Imagine you are at the edge of the sea on a day when it is difficult to say where the land ends and the sea begins and where the sea ends and the sky begins. Sea kayaking lets you explore these and your own boundaries and broadens your horizons. Sea kayaking is the new mountaineering.
With an extra day to spend in the Arisaig area it seemed natural to spend it in the Arisaig skerries but how best to get there? We could launch from our overnight accommodation at the Glenuig Inn and cross the Sound of Arisaig but we paddled half way across the Sound of Arisaig in our attempt to view the eclipse of the sun. Then I discovered that Ian and Mike had never paddled in the estuary of the River Morar surrounded by its famous silver sands. Plan made! We would launch at Morar paddle south to the Arisaig skerries then take advantage of a forecast increasing southerly to paddle sail back.
The River Morar is only 800m long but it drains Loch Morar the 5th largest loch in Scotland and with a maximum depth of 310m it is the deepest body of fresh water in the British Isles. It is actually deeper than the Atlantic continental shelf! Like Loch Shiel, it was a sea water loch after the Ice Age but as the land has risen, the glacial shelf at the mouth of the loch (where the glacier melted as it reached the sea) has risen and it has been fresh for thousands of years. From the loch, the river falls 10.1m to the sea. Technically it would have been possible to launch into the river and run the falls but we did not much like the zigzag nature of the rapid, nor the big volume of water in it , nor the somewhat frightening noise it was making. So we launched from a lay-by on the south side of the estuary head. If it is busy you can drop the boats here and park a short way away up the hill overlooking the estuary. First we paddled under the new road bridge that carries the bypass round the village of Morar.
We launch we had a stiff paddle against the current and up a considerable slope to the final rapid which is crossed by the old road bridge and the large arches of the railway bridge. The railway from Fort William was built in 1901 to carry fresh fish from the fishing port of Mallaig (which at one time was one of the biggest herring ports in the UK) to London.
White water kayakers might consider this rapid rather good sport but...
...for us, one look from the bottom was enough, it looked even worse than the falls on the river Shiel. so...
...we turned tail and drifted leisurely downstream...
...on the nicely sloping water that had caused us much sweat just moments before.
We were soon back at the silver sands of our launch point. This old dive boat wasn't going anywhere but we were bound for the Arisaig skerries!
...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...
...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.
As we entered the dog leg in Loch Shiel we found that the way ahead was almost completely blocked by...
...the Green or St Finan's Isle, which is topped by the ancient stones of St Finan's chapel and the graves of the those who have inhabited these lands since mediaeval times. This narrowing of the loch is where the original glacier that cut Loch Shiel would have met the sea and melted, depositing its moraine.
We landed at the jetty where generations of mourners have landed to carry the coffins of their deceased up...
...the hill to the...
...graveyard at the top. Some of the older grave stones are simple boulders half buried in the grass while...
...other stones from the 18th century bear upright crosses, some of which are simply carved. Later stones are...
...not only taller but...
...some are elaborately carved. This one was erected by...
...the grateful parishioners of Reverend Charles MacDonald who died in 1894. He was also a local historian and author.
At the summit of the isle is St Finan's chapel. It was built in about 1500 by the chief of the Clanranald to replaced an earlier wooden structure. It was abandoned in the late 1600's so was already a ruin by the time Bonnie Prince Charlie came this way in 1745 on his way to Glenfinnan at the head of the loch. Almost certainly the Prince would have stopped here and made his way up to the chapel. St Finan (the leper) was born in Ireland and is thought to have lived between about 520 and 600. Several places in Scotland and Ireland are named after him. He is not to be confused with the later St Finan (of Lindisfarne) who died in 661 after becoming Bishop of Lindisfarne.
Today the ruins are very peaceful and seldom visited. They are surrounded by the loch, forests and mountains of the lands of Moidart, Ardgour and Sunart from where the deceased were brought to be buried. At the east end of the chapel a simple slab alter survives. In a recess above it...
...is a carved stone cross. On the alter itself is a remarkable object. It is a Celtic seamless cast bronze bell. Amazingly it has been here for over a thousand years. Nowadays it is chained up but it is remarkable that it has survived the millennia without being plundered. Of course there is a dreadful curse attached to the bell and any one who stole it would regret doing so for every second of their few remaining days... During an internment the bell is taken down to the jetty and rung at the head of the cortège as they slowly make their way up to the waiting grave.
The bell has a remarkably clear and pure tone and as I rang it...
...deer on the far hillside broke off from their grazing, raised their heads and listened in the same way that countless generations of their ancestors must have done. We had lost all sense of time as we had explored the small isle, over an hour had passed since we landed. We were glad we were not headland to headland paddlers. Each of us felt a strong connection with the landscape and the generations of people who had lived and died here. We reflected on our own mortality and felt a deep joy in being able to experience such a place. Paradoxically we had never felt so alive than here in this place of the dead.
By coincidence St Finan's Saint's Day is the 18th of March, the very day we were there. Perhaps that may have added to the ambience we enjoyed though we did not know it was that day at the time.
We were still in no hurry as we made our way back down to the jetty where...
...we enjoyed a peaceful coffee break with the silvery song of a robin and the echoes of an ancient bell ringing in our ears.
We were still paddling in the mountainous part of Loch Shiel but...
...we came to the first major break in the mountains that line the SE shore, where the River Polloch flows into the loch from the broad Glen Hurrich. A coffin road descends into Glen Hurrich after crossing the mountains that divide it from Loch Sunart. The road was used to transport the deceased in the Sunart area for burial on an island further down Loch Shiel. In 1725 a lead mine was established high in the hills of the glen at Corrantee. This was still worked as recently as the 1980s. In 1745 workers at the mine "donated" gunpowder to Bonnie Prince Charlie's rebellion. At that time there were no roads into the area between Loch Sheil and Loch Sunart and all supplies to the miners and their families had to come in by sea. The Hanoverian parliament (and Hanoverian mine shareholders such as the Duke of Norfolk and General Wade) were so incensed by the theft of the gunpowder that they set up a naval blockade and the mining community died of starvation during the winter of 1745/46.
Back on the NW shore, the mountains gradually receded. The shore became less rocky and the beaches became longer and more frequent.
At Rubha na h-Aird we came across this ringed plover in the shallows.
As the sun rose in the sky, a nice little breeze got up and our sails gave some gentle assistance.
Camas Drollaman is a large bay protected by this wooded headland and..
However, all is not what it seems. Just below the trees on its western point are the remains of a bloomery. This was a primitive smelter for iron ore. I have no idea why it would have been built on such a small island rather than on the mainland. Perhaps the men who operated it wanted to keep the secrets of smelting iron away from prying eyes?
A little further to the SW the loch was narrowed by this peninsula. The beach was backed by sessile oaks and further progress down the loch would require taking a dog leg through the narrows.
Before leaving the mountainous part of Loch Shiel behind we took one last look back up the loch to the misty mountains of Ardgour.
