Eking out a living and doing their pan in, on the north shore.

The day dawned misty but still on the north shore of Arran.

We had camped on the hillside above the beach. The banks of this stream were bursting with primroses.

We soon broke camp and proceeded along the wild coast. On the north facing slopes above us, we could just make out runrigs, a sign of ancient cultivation.

We came to Laggan Cottage which is a locked bothy belonging to the North Arran estate.

It is well equipped and David looked wistfully at the comfortable bunk beds within. A night on a leaky air bed had not been so comfortable.

Paul Story, an author, has left multiple copies of his book Dreamwords by the path to the cottage. If enough people pay by internet, he will write the second volume!

We continued along the edge of this wild land. The first signs of spring were just emerging.

We passed ruins of the long abandoned settlement of Cock. Flat land on the raised beach was so precious for growing things...

...that the 18th century buildings had been built on the rocks above the high water mark. There were salt pans here and you might wonder how the water evaporated on such a sunless north shore. However, there was a small seam of coal here and the coal was burned to make the salt. There are remains of pits and shafts above the shore.

It must have been a hard life.

The lack of a saw was like a millstone round our necks.

After leaving Sannox we set off along the wild north coast of Arran. There are no roads and only a rough footpath gives land access here.

We passed below the Fallen Rocks, which is a site of a relatively recent landslide of Upper Old Red Sandstone conglomerate blocks. 

We arrived at the appropriately named Millstone Point. There was a quarry for millstones above the beach.

The sun had set by the time we set up camp.

We got the evening meal of black Latvian beans and rice, slowly cooked in Guinness, ready.

Then David scoured the beaches for logs...

...and we got the fire going.

Having no saw to cut the wood, we had to slide it gradually into the fire. Needless to say we stayed up very late, until all the wood but not quite all the Guinness was consumed.

A tale of three harbours and some ferrous sheep on Arran

In Mid April David and I caught the midday ferry to Arran. As we approached Brodick the mountains were cloaked in low mist.

We trollied the kayaks off the ferry and were prepared to launch almost as soon as the MV Caledonian Isles had cleared her jetty.

We planned an anticlockwise circumnavigation of Arran, a distance of about 90km. A southerly breeze began to clear the mist from the mountains and filled our sails.

We soon passed the first of Corrie's two harbours. Note the "sheep" bollards!The fact that it has two...

...tells you that neither is very good! The second has a houseboat and a replica longship in it and not a lot of water when we passed by. Geology students on their annual field trips and all equipped with yellow hard hats were everywhere!

The lovely sweep of Sannox Bay announced our arrival at the start Arran's remote north coast.

Sannox also has a harbour (with sheep bollard) but it is not much better than either of its neighbours at Corrie.

We stopped for a break at Sannox Bay.

The view from the sands into the mountains round Glen Sannox is one of the finest in Scotland.

The Mull of Logan

 In the middle of a sunny spell in April, the day dawned grey and drizzly at Portpatrick in SW Scotland. Tony and I met Jim (fresh from Skye) and Mark and Heather Rainsley who were visiting the area. Mark was keen to get some photos of Scottish coastal fortifications and Dunskey Castle fitted the bill!

We were headed south with the flood tide for the Mull of Logan, some 16km to the south. There is some excellent rock hopping on this stretch of coast.

Rounding Money Head, I put my sail up and nipped off to Ardwell Bay in front of the others as there was a nice little wind.

On the horizon some blue sky appeared...

...as the others came in to land.

Mark and Heather seemed to be enjoying their visit to Grey Galloway.

Despite the recent heatwave (it was 22C in Galloway the day before) the water temperature was only 6C. It was interesting to note that we all wore dry suits etc, unlike the recreational sit on top paddlers in Fleet Bay who were out in shorts and T shirts!

We didn't tell Mark about the Devil's Bridge arch at the Mull of Logan and let him go round the corner first. All we heard was "WOW!".

 At this point Tony and I took our farewells of the others. They were paddling on to Port Logan and lunch in the hotel before a taxi back to Portpatrick for the cars.

Tony and I now caught the ebb tide tide going north. There was still a force 3-4 northerly wind.

We knew there would be some excitement with wind against tide at Money Head, Knockienausk Head and Tandoo Point. We were right and got our faces wet, before facing the Easter Holiday crowds at Portpatrick!

Little Cumbrae sunset.

We met at Portencross at 730pm...

...and formulated a quick plan to paddle round Little Cumbrae Island.

 We set the controls...

 ...for the heart of...

 ...the sun.

 As we crossed to Gull Point it slowly sank in the west, turning from orange to red.

On our return, our way was lit by the glow of Hunterston nuclear power station. Fortunately Harvey was with us and as he works there, we assumed it was quite safe.

Ailsa sunset.

It is always sad to leave Ailsa Craig and its teeming bird colonies. Mostly we don't look back...

 ...mainly because the return involves crossing a busy shipping channel. We stopped to let MV Johanna Desiree pass in front of us. She was bound from Ayr to Santander at 10.8 knots. Behind us, the P&O Express from Larne to Troon passed at a faster 30.6 knots!

 As the rock slowly receded...

 ...the sun sank towards the horizon...

...and we enjoyed another wonderful sunset  from the skerries of the Lendalfoot shore.

A quick shag on Ailsa Craig.

It was now time to paddle round Ailsa Craig. We had arranged to meet Alan and Linda from the Castle Craig Kayak Club. We set off anticlockwise, past the walkway round to the north foghorn and quarry.

We emerged from the darkness under the cliffs of Eagle's Seat...

...followed by this grey seal. "Look at the eyebrows on that!"

Jim was delighted with how the borrowed Taran performed, responding to edging, even when fully loaded with camping gear for a week.

It was only  12 days since my last visit but since then the fulmars, kittiwakes, guillemots, black guillemots and razorbills had joined the gannets. The puffins had not yet arrived (I only saw one on the water) though on land regiments of plastic puffins waited to encourage feathered visitors.

We took some time to drift along under the gannet colonies to Stranny Point.

This quick shag flew in low under the guillemots and nearly collided with Jim!

 We marvelled at the structure and colour of the cliffs.

Then we had to prepare for the long crossing back to Ayrshire.