Eilean Comhlach, a surreal meeting place on Loch Shiel..

I was glad I had taken the trouble of stopping to clear the condensation from my camera lens because the combination...

..of mist and...

 ...early morning light created a surreal effect on the waters of Loch Shiel.

By this time Ian and Mike were just dots on the horizon and added scale to the scene.

 As the sun rose it gradually burned the mist off Gaskan Wood, which was just as well because...

,,,there was not a breath of wind to blow it away.

The cold grey mist still hung about the higher crags and contrasted with the warm rich russet browns of last year's bracken.

For some time my eye had been drawn down the loch to Eilean Comhlach which, with its reflection, made such a pretty picture. Its name could be isle of the meeting place, fellow warrior or suckling pig.  Several lochs have islands where warring chieftans met without fear of being ambushed by each other's men.

However, I resisted the temptation to be completely captivated by the isle and turned to face the way we had come.

 I was rewarded by this scene of mountains and mist closing in round the heads of the loch.

We had each been paddling in our own space but were all drawn to...

 ...paddle towards...

 ...the magical isle of Eilean Comhlach, where we regrouped and met.

We circumnavigated both it and its smaller neighbour.

 We lingered as long as we could but the...

 ...sun was now rising quickly and we had a long way to go. It was with some regret that we left Eilean Comhlach. We each agreed that it was already one of our most memorable days on the water and yet it was only 08:22!

The tattie stick of Loch Shiel.

 After our "tea stop" we continued down Loch Shiel and passed...

 ..the delta of the River Aladale which flows out of Glen Aladale, the ancestral home of the Jacobite MacDonalds. We were keen to get as far down the loch as possible before night fall so we pressed on. Just as the sun was setting a cold SW wind got up and made finding a camp site more urgent.

We came to a spot where there were two potential camp sites a few hundred metres apart. One had better ground but was exposed to the cold wind. We were getting tired and visited each site twice before making our final decision.

 In the end we decided on the more sheltered location and soon had the tents up and our evening meal cooking.

We got all our things in order by the time darkness fell over Loch Shiel by which time, it was time to get the camp fire lit.

0Baked potatoes were cooking in the embers as we warmed our toes by the fire. We toasted the success of our first day with several malts before the tattie stick was produced to howk the tatties oot the fire. One thing the prudent camper must not do is to chuck all the sticks on the fire before the potatoes are removed. One suitably long stick must be retained! With some butter and salt, the baked potatoes were absolutely delicious and were unanimously voted the best ever.

Surreal on Loch Shiel, surrounded by solitude and silence.

After visiting the monument to Bonnie Prince Charlie at Glenfinnan, we turned our bows to the SW and were rewarded by the dramatic view of Loch Shiel stretching away through the mountains of Sunart and Moidart. Although it is seldom visited, this view is familiar to millions as it features in the Harry Potter films. The railway to Hogwarts circles the top of Loch Shiel via the Glenfinnan viaduct.

The loch stretches for 28 kilometres until its outflow into the River Shiel. It was carved by a glacier in the Ice Age and is 128m at its deepest. After the ice retreated about 10,000 years ago it was a sea water loch. However, Scotland is slowly rising after the weight of the ice sheet has gone and the loch is now 4.5m above sea level and has been a fresh water loch for the last few thousand years.

There is no public road on either side of the loch and it was only recently that a forestry road was constructed along its SE shore. The loch side still has extensive areas of native woodland (Scots, pine, sessile oak, birch, rowan and alder) as its remoteness protected it from over grazing and clearance by man.

The remoteness of Loch Shiel is preserved to this day as none of the surrounding mountains exceed 3,000 feet in height and therefore achieve Munro status. As a result, they do not attract droves of Munro "baggers", those at the OCD end of the outdoor sports spectrum who collect all 282 (or whatever the current number is) summits. This creates great erosion on the Munros while neighbouring peaks, just a few feet below 3000 feet, often remain in near pristine wilderness.

After leaving Glenfinnan we passed the delightful wooded isle of Eilean Ghleann Fhionainn and then we were surrounded by solitude and silence. The surface of the loch was so calm that the only disturbance to the reflections of the...

...forests and mountains was our wake. These were perfect conditions for spotting An t-Seileag (or Shiela as the monster of Loch Shiel is more commonly known). If you have not heard of Shiela you probably are more familiar with her cousin Nessie  who inhabits the depths of Loch Ness. Other large fresh water lochs in Scotland also have monsters such as Morag in Loch Morar, just to the north of Loch Shiel. We kept our eyes peeled for any sign of disturbance on the surface of the loch but Sheila was shy and there was no sign of her serpentine coils.

 As we slowly made our way down Loch Shiel we savoured every stroke as we passed Sgurr Ghiubhsachain, 849m on our left and...

....Bein Odhar Mhor, 870m on our right.

Raising the standard of our paddling at Glenfinnan.

It had been an awful winter dogged by bad weather and ill health. Ian and I had originally planned to paddle down Loch Shiel to the sea in February but I was not well and although Ian hoped to paddle it solo, the weather was not really conducive.

A small weather window opened on 17th March and Ian, Mike and I met at the Glenfinnan House Hotel at the head of Loch Shiel. We had intended to stay the previous night to make the most of the day but the hotel did not open till 20th March. However, the hotel manager Duncan Gibson kindly let us park in the hotel car park and to launch from the hotel grounds. This was much appreciated.

The hotel dates from 1755 when it was opened as an inn by Alexander MacDonald who had fought a Culloden for Prince Charles Edward Stuart. It later became a farm then a grand house for the MacDonalds of Glenaladale. It remained in the MacDonald family until 1916. The house was bought by the MacFarlane family in 1971 and they converted it into the current hotel.

As the guests had yet to arrive, this red deer was making the most of the peace and quiet in the hotel grounds.

Our intention was to paddle down fresh water Loch Shiel to the sea then paddle over 60 kilometres to the head of Loch Ailort a sea loch which is only 17 km from Glenfinnan by road. I trolleyed the kayaks to shore while Ian and Mike ran the shuttle. I then enjoyed a very pleasant half hour chatting to Bill, a photographer from Glasgow.

 We were on the water by 14:40 and we found the...

 ...waters of the loch to be incredibly still and glassy calm.

 The mountains were mirrored with...

 ...incredible clarity.

 It was almost a shame to disturb the serenity of the scene with our paddling!

 At first we made for the head of the loch under the steep slopes of Sgurr Ghiubhsachain, 849m.

The beautiful Glenfinnan Catholic Church of St Mary and St Finnan was built by Fr. Donald MacDonald in 1873. He was a brother of the Laird of Glenaladale.

Standing above the shallows at the head of the loch is the Glenfinnan monument to Prince Charles Edward Stuart. He landed here in 1745 in an attempt to regain his father's James's crown from the protestant Hanoverian monarch George II. His father, George I, succeeded  from the childless last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne, due to the Act of Succession of 1701 which prevented a Catholic from becoming monarch.

Those who supported the restoration of James as monarch were called Jacobites after Jacobus, the Latin form of James. Bonny Prince Charlie's rebellion finally came to an end after his defeat at Culloden in 1746. This was the last battle fought on the British Mainland and afterwards the Jacobites were subjected to much persecution. It was not until 1815 that tensions had relaxed enough to allow the monument to be raised in memory of Bonny Prince Charlie and his ill fated rebellion.

You can follow our adventures on Loch Shiel in stereovision by following Ian's blog which starts here.