly back down the village street of empty windows and doors. On the way, I heard a high pitched birdsong and there, jumping in and out of gaps in a blackhouse wall, was a St Kildan wren. This subspecies is a survivor of the pre-Ice Age population of Scottish wrens. The ice sheet, which enveloped Scotland, did not reach as far as St Kilda.

Cheered by the song of this hardy survivor, I continued on my way down the street towards the jetty and our waiting boat. I had nearly passed No. 3 before I realized that it was the museum, devoted the island's last human inhabitants. Looking back at the 19th century buildings, only the distant antennae for the missile tracking system gave hint that this was now the 21st century.


This photo was taken from the same spot in 1886, some 122 years before. It shows members of the Gillies family outside No. 3, The Street.


Inside, the renovated house's two rooms have been converted into a single room museum of island life.


A slate on the wall commemorates former residents of the house. I have already mentioned Malcolm MacDonald, who lived in this house until he left the island in 1924.


Malcolm's father was also called Malcolm MacDonald and this tourist photograph, with the family cow, now hangs in the house he once called home.

After the MacDonalds left, and by 1930, there were only 36 inhabitants left. Their numbers were depleted by emigration, their self sufficiency weakened by age and a succession of poor summers. Finally, they petitioned the British government, asking for evacuation. They left on 27th August and brought thousands of years of occupation and history to an end. Sadly there is no written history and little oral history left by the islanders themselves. Life was too harsh and survival took all their efforts. What we know of them is largely through the cameras and pens of wealthy tourists, who viewed them as curiosities. Despite this lack of island literature, the modern visitor can hardly fail to be moved by a silent poem of the people of St Kilda. You might hear it as you wander through the empty ruins of thousands of years of human survival, on the edge of the world.

By now the increasing wind was sending gusts scudding across the Bay. The MV Cuma was the only boat remaining and we knew Murdani, her skipper, would be anxious to set sail for the shelter of Loch Resort on the distant west coast of Harris. We only had a morning to explore St Kilda. We saw much and learned a great deal about the island and the people who lived there. However, we left feeling we had only scratched the surface of this remarkable island's secrets and past.

03/06/2008 am

Footnote. The following books have provided the information referred to in these recent pages:

Sir Donald Monro, "A description of the Western Isles of Scotland called Hybrides" 1549,(manuscript published 1774).
Martin Martin, "A late voyage to St. Kilda, the remotest of all the Hebrides, or Western Isles of Scotland", 1698.
Martin Martin, "A description of the Western Islands of Scotland circa 1695", 1703.
Tom Steel, "The life and death of St Kilda", 1975 revised edition 1988.
Alan Small, "A St Kilda Handbook", 1979.
Geoffrey Stell, Mary Garman, " Buildings of St Kilda", 1988.
WR Mitchell, "Finlay MacQueen of St Kilda", 1992.
David Quine, Colin Baxter, "St Kilda", 2002.
Andrew Fleming, "St Kilda and the Wider World", 2005
John Randall et al, "The Decline and Fall of St Kilda: Proceedings of an international conference" 2005.

Ailsa Craig, Rev R Lawson,1888

I found this little book recently. It is beautifully written and illustrated with line drawings. It describes the history, topography and natural history of the isle of Ailsa Craig. The Rev Lawson was a minister in Maybole, Ayrshire. He was a keen historian and wrote several books on the history of Ayrshire.


This map folds out from the front piece and to this day it remains the best map of Ailsa Craig available anywhere.

I like old books.

Sea Kayak by Gordon Brown

Pesda Press have announced a publication date of 7/12/2006 for a much awaited book. "Sea Kayak" is a modern guide to sea kayaking for intermediate to advanced sea kayakars. The author is Gordon Brown; authority, guru, maestro, mentor and all round good guy from Skye.

Two taster chapers have been posted on the Pesda website. Chapter 12 covers "Reading the water" while chapter 15 deals with "Big Swell". Both will have the sea kayaking community salivating with anticipation.

The opening photo of chapter 15 features Cailean on the crest of a wave. To quote from Gordon in chapter 15:

If you have a distant horizon the waves are less than one metre.
If your horizon is the crest of the wave immediately in front, the waves are over a metre.
Anything bigger than this is only talk for the party afterwards.

