Cake, beer and wind in Scalasaig harbour, Colonsay.

It was now time for second luncheon and as the sun was high overhead, we had become exceedingly thirsty. We decided to stop at Scalasaig harbour, which was deserted as the ferry we had seen earlier had already gone.

Making our way from the harbour to the scattered settlement, you can imagine our disappointment when we saw the big sign outside the Colonsay Brewery.."Brewery Shop Closed".

We resigned ourselves to Plan B and visiting the Colonsay Pantry for a slice of excellent chocolate gateau. You can imagine our delight to discover that they sold...

 ...Colonsay beer! What a relief, David was...

 ..particularly pleased because our beer supplies had mysteriously dropped during the previous night at Kiloran. Perhaps the Hag of Colonsay has a taste for beer and had raided our camp?

 Refreshed and loaded with victuals we paddled slowly out of Scalasaig harbour.

The morning's NE wind had now backed to the west and, as we were heading east to Jura, it looked like the...

...favourable winds we had enjoyed would continue. This was much to Sam's consternation as our destination, the neighbouring Isle of Jura, was still 15km away. We said our farewells to the fair isle of Colonsay as we passed under the small lighthouse on Rubha Dubh.

Read Ian's account here.

En route to Erraid and the Ross of Mull

The road and ferry trip to the Ross of Mull is a long way wherever you live on the mainland. Ian and I had talked about returning here for ages and on the 11th of May we finally set off in the company of Donald in his little RIB and Alan and Lorna. You will be able to follow this trip in trivision on Ian's blog here and Donald's blog here.

Donald and I met up in Oban for a coffee and a stroll before setting off. I wanted to photograph the various slipways near the main ferry terminal. The nearest is the Calmac slip for the Lismore ferry but there always seems to be a reserve ferry sitting in there.

The next nearest is the slip in the ice factory yard. I do not think you could offload a car here but if you arrived by ferry and wanted to launch or if you arrived by kayak and wanted to catch a ferry this might be possible. The RNLI Oban lifeboat is the RNLB "Mora Edith MacDonald" a Trent class boat.

 The public slip is furthest away. You might be able to avoid the busy Gallanach Road by trolleying round the path in front of the lifeboat station and through the ice factory yard to the ferry terminal.

 We walked back to the town past the fishing pier as we had some time.  This is OB151 FV Orion. the quayside restraunts were doing a brisk trade selling sea food platters to Chinese tourists who certasinly seembed to be enjoying the food and the sunny ambience of Oban.

 We had plenty of time and the first ferry to Mull was the MV Coruisk which has recently been transferred from the Mallaig Armadale run to Mull due to the explosion in traffic caused by the introduction Road Equivalent Tarriff which has meant the ferries (and the roads) are full of camper vans. If I was transport minister I would only allow camper vans on the road between the hours of 1 am and 4 am.

 We did not have long to wait until our ferry the MV Isle of Mull came in and soon...

 ...we were aboard. While we were loading, Marine Harvest's brand new 70m well boat the Ronja Challenger berthed at the ice factory quay.

 Soon we were off passing the north end of Kerrera where this rather splendid house is for sale for around a mere £1,000,000.

 The channel to the north of Kerrera is rather busy with shipping and the MV Isle of Lewis which serves Barra from Oban...

 ...came in as we were leaving closely followed by the returning

 ...MV Coruisk. As you can see a fresh NE wind was blowing.

 Half way to Mull we passed Lady's rock where Lachlan Maclean of Duart left his wife to die in 1527. She was rescued by a passing boat and he was later murdered by her brother.

 The bottom end of Lismore is marked by the Eilean Musdile lighthouse.

Then we passed Duart castle on Mull. If you are paddling rond the coast here it might be worth keeping further out. The water close to the coast is often very disturbed,

 Soon we landed and the ramp came down on Mull.

