A whiff of diesel with Rum on the rocks near Bloodstone..

As we left Kilmory Bay several fast fighter aircraft arced round the sky, disappearing round either side of the distant Skye Cuillin. Then this air support aircraft, G-FRAS, a Dassault Falcon-20C, leased from Cobham flew low overhead.

We continued round the coast of Rum but although there was almost no wind the swell was heaving at the base of the cliffs with a near constant roar. We were now paddling SW into the glare of the low sun. Something in the distance caught our eye but we could not quite make out what it was...

 ...until we approached the sad wreck of...

...the Jack Abry II, a French trawler that ran on to the rocks here just before midnight on the 31st January 2011. Fortunately, despite a gale and the surrounding cliffs and mountains, all 14 men on board were airlifted to safety by the Stornoway coastguard helicopter.

Initial attempts to salvage her failed when her engine room and fish holds were holed and flooded. Her fuel oil was removed but there was still a whiff of diesel in the air over two years later. The Marine Accident Investigation Branch report makes interesting reading and like many accidents it was caused by a chain of small events that led to the final grounding.

 This coastline became more and more dramatic until we turned a corner and...

 ...Bloodstone Hill reared up above our intended destination of...

 ...Glen Guirdil. Green agates are found in this rock. They contain little tiny red flecks of iron, and it is these that give the stone and the mountain its name.

The geology here is very complex, Bloodstone Hill lies at the boundary of granite and Torridonian sandstone. It is also covered with sedimentary conglomerate rocks containing igneous rocks from the eruption which formed the Cuillin of Rum. These sedimentary rocks are then covered with lava flows that are younger than the Rum eruption and which probably came from the later Mull eruption to the south. If you look carefully at the top slopes of Bloodstone Hill, you can see where these lavas have flowed over the top of the hill and started to run down ancient river valleys. The lava solidified before it got to the sea and has left steep escarpments.

Bloodstone is one of the finest rocks for making stone tools. Our ancestors have been visiting Rum to quarry bloodstone for at least 7,500 years; a camp with a heap of hazel nut shells has been carbon dated to that time. Bloodstone arrow heads and axe heads have been found at great distances from the lonely isle of Rum. These people worked and traded bloodstone 3,000 years before the first stone was laid in an Egyptian pyramid.

June 2006

I have twice before landed by sea kayak at Guirdil. Both occasions were in summer but one was very windy. We landed near high tide on banks of uprooted kelp.

June 2006

This is Guirdil bothy where Ian and I planned to stay for two nights. 

June 2006

The following day we hoped to circumnavigate Canna from here and return for the second night.

As we approached Guirdil we could see an inviting plume of smoke coming from the bothy chimney. This time it was about half tide and the swell was washing up over a boulder beach interspersed by studs of bed rock. We explored both sides of the beach but it did not look very inviting. We were concerned as the forecast was for the wind and surf height to increase the following day. Then two tall men emerged from the bothy. Both were dressed head to toe in camouflage gear... time for Plan B.

In life you need to create opportunities in which good luck might happen. Both Ian and I have a very flexible view to planning. We had allowed sufficient time to arrive at Guirdil and paddle somewhere else, we had brought tents and I knew of a good camp site on Canna, which we could reach by night fall...

Time for tea with the Old Man of Rum and a fine pair.

Under a saltire sky we approached the cliff at northern boundary of the beach at Samhnan Insir. It is formed of pre-tertiary Torridonian sandstone and has weathered into...

...the remarkable features of a face, known as the Old Man of Rum.

The northernmost point of Rum consists of shallow sandstone ledges which project far out from the land. The swell provided some entertainment as we were distracted by our first sight of distant Canna. This was to be our destination the following day...or so we thought.

Approaching Kilmory we came to this amazing sandstone boulder, which had weathered into a...

...fantastic T shape. We pondered upon the cataclysmic forces that must have wrenched this great stone from the very bosom of the Earth.

As we approached Kilmory Bay we came across...

...more hungry red deer feeding on the kelp exposed by low tide.

Again we waited patiently outside the surf zone, admiring the heaving and fine pair of summits, Hallival 723m and Askival 812m, until...

...some smaller sets saw us...

...safely in to shore.

It was now time for tea and some 10 year old Jura on this stunning beach. Meanwhile the deer returned to their grazing at the far end of the bay.

Only Bird Friday for company on the north coast of Rum.

Ian and I were enjoying glorious February sunshine on the north coast of Rum when we spotted a most satisfactory location to stop...

...for a third luncheon. We sat and waited for the bigger sets to go through before making our final run into the beach at Samhnan Insir.