Some party Cailean!

Inshore Britain: first impression

Inshore Britain provides nearly all the information you need to plan your paddle round the coast of mainland Britain but it is much more. It is packed with details of history, geology, wild life and lots of other things to look out for on the way.

I seldom buy books unseen but I did so in this case because Stuart Fisher has already published a series of articles about his voyage round Britain in Canoeist magazine. Many years ago I found a dog eared copy of Canoeist magazine, issue 123, in a second hand bookshop. It contained Stuart's article on paddling the Solway coastline. It was one of the reasons I took up sea kayaking and it also inspired me to write about it. I have since published two articles about paddling the Solway coast in Paddles magazine.

Inshore Britain arrived by post this morning. I was not disappointed. Published by Imray of Charts and Pilots fame, it is an A4 format and has 357 pages. On the back cover I was delighted to see a photo of a little known, but striking, rock arch on the Solway. Clearly Stuart has taken the time to paddle the coast and not gone from headland to headland as many circumnavigators have done to save time. It took him 15 years to complete his paddle round Britain. This is an author who has savoured his trips and his writing conveys his enjoyment and enthusiasm for exploring the coast by sea kayak.

The book is divided into 62 sections starting with west Cornwall and working clockwise round the coast. Each section consists of 4 to 8 pages and covers a distance varying from about 80 to 180km. The section of coast is outlined by very clear but large scale line maps (you will still need other more detailed maps or charts). There are very many of the authors own photographs. They include a number of really excellent A3 wide panoramas but most photographs are quite small, given the format of the book. There is a highlighted text box covering local information including tidal constants. Tidal flows are mentioned in the body of the text and as some sections are nearly 4,00o words long, it can take a moment or two to track them down.

Taking the Solway section as an example, it covers 131 km in 6 pages. The line map covers the central part of two adjacent A4 pages and the text has been overlaid on the inland areas. There are 11 photographs that include close range shots of distinctive buildings and rock features but I also like the wide angle shots of distinctive hills and islands which give a good idea of the look of the coast from a kayak. The text is about 3,500 words. It is very well written and gives a detailed account of things to see not just from the kayak but covers points of interest a short distance inland as well. Stuart gives a good account of the weather conditions he met: "into Wigtown Bay where southerly winds rise with little warning and bring heavy seas". This is something I know of very well! However, for one person to have local knowledge of all the differing conditions of the whole coast of Britain would be expecting too much. He does not mention the strong gusty NW winds which come down off the Galloway hills and have caused many recreational boating fatalities over the last years. Nor does he mention the seasonal inshore lifeboat stationed at Mossyard as a result of these accidents (after Stuart had published this section in Canoeist) but he does detail the all year inshore lifeboat at Kirkcudbright. From my local knowledge of this section it is clear to me that Stuart has thouroughly paddled and researched the area. The guide would thus be invaluable to anyone new to the area who might otherwise miss a great deal. He has resisted the temptation to detail what is round every corner and there will still be the satisfaction of exploring and finding the unexpected.

A reviewer has to try and identify any weakness in a book. Well that would be difficult in this case. I have checked the Solway tidal data and it is accurate. Several of the caravan and campsites mentioned are no longer open to non resident visitors. The most kayak friendly campsite, Brighouse Bay, is called Pennymuir in the book, a name even the locals no longer use and a name which is not on the OS map. There are one or two typos including a page number on the contents page, so as usual, I would always use more than one source to check tidal data. A couple of others I showed the book to this evening thought there was too much text and the photos should have been bigger. Some of the older members of the sea kayaking club felt that his original magazine articles were a bit wordy. I disagree, I loved the few original articles I had read. Now they are gathered together in a reference book, I am looking forward to a number of long winter evenings engrossed, reading about new areas. Do note that the title is "Inshore Britain". It does not detail islands such as the Isle of Wight, Anglesey, Isle of Man, Arran, Mull, Skye or the Outer Hebrides.