 The road to the Ross of Mull isost 60km of twisting single track, fortunately it was quiet and it was a magnificent drive through the mountains to Bunessan where we had arranged to meet the others. One option was to launch at Bunessan and camp at Market Bay on the north coast of the Ross of Mull but I had an updated weather forecast on the ferry which was for F5 northerly overnight which would make a difficult launch from Market Bay (a surf beach).

 We decided to camp at the excellent Fidden Farm camp site which has a fantastic view...

 ...over the skerries to the Sound of Iona.

 We wasted no time in carrying the boats one by one...

 ...down the dazzling white sand to the...

...sparkling water's edge. We were bound for the magical tidal island of Erraid.

Time stands still in Loch Sween

The mouth of Loch Sween is guarded by the grim walls of the remains of Castle Sween which...

 ...is one of the oldest stone castles in Scotland. I have used a great deal of artistic licence in the composition of these photos as nowadays the castle is besieged on all sides on land by serried rows of modern caravans. Little is known of the origins of the castle but it is believed to date from the late 12th century when it was built by a lord Suibhne in the Norman style. It changed hands many times before it was abandoned in the mid 17th century. However, so well was it constructed that time seems to have stood still for the castle over the last four centuries or so.

 The wind from the north had increased so we crossed to the loch's NW shore to gain some shelter. The offshore wind carried the heady coconut scent of the Kokatat yellow gorse bushes.

 Elsewhere the shore was bare rock and the perspective of this photo emphasised the linearity of this long ribbon like loch.

In places, the wind freed just enough to allow some close hauled paddle sailing and we crossed to the SE shore. Soon...

 ...we had left the entrance to the loch and the Sound of Jura far behind. We were beginning to get a sense of closure on our expedition to Jura and Islay.

We tacked across to the NW shore again and paddled inside Taynish Island where we passed Taynish bath house and jetty. 

 There was just a hint of the buds breaking in the deciduous trees of the Taynish nature reserve. We heard the contrasting calls of a willow warbler in the woods and a great northern diver on the water.

As we approached the end of our journey at Tayvallich the Shannick, the Jura passenger ferry passed on her way to Jura. two sea kayakers were hitching a lift for a trip across the Sound of Jura in much less time than we had just made.

We now turned west into the sheltered waters of the natural harbour at Tayvallich where...

 ...sheltered by the wind we unloaded the boats in warm spring sunshine before...

...shuttling across to Carsaig Bay on the Sound of Jura where we had left the other car. Beyond the NLV Pharos the north end of Jura beckoned. I seemed ages ago we had set off from this spot but in reality it had only been three days. That is what I like about a good sea kayak expedition, time seems to stand still and so many things get packed in to what is actually a very brief time.

A slippery approach to the graceful town of Kirkcudbright and the Selkirk Arms.

We were now well into the estuary of the River Dee and about one hour before high water. The flood tide had not only cancelled the flow of the river but reversed it. We passed this navigational can at 9km/hr upstream without paddling!

The Kirkcudbright yacht marina has some long pontoons which run parallel with the channel of the River Dee. If you want to progress upstream take the outside as the access pontoon blocks the inner passage. In case you have just joined the story in this blog, I should clarify that this is the Galloway River Dee. There are four River Dees in Britain: this one, one in Aberdeenshire, one in Cumbria and one in Wales. The Kirkcudbright Dee rises in the Galloway Hills in the catchment area of Cairsnmore of Carsphairn and Cairnsmore of Dee. There is an old Galloway saying:

There is Cairnsmore of Carsphairn and Cairnsmore of Dee,

but Cairnsmore of Fleet is highest of all three.

Having set off from the estuary of the River Fleet and now entered the estuary of the River Dee, our kayaks had been wetted by the run off from the watersheds of three fine Galloway mountains.

We arrived at Kirkcudbright harbour to find the fishing fleet getting ready to leave at high water. The slipway can be seen just to the right of the yacht. I have...

