Full flood puts feathered friends to flight.

I had originally intended landing at the south end of Ballantrae beach, where it is more sheltered from the surf. The last time Tony and I had surfed in over the bar at the mouth of the River Stinchar but David didn't fancy it and stayed out. So I was quite surprised when David nipped in, but the rising big spring tide meant there was more water over the bar and the swell wasn't breaking. I followed David in with Andrew, leaving Jim to gather Phil in.

Once inside, we were paddling up the River Stinchar but on the map we were on dry ground! The estuary of the Stinchar is very active and a combination of flood and storm causes the mouth to alternately move north then south over time. You can see the amount of erosion caused by our recent winter storms in the top photo. The hill in the distance is Knockdolian 265m. Like Ailsa Craig, it is a volcanic plug and as it was sometimes mistaken for Ailsa Craig in poor visibility, mariners of the time called it "the False Craig". The Clyde Cruising Club Sailing Directions still warn about it.

 As the river meanders beneath the slopes of Knockdolian, it leaves isolated lagoons which...

...flood in spring tides...

...creating a very rich habitat for bird life and is the reason this area is a Nature Reserve.

Despite this protection, the birds still had to take flight as the gravel beds and lagoons flooded with the rising  spring tide. First the whaups (curlews)...

 ...then the geese and finally...

...the peewits (lapwings) took flight and filled the air above us.

Clear seas full of sprats, off Ardlamont Point

The Cowal peninsula has some really great bays. This is Kilbride Bay, which was very atmospheric with the mist lying low over the hills and forests.

Off Rhuba na Peileig the sea was boiling with large shoals of sprats.

 Just round the point, we came across this lovely...

...beach of cobbles.

 It was now time for our first luncheon.

We sat on these wonderful whorled rocks. I found a very nice mask, snorkel and gloves here, so if you have lost them drop me a line.

After lunch we walked up onto a huge raised beach that stretched away to Ardlamont Point in the distance. The dark patches on the water below the horizon are large shoals of sprats.

Life and death on the Clyde.

From the former Yarrow's shipyard at Scotstoun we paddled to Renfrew on the south bank. This is one of the oldest ferry points on the Clyde. Higher up the river we had already encountered the old chain driven "Renfrew", which served the route as a vehicle ferry from  1952 until 1984. Vehicle traffic had steadily fallen since the construction of the Clyde tunnel upstream in 1963/64 and the Erskine bridge downstream in 1971. You can see old photos of how Renfrew originally  looked here. She was replaced by two passenger ferries, the Renfrew Swan and the Yoker Rose and they remained in service until they were withdrawn in 2010.

Fortunately for the many people in the north that like to nip over the Clyde to shop in Braehead, a new private operator, Clyde Link has taken over the route. This is their aluminium landing craft, Island Trader, which operates from the old car ferry slipways. The crew were very friendly and we had no problem landing at the edge of the wide slipway. This was our first stop as most of the Clyde had either been vertical quays or steep rubble banks. The crew had not been informed of our passage by estuary control but were pleased to hear we had contacted estuary control and they noted our VHFs.

The reason that the old Renfrew dragged itself across the river on chains and the Island Trader has two very large outboards was now very obvious, the ebb tide was running past at 5km/hr! This is why we had been prepared to spend time higher up the river!

We again crossed to the north side of the river and paddled alongside the river quayside of the huge Rothesay dock which opened in 1907.  It is now a yard for recreational boats! Downstream of the dock entrance stands the Clydebank Titan crane. This is all that is left of the John Brown shipyard, which at one time was the World's biggest yard. In 1906 the yard launched the Lusitania, which was then the World's largest ship. In WW1 it launched HMS Repulse and HMS Hood.  In 1940 it launched HMS Duke of York. The yard also built the Cunard  "Queens": the Queen Mary 1934, the Queen Elizabeth 1938 and the Queen Elizabeth 2 1967.

