Where the river ends and plunges to the sea.

 It is difficult to say where Loch Shiel ends and the River Shiel begins but...

by the time you arrive at the triple arches of Shiel Bridge (1935) the current leaves you in now doubt that this is now the river.

Slightly downstream is the older single arch bridge built by Thomas Telford in 1804. In higher flows a little rapid forms just out of sight and downstream of the bridge. On opur last visit we could hear it roaring.

On this occasion it was like the proverbial millpond.

The Shiel is an important salmon river and the season runs from early May to end September. As we were here in Mid October we had the river to ourselves.

Unlike the majority of Scottish rivers there is no weir or dam to control water levels. On our last visit the river level was as high asa the fishing platform hand rails.

The river winds through some magnificent countryside. Gentle riffles signify the presence of...

...shallow shingle raspids.

The autumn colours were stunning.

As we were due to arrive at low tide  there would be about a 3m drop over the final rapid to the sea so we decided to portage...

...through the lovely deciduous trees that line the river.

Ian's orange deck was particularly harmonious with the fallen autumn leaves.

The rapid was not nearly so fearsome as on our last visit, however a nasty eddy can catch the unwary here and with loaded sea kayaks we were happy to leave this section un-run.

After a diversion to see the Falls of Shiel, it was but a short stroll till we caught sight of the sea in the sheltered waters of Loch Moidart,

For the full stereo vision experience read Ian's account here...

(Two) bridge(s) over troubled water and feeling small..

Our passage down the River Shiel...

      

 ...attracted the attention of only a few mostly disinterested locals.
 

It did not take long to reach the New Bridge which...

...was built in 1935.

 We were speeding along and the weed on the river bed was stretched out flat.

 Soon the mountains of Loch Shiel were a distant memory behind us. The Shiel is a popular salmon fishing river but we went down it before the season opened so we saw no fishermen. There are many wooden platforms that extend from the banks to allow more fishermen per foot of river. I thought that the fishermen must be blessed with incredible balancing skills to stand unaided on the narrow planks of wood until I realized that these were the handrails! The broader standing boards were deep under water. The river was high! No wonder we had noticed the level of the loch had dropped so much the night before, all that missing water was coming down here.

 I had scouted out the river two years ago in similar high conditions and knew that the river took a sharp left under the single span of the Old Bridge which was built in 1804. There was the distinct sound of breaking water round the bend and the water proved quite confused with several eddy lines. I would not want to run this small rapid in high levels without some bracing and edging skills. However,0...

 ...order was soon restored and we spent...

 ...some very pleasant time meandering...

 ...round the bends at increasing speed. It was low tide and I knew and Ian and Mike expected what the meaty rapid would be like where the Shiel fell into Loch Moidart. When I had scouted the rapid previously I  knew that you could get out at the final pool, the Sea Pool JUST above the rapid and have a short portage of about 100m into the sea. However, the river was running swiftly, our speed had increased to 10km/hr and we had some new kayak trolleys to test. So we took an early exit at...

 ...the SEPA water level measuring station and...

  ...after a quick Jura to stiffen the sinews we set off on...

 ...a one kilometre portage along the estate track and past the...

 ...rapid. It was indeed rather meaty with a nasty stopper rolling in from an eddy on the left after the first drop.

 We walked down every inch of the rapid to...

 ...the lower drop. I suggested to Ian and Mike that I did not want to be a spoilsport and produced my throw line then kindly offered to provide safety cover while they ran the rapid. They took one look at each other...

...then the pair of them ran off! Maybe we were "feeling small" as we slunk back to our trolleys.

Ginger haired locals and abandoned piers.

On Eilean Balnagowan the SE wind had increased and was now F5 gusting to F6. We decided that further progress southward would be futile especially since the tide had now turned and was also running north. We decided to return to Ballachuilish.. Mike thought that the conditions were not ideal for paddle sailing but Ian decided to give it a try. He hoisted his sail in the lee of Balnagowan and set off at a cracking pace. Once out into the full strength of the wind and the tide he decided that perhaps Mike had been right and that discretion was the better part of valour  and dropped his sail.

I shouted to Mike and Ian to keep a lookout for each other and I  hoisted my sail and set off for the headland some 1.1km distant. It was a broad reach with a 3km/hr flood tide running R to L across our path. The water became increasingly confused as we approached the headland as the west going tide, pouring out of the sweep of Cuil Bay, met the main north going flood which had gone up the west side of Eilean Balnagowan. It was superb fun.

I paddle sailed the 1.1km in 5minutes 7 seconds and averaged 12.9km/hr and Mike in the Aries and Ian in the Cetus MV paddled it in 9 minutes 55 seconds and averaged 6.7km/hr.

My Aries was only planing for short distances as the waves were rather short and confused. However, the power of the sail helped me catch just about any wave available, even if only for a short ride. I think the speed difference would have been even greater if we had had more even following seas.

 As we proceeded north we gradually entered the lee of the mountains,  the wind dropped and...

...Ian and Mike got their sails going again.  But soon it was back to...

 ...paddling until we reached...

 ...Rubha nam Moine...

 ...with its distinctive trees. We stopped just round the point where...

 ...we were joined by some ginger haired locals.

We took a diversion into tiny Kentallan Bay the entrance of which is marked by its distinctive pier house above the old pier.
.

 The west side of the bay is composed of the steeply wooded slopes of Ardsheal hill. The Bay is a submerged geological fault and at its head...

...there is an old landing place where...

...the sad remains of a flat bottom turntable ferry. These were used on both the Ballachuilish and Corran routes until the mid 1970's. This one had seen better days, though its engine block was still in situ.

 It wasn't just old boats that had seen better days...

We set off home along the east coast of Kentallen Bay passing...

 Ardsheal pier on the way. Steamers used to deliver goods here until the railway from Oban to Ballachilish was built in 1903. At that time a new pier was built beside the Kentallen Railway Station, which is now a hotel. The rock on the north side of Kentallen Bay is an unusual igneous intrusion called Kentallenite.

 We hugged the shore to keep out of the increasingly cold wind and before long...

 ...the Pap of Glencoe reappeared in the east.

 Not much remains of...

 ...the timber part of Ballachuilish Pier but...

 ...the slates of its stone part are still in good shape.

The flood tide now carried us at a good rate of knots as the snow clouds gathered over the Glen Coe mountains.

It was good to see the hotel coming up and we made sure we broke out of the current in order to land at the old ferry slipway.

The Ballachuillish hotel proved really excellent. After a nice warm bath  nothing beats a pint of sports recovery drink by a warm log fire followed by an...

...excellent meal. Mike had mussels to start, Ian had Cullen Skink and I had the vegetarian haggis, neaps and tatties starter. We all had shank of lamb as main course. Yum yum.

All in all another truly excellent day.