Generations of geology students have swarmed over his unconformity on the way to the Cock of Arran,.

We made our way out of Loch Ranza and turned north along...

...the Newton shore where we chose to stop for second breakfast near the site of a considerable nonconformity.

Just below the wreck of this old boat (which has seen better days) lies an interesting geological feature,.It attracted the interest of the 18th century Scottish geologist James Hutton. He observed dipping old metamorphic rocks which were immediately overlain by gently sloping layers of much younger sedimentary rocks. There was no evidence of any intermediary rocks between the layers despite them being separated by 160 million years. Hutton used this unconformity to deduce that the underlying metamorphic rock had been created, metamorphosed, (altered by great forces) then uplifted and eroded before the later sedimentary rocks were overlain. Lastly, the two layers were then further uplifted then eroded to expose their junction on what is now Newton shore. He deduced from all this that the World was much older than had been previously thought.

Generations of geology students have followed Hutton to swarm all over his unconformity.

Leaving the unnconformity we passed the Fairy Glen on our way north.

This rock pippit was hopping between great...

...priapic boulders of conglomerate...

... which lay on the old red sandstone of the Cock of Arran.

For the full StereoVision experience read Ian's account here.

The great quartz vein of Grob Bagh, Gigha.

 A great vein of quartz....

 ...stretches out to sea from Grob Bagh on the SW coast of Giga.

 Seen end on it is like a miniature mountain range covered in snow.

 The quartz crystals are predominantly white but are...

 flecked with brown.

In comparison, the rockpools at the base of the vein are a blaze of colour.

Flirting with the maidens of Maidenhead Bay.

 At last the forecast NE breeze kicked in as...

 ...we rounded Barwin Point past the reefs and...

 ...rocky maidens that guard Maidenhead Bay.

We made such good time that we were able to land on Maidens beach and get packed up well before sunset.

Another fine trip on Ayrshire's Carrick coast.

Summer puts in a late appearance on the Solway.

 Summer finally arrived...

 ...at Fleet Bay...

 ...on the Solway Firth...

 ...on the 21st of September. Tony and I were taking no chances, in case we missed it, and set off as soon as the tide reached the bottom of the rocks.

In the NE wind, we hoisted our sails and set off for the horizon. The Isles of Fleet were somewhat nearer than the Isle of Man, so that was where we headed.

The east coast of Holy Island

 The north east coast of Holy Island is an area of...

...stark beauty and a turbulent geological past. A bed of Old Red Sandstone is overlaid by more recent Tertiary volcanic rocks.

The cap of hard igneous rock protects the softer sandstones below. Even so, great lumps of sandstone fall off the cliffs. This landslip happened over the last winter.

It is hard to believe that this remote spot is just 50km from my house in Glasgow.

At the north end of the island we came across these Buddhist prayer poles and caught sight of...

 ...distant Goatfell. We were nearing the end of our journey.

Luncheon on the rocks at Kingscross.

 A force 3 southerly wind picked up as we rounded Largybeg Point.

 We wasted no time in hoisting our sails and...

...what followed was an exhilarating downwind dash across the expanse...

 of Whiting Bay towards Kingscross Point and Holy Island.

 We landed at Kingscross at...

 ...low water so it was a bit of a trek...

 ...to the top of the beach where we cooked first luncheon...

...among the remnants of the ancient mountains of Arran.

Dawn of our final day on Arran.

The sun slowly rose behind a rickety basalt dyke on the Kildonan shore at the south end of Arran.

This was to be our fifth consecutive day paddling in Arran waters (but only after 3 nights on the island.... it's complicated!)

We wasted no time and soon had breakfast sizzling in our pans...

...before launching into the swirling tides...

...that  flow through the Sound of Pladda.

All sorts of things on the go at Brown Head, Arran.

Shortly after leaving Drumadoon Bay we passed the Rebecca R  (RX 383) which seemed to be fishing very close inshore. At first I thought she might be fishing for razor clams but I thought it strange that a small trawler registered in Rye, on the English SE coast had come all the way up here. It turns out she is a fishing research vessel used by CEFAS for young fish surveys.

We continued south towards Brown Head which is another geological sill dating from Tertiary times. The modern day road traverses a raised beach, which is now 30m above present sea level.

707 is one of three Sea King Mk5 search and rescue helicopters based at HMS Gannet in Prestwick. She did the helicopter equivalent of waggling her wings as she passed over.

 Continuing round Brown Head, signs of continuing erosion are frequent. We were not sure if this car was fully aware of what was (or was not) beneath its wheels.

 Over the millenia, large granite boulders had tumbled down the slopes and made the beaches here almost impossible to traverse.

Some larger boulders had even bounced out to sea, where they performed as convenient cormorant perches.

Somewhat pissed off in Grogport.

The remote east coast of Kintyre, between Claonaig and Carradale, is almost unpopulated having only one hamlet and is...

 ...stunningly beautiful. Of course the views...

 ...over to Arran are also superb.

We paddled along a coast where the bare bones of the Earth lay exposed, then came to a series...

...of rocky channels near Eilean Sunadale. All this voyaging proved to be thirsty work and it was with some degree of anticipation that...

...we approached the promisingly named hamlet of Grogport. Now if you do a Google search for Grogport you will find that this is a hamlet bursting at the seams with facilities: "Estate agents in Grogport", "Banks in Grogport", "Businessess for sale in Grogport", "Budget hotels in Grogport", "Singles in Grogport", "Swingers in Grogport" etc etc...

One can only imagine our disappointment, not to mention thirst, when we discovered that this pseudoeponymous clachan had not even one, solitary bar.