Only 40km from the City, escape to a Clyde wilderness.

As we left the lighthouse, the container ship MV Canopus J was making her way down the Firth of Clyde from Greenock to Bilbao. She was built in 2004 and measures 140m x 20m. She is equipped to carry dangerous cargo in hold 2.

Back at sea level we had time for a second luncheon and enjoyed the silence of our isolation and escape, from the everyday World...

...before hitting the sea again. As we paddled below the 1995 lighthouse, Tony noticed the lighthouse spoil heap below a gap in the cliffs. No doubt this will make interesting digging for future archaeologists.

On our left the rocks of Little Cumbrae fell steeply into the sea.

To our right the low winter sun was dipping to the horizon in the SW.

The low sun gave the cliffs a warm glow which belied the winter chill in the air. We felt remote from civilisation but the wild SW coast of Little Cumbrae is only 40km from the outskirts of Glasgow!

Alan got his camera out again in the calm of the lee of the island.

As the cliffs fell away to Gull Point, we slowly returned to civilisation. Above the point, we could see the wind turbines on the mainland were turning quickly in the north wind. It would be a stiff cold paddle back to Largs and reality...

The decay of the Little Cumbrae lighthouse, does anybody care?

We approached the Little Cumbrae lighthouse from the sea. It is positioned...

...on a raised beach which lies behind a low cliff rising from the current sea level. The "Nature Reserve No Access" sign was put up by one of the previous owners who was more interested in privacy than nature.

A large winch hauled supplies from the landing stage up a light rail track to the base of the cliff.

A jib crane then lifted the supplies up to the top of the cliff.

The boathouse is still remarkably dry inside.

At the top of the cliffs, to the south of the lighthouse, a white washed building houses the long silent diesel generators.

Behind the generator house a plain concrete building houses the new automated light which was built in 1997.

From the new lighthouse we walked up to the walled complex of the old lighthouse and the keepers' cottages. Robina McLaren tells of her childhood in these cottages from 1960-63.

Most of the windows were still glazed...

...but sadly some of the sashes had collapsed, letting rain into these fine old buildings of pink sandstone.

The detail and workmanship was astounding.

Inside the empty rooms, the rain had done surprisingly little damage to the hardwood floors and even the plaster on the walls was in reasonable condition. The gentle moaning of the wind at the empty windows now replaced the voices of generations of keepers and their families that once lived here.

The upstairs rooms had a marvellous view of the lighthouse and Arran and Bute beyond.

We walked from the keepers' cottages towards the lighthouse, topped by its beautiful copper cupola. It was built by  Thomas Smith and Robert Stevenson in 1793.

From the balustrade round the base of the lighthouse we looked south past the crane, and the new lighthouse...

...to Holy Island and distant Ailsa Craig

Entering the lighthouse through a door that was jammed open we found the control panel for the battery charger ...

...and the banks of lead acid batteries.

In the basement of the tower another panel controlled the operation of the light and its lenses.

We now climbed up the spiral...

...staircase and ladders to the gantry that runs...

...round the  inside of the lantern room. Sadly the light and lenses have been removed. To the west, the view extended right across the Firth of Clyde.

To the east, the lantern room overlooked the keepers' cottages which we had recently explored.

Even the chimney pots had wonderful detailing.

Beyond the cottages, a track snaked up the hillside towards the houses on the east side of the island.

The base of the lighthouse had small open "portholes" that went right through the wall.

If you stuck your eye up to the hole you could look right through the tower and out through an identical  and perfectly aligned porthole on the opposite wall. I wonder what they were for?

It seems such a pity that these beautiful old buildings are being allowed to decay. The people who designed and built them showed more care. The keepers who kept the place spic and span for the regular inspections would have been horrified.

Looking down, we could see the rising tide had nearly reached the kayaks; it was time to leave the lighthouse to the elements and to its inevitable decay.

The far side of the Cumbraes.

At the north end of Great Cumbrae we entered the broader expanse of the Firth of Clyde. The Arran mountains soared above the lower hills of Bute.

Alan was just as keen to capture the scene as me! You can see his photos on his blog here.

We now paddled down the west coast...

...of Great Cumbrae before the short crossing of the Tan, ...

...the channel which separates it from Little Cumbrae. Our destination was the Little Cumbrae lighthouse.

Out to sea we could now see Arran, unobstructed by the south end of Bute.

We paddled under low cliffs until we came to the lighthouse...

It's behind you, on the Clyde

In Scotland the snow tends to arrive with the Pantomime season.  It was quite cold when Tony, Alan and I arrived at Largs marina on the Firth of Clyde. I didn't dare take the short road over the hills, I took the long way round by Kilmarnock, Irvine and Ardrossan. In the distance, the mountains of Arran rose above Great Cumbrae island.
  

 The "pencil" celebrates the Battle of Largs in 1263. This conflict was between the Vikings and the Scots. The outcome was not clear cut but ultimately led to the withdrawal of the Vikings from Scotland.

We warmed up once on the water. We didn't cross the path of the MV Loch Shira ferry, as it steams back and forth across the channel to Great Cumbrae quite a bit faster than...

...we could paddle. She was built at the Ferguson yard just up the Clyde at Port Glasgow and entered service in 2007. As it was early there were few passengers the ferry had a fast turn around...

...err, Alan, perhaps you should be looking the other way. As they say in all the best pantos, "It's behind you!"

Five fingers and a long way to fish in Loch Linnhe.

 The sun set long before we reached our shuttle car, which we had left just north of the Corran narrows on Loch Linnhe.

Looking back up the loch we got a fantastic view of Ben Nevis. Just below the summit you can see the infamous five finger gully which traps the unwary on their descent of the Ben.

An Irish trawler, W297 Caronia II, registered in Waterford, passed us as she was making her way up the loch. She was heading for Corpach pier where she would tie up and spend the night before entering the Caledonian canal the next day. She was bound for the fishing grounds in the North Sea. At this point she was already 600km from Waterford and still had a long way to go. I hope her long trip was worth it but it makes you wonder, have her home waters been cleaned out of fish? It makes you appreciate where your fish fingers come from.

Night was falling as we approached Corran narrows and its lighthouse. From NE to SW the light flashes green, once every 4 seconds.

Finally, our day on the water was over but we still had a 42 mile round trip to recover the other shuttle car at Loch Eil head. We were well satisfied, we had come to photograph the Ben from the water in winter and had succeeded. Given it spends 80% of the time under cloud, we thought we were very lucky.