...used it successfully on previous occasions, such as this one with Tony in July 2013. However, when Ian, Mike and I arrived, it was covered with desperately slippy mud. Ian and I both tried to climb up it but it simply was not possible as it had a coefficient of friction, which was substantially less than a well known buttered substance.

You need to be careful leaving cars and kayaks in Kirkcudbright. A big spring tide comes over the top of the quay!

We retreated a little downstream to near the access pontoon for the marina. We changed out of our dry suits into attire suitable for dinner. Then I tied the boats to a tree with my tow line because...see above!

Kirkcudbright (Kir-coo-bri) is a delightful former county town with wide streets and gaily painted walls. It is named after St Cuthbert who was a seventh century monk of the Celtic church who was based in Northumberland. The town has been a Royal Burgh since 1453 and as such it became the county town for Kirkcudbrightshire one of the old Scottish counties. In 1960 its court house was the scene of the trial of the lighthouse man who murdered the keeper of Little Ross lighthouse which we had explored  that morning.

In the early 20th century Kirkcudbright attracted many authors and artists. Those who stayed here include Dorothy L Sayers, E A Hornel, Jessie M King, E A Taylor, S J Peploe and Charles Oppenheimer.

Kirkcudbright Castle occupies a central position at the corner of Castle Street and is more commonly known as Maclellan's Castle as it was built in 1582 by Sir Thomas Maclellan, the Provost of Kirkcudbright.  It was built as a fortified town house rather than as a serious castle, which could have withstood a siege. It has been a ruin since 1752.

We walked through the streets until we came to some cobbles in the road outside the Selkirk Arms Hotel. These inconspicuous signs mark the site of the 15th century "Meickle Yett" which was the gate through the town's defensive wall. This was built to keep English pirates and trouble makers out of the town. As the town grew the Yett was moved in 1780 to the nearby church yard where it still stands today.

Anyway enough preamble we had come to Kirkcudbright to visit the Selkirk Arms Hotel. We were in good company, the poet Robert Burns stayed here in 1749 when he was working as a customs officer in the area. It was here (and not in the town of Selkirk) that he wrote the Selkirk Grace:

Some hae meat and canna eat, 

   And some wad eat that want it; 

But we hae meat, and we can eat, 

   Sae let the Lord be thankit.

It was also known as the Galloway Grace.

Anyway I dragged Ian and Mike inside where it was quickly apparent to them that we had entered a hostelry of some considerable worth. Although draught Guinness was available, we decided to break with tradition and enjoyed draught Peroni instead.

When it comes to food the Selkirk Arms hotel prides itself on using local producers and suppliers. Mike and I shared Alan Watson's Galloway Smokehouse board while Ian had a local goat's cheese salad. But this was just for starters we each followed up with hot Galloway beef with roasted tomato and rocket served in a sour dough roll which was simply scrumptious. Note the blackboard which gives the provenance of the steak as Todd Hill Muir farm, in nearby Lockerbie which had been butchered at Carsons in even nearer Dalbeattie. There are no Airmiles for the food served here.  If it had been in season, I would have ordered....

...local lobster, which I have enjoyed here on many previous occasions.

I asked the waitress to let the chef know that three hungry sea kayakers had arrived. Within seconds, part owner, chef and fellow sea kayaker, Chris Walker, appeared in his whites for a chat for a chat. We shared tales of camping on Little Ross and of rough conditions in the Little Ross tiderace before Chris had to dash off to cook the next order. A very posh sounding lady guest could be heard asking the waitress why the chef had spoken to "them" and not to her. We had noticed she had moved from the table next to us earlier in our meal...I can't imagine why!

At 500m from the sea (at high tide) the Selkirk Arms is at the upper distance of what is normally considered as acceptable to be considered as a sea kayaking pub. However, the welcome, the exceptional food, ambience and service mean that this is this is a sea kayaking par excellence. On a score out of 10 Ian and I are unanimous in awarding it 13/10!