We must have arrived just as some bigger sets had arrived. For a long time after we arrived, there was barely a ripple as we admired the fine view north to the Skye Cuillin.

 The pristine sands were patterned by bands of red and silver grains but...

 ...we were not the first visitor although...

 ...we had no human company.

We enjoyed our luncheon on warm rocks with a lovely view to Skye.

A Rum do of geos, boulders and apparently yummy kelp.

 By the time Ian and I got on the water at the Loch Scresort pier on Rum it...

 ...was nearly 12:30. At first we could only see the distant mainland beyond the mouth of the loch but...

 ...soon we could see the distinctive outline of Eigg. However, we were going to leave Eigg for another day and as we...

 ...left the enclosure of Loch Scresort, we turned left to paddle round the north coast of Rum. The Cuillin of Skye dominated the northern horizon.

 The coast consists of low cliffs and the sea is either blue if paddling over kelp and rock or...

 ...turquoise if paddling over sand.

 We took our first break on the delightful sands of Camas Pliasaig as...

 ...the MV Loch Nevis was returning from Canna.

 As we paddled on everything grew larger like this enormous geo and...

 ...this huge boulder beach that had been modelled into a series of terraces and mounds by winter storms.

As we rounded the entrance to this bay we startled a red deer hind and her calf from last year. They had been feeding on kelp at low water and bounded away in a shower of spray as their ears swivelled round to focus on the noise of our paddles. Coastal populations of red deer and reindeer feed on kelp when there is insufficient grazing on land.  Ian and I don't like startling wildlife, particularly in winter, but we were certainly not expecting to see deer feeding up to their knees in sea water! The real issue is not Ian and I startling two deer but why is the population of deer on Rum apparently starving and eating kelp. Maybe they like the stuff (though I have not seen deer eating kelp in summer) or maybe there are too many deer on Rum?

It's too early in the year... the start of our great island adventure.

It was the end of February and a rare high pressure system settled over northwest Scotland. It was time for a trip to the Small Isles. Ian, Mike, Phil and I had originally planned this trip last summer but the promised high pressure evaporated as our embarkation day approached and we went shopping instead. At least the work with tidal planning and printing/laminating maps was not wasted. This trip is unusual in that you need to take account of weather, tides, surf heights but also ferry times! I have paddled to the Small Isles from Arisaig and from Glen Brittle but each of those options takes two days (there and back) out of a small weather window.

A much more preferable option is to use the ferries and spend the time paddling between the islands. The Calmac ferry timetable for the Small Isles is pretty impenetrable as the ferry travels to different combinations of islands each day, a further complication is that the days change in summer! With some planning of wind direction tide times and ferry times it is possible to ensure favourable paddling conditions and yet ensure if weather closes in it will not be too long before the next ferry arrives to return to Mallaig. I travelled up the night before and stayed at the Glenuig Inn.

The morning dawned fair with little wind on the Sound of Arisaig but with a hard frost on the ground.

I met my good friend Ian at the top of the Mallaig ferry ramp in good time for the 10:20 sailing to Rum.

Soon we were loaded onto the MV Loch Nevis with a contractor's lorry and delivery van. (You cannot take your car to the Small Isles but there is a large free car park 5 minutes walk from the ferry terminal and you can drive into the terminal to drop the kayaks off). When I went in to the Calmac booking office to check the kayaks in I was greeted by amazement, we were the first sea kayaks of 2013 and the lady said "Are you sure you want to go? It's too early in the year!"

Right on time MV Loch Nevis swung out round the end of Mallaig Pier. The statue of the fisherman and young girl is by  local artist Mark Rogers of Airor in Knoydart on the other side of Loch Nevis. At Aior there is a similar statue of just the fisherman.

Soon MV Loch Nevis was steaming away to the small Isles leaving the mouth of Loch Nevis in her wake.

Straight ahead lay Rum...

...to port Eigg and...

...to starboard Skye.

Soon the Rum Cuillin began to dominate...

...the horizon ahead and by the time...

...we entered Loch Scresort on Rum's SE coast the peaks of Askival and Hallival literally towered over us.

Ian and I had travelled in civvies and were waiting for the Loch Nevis to leave before changing. Just at that moment, a woman came down the jetty and asked "Are one of you the doctor?"

In my best Dr Who voice, I said "Well I used to be a doctor but I am not the one you are looking for!"

It turned out she was the warden and had come to take a visiting GP to see a sick resident. She asked where we were headed. We said we were going to stay in Guirdil bothy in the NW of the island. She said there were already two people staying there and if we wished we could always stay in the Castle Hostel, which was not open for the season but as contractors were staying there would be beds available. Thanking her, we headed off but made a careful mental note of  what she said...