The Titan crane was completed in 1907 by Sir William Arrol and was strengthened to lift 200 tons in 1940 during the building of the Duke of York. The crane was restored and opened as a visitor centre in 2007. All round the crane looks like a bombsite, the yards were demolished and cleared in 2002. The recession did to the yards what Hitler failed to do. On the nights of 13th and 14th March 1940, Hitler ordered a bombing raid on Clydeside and the Clydebank shipyards and munitions factories were targeted in what is known as the Clydebank Blitz. 260 bombers arrived the first night and while rescue operations were still continuing, 200 returned the second night. Most of the factories and shipyards escaped but residential areas were ravaged by incendiary bombs and 528 civilians were killed and 617 seriously injured. Almost every house was damaged and 48,000 people were made homeless. The hardy people of Clydebank recovered and went on to build more fine ships but what a cost their industry had brought them.

During WW2, my Grandfather had a senior job in the Dunlop Rubber company, which was engaged in the war effort, but he also volunteered as a part time special  constable. On the night of 13th March, he was on duty in Clydebank. He was horrified by what he saw, the next day he told my grandmother it was even worse than his experiences as a soldier in the trenches of France in WW1. He never spoke of it at home again.

The Golden Jubilee Hospital lies downstream from the former John Brown's yard. It was built as a private hospital but was taken over by the NHS in 2002. It serves to reduce waiting times for all the Health Boards of Scotland. The hospital stands on the site of the huge Beardmore shipyard that had a mile frontage on the Clyde. William Beardmore bought this site in 1900 and the yard and its cranes were built over the next few years by Sir William Arrol. It went on to specialise in battleships and oil tankers. In 1917 the yard built the World's first aircract carrier with a full length flight deck, HMS Argus.

The south bank of the Clyde we were now passing is undeveloped, in fact it is a nature reserve called Newshot Island, which is an area of intertidal mudflats and salt marsh frequented by wildfowl.

Two great pylons carrying power lines across the Clyde announced our approach to Erskine.

We took a break on a little beach just upstream of the old Erskine Ferry jetty and its replacement bridge, which is now the lowest crossing on the Clyde. Historically the Clyde at Erskine was shallow enough to ford before the navigation channel was dredged.

We had landed in the silted up old harbour of Erskine and had fully expected foul, stinking mud but found ourselves standing on firm, clean, reddish sand.

This is the slipway of the old Erskine ferry, which dragged itself across the currents of the Clyde by two chains strung from one side of the river to the other. The ferry last ran in 1971 when the bridge opened. These swans now had sole possession of the slipway, while a mixed flock of waders, redshanks, oystercatchers and curlews foraged on the sands exposed by the rapidly receding tide. There is an excellent car park here with easy access to the beach above. Erskine would make an ideal start or finish to a trip on the Clyde, either upstream or downstream depending on the tide.

The Erskine bridge was built in 1971 by William Brown. It is a concrete box girder bridge but shortly after it was built two towers and steel cable stays were added. This followed the collapse of a similar concrete box girder bridge in Australia. We saw some very large icicles dangling from the bridge and as the main span is 38m high we were careful not to paddle under them. Very sadly the bridge is a common spot for people to commit suicide. Many years ago I parked my motor bike near the bridge and walked up the passenger path to the middle with my camera. I was waiting to get a photo of the PS Waverley when a very nice policeman cycled up and asked if I was alright.

On a brighter note, we found a little tide race to play on in the shallows round St Patrick's Rock, which is marked by the green navigation buoy in the above photo. St Patrick was born in Old Kilpatrick on the north side of the river. Apparently the Devil was displeased to hear Patrick was leaving for Ireland so he ripped a bit out of nearby Dumbuck rock and cast it after the departing saint.

If you are enjoying this modern trip down the Clyde, then you might be interested to compare it with an excellent imaginary trip assembled from old postcard photos by Chris Jones.

Ice cold in Dunure

After leaving the Heads of Ayr, the coastline swings round to the SW and we caught our first glimpse of Ailsa Craig.

We then came to Dunure, our second castle of the day, which like the first, was perched right on the edge of a cliff.

We landed within the little harbour below the castle.

In the summer it is full of recreational boats but these two swans had it pretty much to themselves. The quay side consisted of two pitches of sheet ice, the crossing of which carried the risk of a close inspection of the swans. The reason for risking this icy crux was that the water in our drinking bladders had also frozen and to put it bluntly, we were drouthy!

Like all good harbours, Dunure has a pub and one which welcomes sea kayakers!