This book is essential reference for any sea kayaker. It will allow you to get enough backround information to help plan a paddle in a new area (without buying all the local pilots) and also give you a wealth of background knowledge of the coast. Highly recommended.

PS A delightful touch is the use of postage stamps as small fillers throughout the book. These either have a nautical theme or have local relevance, e.g. a stamp of the Queen Mother's 90 birthday is situated near her summer residence on the map of the Caithness coast.

Paddle '06 exhibition, Perth

It was great to see so many friends and drool over all the nice shiny new kit at the Scottish Canoe Association Paddle '06 exhibition in Perth. Thanks to all at SCA!





Mike gets busy with the polish on the Valley and Scottish Paddler Supply stand. (Does your wife know that you know what to do with one of those dustery things, Mike?) Jason told me that Valley have now taken over North Shore sea kayaks and have already started manufacturing updated models with Valley fittings. In addition to the delectable glass Nordkapp LV, the polyethylene Nordkapp RM attracted a lot of deserved interest. Can you imagine if holiday hire companies had boats this good?



I left the SPS stand with more gear to test: an Advanced Elements 1/2 man convertible inflatable kayak. I have already tested the one man version. This is quality kit and is not a toy.





Fresh from dealing with floods in my old home town of Dingwall, Cailean was manning the Coastguard stand and looked very smart in his new uniform! Unfortunately I was waylaid by so many people that I did not get to Cailean's rescue workshop but I heard very good reports.





On the Rockpool/Knoydart stand I met Mike (above) Aled and Rob. The glitter in the stars was actually made up of lots and lots of tiny stars! How cool is that? Mike and Aled showed me their new lightweight plastic bulkeads. These are dished at the edges and have a layer of foam between the edge and the hull and deck. On the cockpit side, there is an additional Sikaflex seal. These bulkheads cut 0.75kg weight and should also solve the problem of gel coat cracking which can plague many older boats (from all manufacturers) with traditional bulkheads.





What's this?? A skeg on a Rockpool? Yes! now it is just like mine which uses Hydroskeg technology from Karitek.






Karitek's Jeff Turner had built this comparator rig to let you test hydro, wire and rope skegs. The alloy pedal controls a rotating skeg, the "hydro rudder". It is really well engineered, I can't wait to try it on the water.

Bruce and the Lomo team had their gear on sale at their regular but super low prices. Value for money oozes out of every Lomo box! Their dive boots are the perfect sea kayaking footwear.






Paul on the Palm stand extolled the finer points of their new Aleutian sea kayaking dry suit. I liked the articulating design of the hood. I particularly liked the reinforced bootees which look much more robust than the lightweight items on my Kokatat suit. These are showing wear after only 10 days use. He also showed me a prototype of their new sea PFD. The attention to detail and design was excellent.





On the P&H stand ,a very well finished Quest LV had nice new cockpit adjustable footrests with decent sized pedals. I was never a fan of the previous Yakima alloy tracks which tended to jam with sand.







Point 65 kayaks showed this new rolled edge to the cockpit rim. A nice touch.

I had a great chat with Franco and Gordon on the Pesda Press/ Skyak stand. Franco really has built up a fine collection of kayaking books; with more exciting sea kayaking volumes in the pipeline. The first of these is Gordon's new book Sea kayak for intermediate to advanced paddlers. Gordon told me about a bold and secret open water route through the Corryvreckan on flood. It takes you on a narrow conveyor belt of flat (sic) water within spitting distance of 20 foot standing waves on one side and on the other, a counter eddy speeding the other way. I can't wait to give it a go.........really! Sounds like northshore seakayaing!

There were lots of retail stands from the likes of Brookbanks, Tiso, Kyak Byre etc. I heard several people complaining there were no bargains but there were many 10% to 20% discount offers and the chance to compare so many different brands' latest kit was excellent. I found it much easier to do this at Perth than at the Birmingham show which was just too crowded.

Unfortunately, I had to leave before Duncan Winnings's talk, The History & Development of Scottish Sea Kayaking. There is no one more knowledgable than Duncan and I am sure it would have been a fascinating insight.

Lastly, thanks to all who braved my talk, Scottish sea kayaking: a photo tour. Your response was really appreciated.