The lawns of Inveraray Castle.

It was not long until we had launched on Loch Fyne. The head of the loch is surrounded by the mountains of Argyll.


I had lent David my Quest LV as he was keen to try my new Flat Earth kayak sail.


We spotted the 16th century home of the MacNaughton clan, Dunderave Castle, on the far side of the loch...


... but we were heading to the south and the entrance to Loch Shira which is marked by this enormous Royal Navy mooring buoy. The loch is about 80m deep here so fairly big ships can tie up.


On the NW shore of Loch Shira we spotted Inveraray castle, the family seat of the Duke of Argyll, the chief of the Campbell clan. Inveraray means the mouth of the river Aray. Unlike the grim tower of Dunderave, the present castle was built as a grand residence between 1720 and 1789. It is a mixture of Baroque, Palladian and Gothic styles.


It was spring high water...


...so we decided to paddle up the river...


...and pay our respects at the Duke's front lawn...


...after which we drifted back downstream and under the road bridge to Inveraray town.

Of time and tide at the Falls of Lora

We drifted under the bridge at the the Connel Narrows on Loch Etive at 5km/hr.


It was 16:13, two hours before the start of the ebb.


It was a neap tide and despite the current, it was like a millpond over the shelf of the Falls of Lora.


At a spring tide on the flood we might have expected some decent standing waves here. On the ebb on a spring tide, the Falls can be very spectacular as Loch Etive drains into the sea over a rock shelf.


We were now being carried into the inner part of Loch Etive and the horizon ahead became closed in by the mountains.


Watching the bridge, we drifted backwards in the current for some way...


...until the bridge became obscured by a bend in the loch.


I am not the only member of my family to have enjoyed this view from a small boat. This photo was taken in July 1927 by my great grandfather, who explored many of the west coast lochs and islands by rowing boat. The view has hardly changed at all, despite the passage of 83 years.


This photo shows the Falls of Lora on the ebb tide, 2 days after springs at 12:08, when the best waves were predicted to form between 11:09 and 12:56.


Photo copyright Simon Willis www.seakayakroutes.com

This photo, by my friend Simon, was taken from a platform under the bridge at the 2006 Storm Gathering. It is one day before springs, on the ebb and shows the Falls in an altogether different light.

Its amazing the difference a few hours can make, if not 83 years!

Made in Scotland from girders and glaciers.

We now entered the outer part of Loch Etive. The loch stretches away for 30km into the mountains, where it becomes the most fjord like of the Scottish sea lochs. It was cut by a massive glacier that gouged a U shaped trench through the mountains and was flooded by the sea when the glacier melted.


At the Connel narrows the view is dominated by the Connel bridge. It was built in 1903 to take the railway from Oban to Ballachuilish and its slate quarries.


In 1914 a roadway was added, which allowed vehicles to cross when no trains were on the line. The railway was closed in 1966 and since then it has been used only for road traffic. A one way system controlled by traffic lights is required as the bridge is not wide enough for two lanes. When it was built in 1903, no one could have expected the explosion in road traffic, even in this relatively remote part of Scotland.

As we approached the bridge it looked as if a light plane was going to try and land on it, but it was on its final approach to the small airfield just north of the bridge.


The Connel narrows formed where the glacier met the warmer sea and melted. As a result the narrows are very shallow and if the sea level was only a few feet lower, Loch Etive would have been a fresh water loch like Loch Lomond, Loch Shiel and Loch Morar.


The bridge is of cantilever construction and like irn bru was made in Scotland from girders, not to be drunk but to last!


We drifted under the bridge just an hour before HW slack and there was hardly a ripple to disturb the surface. However, there is a shallow sill, just below the ducks, over which the spring ebb tide pours as the Falls of Lora. A series of standing waves creates a very testing playground for play boaters. Tony Hammock of Seafreedomkayak has produced an excellent guide to kayaking the Falls of Lora.

A shilling, a whole horse, in Loch Creran

We set off into Loch Creran before stopping for a luncheon...


...at a rocky headland. A channel had been cleared through the rocks; we were not the first to land at this lovely spot! The low lands surrounding the outer loch...


...contrasted with the mountains, which crowded round Creran's inner recesses.


In the distance, Below Beinn Sgulaird's steep slopes, the loch narrowed at Creagan where the lands of Appin and Benderloch nearly meet.


A ferry ran across these narrows until 1903 when a railway bridge was built to carry the new railway from Oban to the Ballachulish slate quarries. At the end of the 19th century the ferry manifest showed the fares to be: a single horse, sixpence; a whole horse, a shilling; a single person, thruppence. I wonder if that means the fare for a whole person would be sixpence?

The railway bridge was designed by the same team that designed Tower Bridge in London. The railway closed in 1966 and the bridge became a foot bridge. Cars still had to drive round the head of the loch. The railway bridge was replaced in 1999 by...