How do you like your Guinness? Why, we will take the Extra Cold, just to warm us up thanks! We didn't stay too long, given the treacherous ice that lay between the pub and our kayaks.

We were not the only ones to stop at Dunure for a warm up. This small flock of redshanks had found a south facing rock to catch the sun and keep out of the cold north wind. All but two "watchmen" had their heads under their wings.

Soon we were back on the water, leaving the comforts of Dunure in our wakes.

A feast on Gigha.

Once we had got our tents up it was time to start unloading the boats for our evening meal. We had chicken tikka bhuna, parathas, two mackerel and some beef burgers to prepare.


The evening ferry to Port Ellen was the MV Isle of Arran. I did think of the fish and chips or chicken curry that Phil and I enjoyed on our last trip to Islay as she steamed past Gigha. On that occasion I had pointed out this very beach to Phil.


The sun now began to set...


..and this mayweed (thanks Vince!) looked lovely in the low saturated light. I thought to myself, "how wonderful nature is" until...


..I noticed Phil. To the uninitiated, it may look as though he has pulled a woman's stocking over his head as a disguise, while robbing the island's only shop of a pack of super noodles. However, look more closely...


...and you will see that Phil is a victim of an appallingly ferocious attack by some of nature's most efficient predators... the Scottish midge!

In Scotland, humans are not top of the food chain and a midge hood is a necessity.

Potted pheasant at Portpatrick

Back in February we drove through snow showers to arrive in Portpatrick which nestles round a rocky inlet on the Rhins of Galloway. It is an interesting little place...


...which is just as well because Tony and I had to spend some considerable time waiting for David and Phil to arrive. We spent the time looking at the large pots and transport of the Lighthouse Pottery. We were fearing they had run off the road in the snow when, at last, a call came through. David had rescued a pheasant that had been injured on the road. The plan was that he would leave it in Phil's car while we went paddling then take it home to his surgery afterwards. The poor thing would need some sustenance so David and Phil were searching Portpatrick for supplies of pheasant food.


Fortunately Portpatrick is a small place and their search was not protracted. The only thing resembling pheasant food was a packet of scotch broth mix found in a small supermarket. This was duly purchased and left with the pheasant on the floor of Phil's car. Phil was looking pretty dubious about this but David reassured him that it would be OK. The pheasant obviously liked the mix as it proceeded to stuff itself with the contents of the packet.


At last the kayaks were carried down the slip...


and onto the sands of Portpatrick harbour. Colourful buildings cluster round the esplanade and amongst them we spotted the Crown Hotel . We made a mental note to call there later.


As we prepared to depart, Tony and I sympathised with a still anxious Phil. Much as we felt sorry for the pheasant, we thought a better use of the scotch broth mix would have been to make a lovely big pot of soup.... with a nice pheasant stock!

Gathering nuts on Colonsay

The day was by now pressing on so we reluctantly left the shelter of Scalasaig's little Port na Feamainn (seaweed harbour). We rounded the low headland of Rubha Dubh with its automatic lighthouse. It flashes every 10 seconds showing a white light to the east and a red light to the north.


We now entered Loch Staosnaig and paddled round Eilean Staosnaig at its head. Gentle hills rolled down to a raised beach which is now covered by farm land. It looks such an unspoiled scene but it was once the scene of food processing on an industrial scale! These white sands have been a landing point for our ancestors for at least 9,000 years.


In 1994 an archaeological dig on the raised beach revealed a large (4.5m diameter) pit, which was full of burned hazel nut shells.


In 2001 Mithen et al published a paper in which they dated the shells to approximately 9000 years ago. They also studied pollen from sediments in a nearby loch and discovered that the hazel nut pollen had all but disappeared over one season. It appears that our hunter/gatherer, Mesolithic ancestors had arrived on Colonsay and cut down the hazel trees, gathered all the nuts then processed them by roasting in this pit.


This is a diagram of how the pit would have been used.

Reference:
Plant Use in the Mesolithic: Evidence from Staosnaig, Isle of Colonsay, Scotland
Steven Mithen, Nyree Finlay, Wendy Carruthers, Stephen Carter and Patrick Ashmore, Journal of Archaeological ScienceVolume 28, Issue 3, March 2001, Pages 223-234