...this modern road bridge.


We had timed our arrival at the narrows for the end of the in going flood. We arrived at 1350 and the ebb was not due to start until 1508 but it was neap tides and there was almost no flow.

Caolas Creagan tidal streams
in going 5knots -0520 HW Oban (0906)
out going 5knots +0025 HW Oban (1508)


We had now entered Loch Creran's hidden inner sanctum.

Ganavan, a launch site for sea kayaks and seaplanes

On Saturday 23rd January, a high pressure area sat across Scotland. As we drove north towards Oban, the forecast was for coastal fog. We took a detour over to Arrochar at the head of Loch Long and since there was no fog we decided to press on.


At Connel bridge over the tidal narrows of Loch Etive, the fog was firmly down. The Falls of Lora were not in evidence because it was the last hour of the flood.


At Ganavan Sands, to the NE of Oban, the fog rolled in just as we were launching. We could hear the booming of the MV Isle of Mull's foghorn as she made her unseen approach to Oban from Craignure on Mull. Our plan to nip across to Mull for the day would need to wait!

Ganavan is a very convenient launch site near Oban. Car parking is free in the winter but there are often pay and display meters. There is a public convenience with water at the back of the car park. The very wide slip way betrays Ganavan's past. In WW2 it was the maintenance base for No. 209 Squadron RAF. The squadron moved to Oban in 1939 and flew antisubmarine missions over the North Atlantic shipping lanes. From 1940 they used troublesome Saunders Roe Lerwick aircraft but changed to PYB Catalinas in 1941.

There would have been no danger of a flying boat landing on us today. They would be grounded. Actually, although the Catalinas are long gone, Oban does have a current seaplane service to and from Glasgow.

Beauty and the beast at Ballachulish

We paddled towards the tidal narrows at Ballachulish which separate Loch Linnhe from Loch Leven to the east.


The narrows are now crossed by the Ballachulish Bridge which has been described as the most brutal bridge design in Scotland. Over the years I have grown to quite like it, here its girders contrast with the beauty of Sgurr na Ciche.


The bridge was completed at the end of 1975 but, before that, a vehicle ferry ran across the narrows from 1903. These were flat bottomed turntable ferries and used the slipways in the shallow water at either side of the narrows. One of the last of these ferries was the Glenachulish. She was built in 1969 at the Ailsa yard at Troon on the Firth of Clyde. She served the Ballachulish crossing until the bridge opened, then she was moved to Kessock and then Kylsku to serve as the relief ferry until those crossings were replaced by bridges in 1982 and 1984. After this she moved to Glenelg for the Skye crossing where she still serves today. The crossing at the peak of a spring tide always provided an entertaining ferry glide.

Not all crossings were entertaining. In 2003, Maureen Macmillan MSP recounted the following in a debate on the Scottish Railways and Transport Safety Bill: "The bill reminds me of an incident from my past involving the Ballachulish ferry on New Year's Day, a bottle of Chivas Regal drunk on the north side and a ferry that could not dock on the south side. The ferry went up Loch Leven and anchored and there was a stand-off with the police. Later, the Oban Times reported that someone had been charged with being drunk in charge of a ferry. The experience was frightening for everyone on board. "


I took this photo at Easter 1975, just as the last section was being lowered into place. You can just see the Glenachulish leaving South Ballachulish. She took 6 cars on her turntable which allowed a fast roll on roll off service. At peak periods two ferries served the crossing and the rule of thumb was, if there were more than 36 cars in front of you in the queue, it would be faster, but less fun to drive the 31km (19 miles) round the twisting, narrow road to Kinlochleven at the head of the loch and back down the other side.

Most of my generation, who spent time waiting for the ferry, appreciate the hidden beauty of this brutal bridge.

29/02/2009

Down town sea kayaking in Dumfries!

On our search for the bore of the river Nith we launched in the town of Dumfries, which is the historical lowest crossing point of the river. We paddled upstream at first, under St Michaels road bridge and the Nith suspension footbridge which was opened in 1875 and restored in 1985.


We got up as far as some gravel beds just below the tidal weir. Beyond this is Devorgilla's bridge. This dates from 1432 though it has been repaired many times since then. It is now only used as a foot bridge. It is named after Devorgilla , the mother of John Balliol who was a "puppet" King of Scotland, chosen by Edward I of England.


We now turned our bows in the direction of the flow and were soon...


...speeding down stream past the old Rosefield textile mill of Dumfries. Its doors have been closed since the depression of the 1930's.


We then passed under the lowest bridge over the Nith. This is the Kirkpatrick MacMillan Bridge, which opened in 2006. It is a cycle and footbridge and forms part of the National Cycle Network. Sadly this bridge has blocked access for any large or masted vessel to the historic quay in Dumfries from which we had just launched.

Thanks to watret2 for correctly identifying the Kirkpatrick Macmillan bridge!

13/04/2009