Odd one out at Belnahua.

Summer 2006 was a prolific year for jellyfish on Scotand's west coast. Some say it is due to global warming, some that it is a result of overfishing. However, giant swarms have always appeared; they drift north feeding on plankton. I have never been able to understand their life cycle. How do they or their polyp offspring get back south again?

In a swarm of thousands of cyanea lamarckii (the blue jelly fish) I spotted this solitary yellow one at Belnahua. Jellyfish reproduce sexually and it is likely to be an albino, caused by inheriting two rare recessive mutations, one from each parent. Albinos are seen in many lifeforms.



Looking south from Belnahua in the Sound of Luing to the mountains of Scarba.

Jura: writers and stones

It has just been announced that the British writer Will Self will be the first writer in residence at the restored Craighouse Lodge near the Jura whisky distillery. He is following in the footsteps of George Orwell who sought the solitude of Jura to write "1984" in the remote farmhouse of Barnhill in the north east of the island.




Sea kayakers are also drawn to Jura. Its famous Paps guide their crossing of the Sound of Jura. The tides can be taken advantage of and a day trip is possible.



We launched at Carsaig Bay on the mainland and landed here at Tarbert Bay on Jura's east coast. Just behind the beach is a solitary, lichen covered standing stone of great antiquity. Some standing stones might have been connected with astronomy, others with religion or sacrifice. Possibly this one was simply a meeting place. Long before the written word, our ancestors were communicating with each other round stones like these. Unfortunately their oral tradition has long been lost.

With all our technology, is it likely our blogs will generate discussion in thousands of years? I think not, our enjoyable electronic chatter is far too ephemeral. Will 1984 still be read? If it is, will its meaning be understood, so far removed from the troubled times it was written in? I wish Will Self well in his endeavours. He may find inspiration at Tarbet Bay beside the stone of our ancestors. We might not know what its message means but it has transcended 4,000 years.

PS I can thoroughly recommend the 25 year old Jura malt.

Sperm whale comes ashore.

A 40 foot sperm whale has died on the beach at Roseisle near Burghead in Morayshire in Scotland's North East. This is near where I spent my childhood and where both Cailean and my brother now live. Sperm whales are deep diving whales and prefer the deeper waters off the West coast of Scotland. The waters of the North Sea are relatively shallow and the whales are rarely seen in these waters. However, the RAF recently spotted a pod of nine whales (possibly sperms) not from where this sad corpse was found. Sperm whales are toothed whales and dive to depths of 300 metres to catch their favoured food, giant squid. Their record dives have been as deep as 3,000 metres.



In Easter 2006 a 65.5 foot fin whale was trapped on the rocks at Barlocco reef on the Solway, (photo above). It came ashore at a high spring tide and was trapped on the razor sharp fangs of rock that characterise that part of the Solway Firth. Apparently it was 65.5 feet exactly as below the 65 foot size it would have been the responsibility of the local authority to dispose of. As it was found to be over 65 foot, it was the responsibility of the Scottish Executive. Fin whales are baleen whales and filter small organisms through great plates that hang down from their upper jaws. Its tongue was bigger than a Volvo estate car. It was humbling to paddle so close to this leviathan of the deep.

Recent research has discovered that sperm whales, fin whales, killer whales and humpback whales have spindle cells in the anterior cingulate cortex and the frontoinsular cortex spindle cells. Previously these cells had only been found in the brains of primates. In humans, these parts of the brain control emotional functions such as love, hurt, social organisation, empathy, speech, intuition and rapid "first impression" reactions.

We do not know if these cells have a similar function in whales but they have been evolving them for 30 million years, which long predates humans' appearance on the planet. I think it would be presumptuous of our species to assume that they do not have a similar function.

Scotland used to be one of the most active whaling nations on earth. After we killed our own whales our whaling ships then scoured the seas of Antarctica for more prey. These whalers were brave men. My mother's great uncle was a west coast whaler who lost his life at sea. Today I am proud to live in a nation that has now chosen not to hunt these magnificent creatures.

St Cormac's Chapel

The MacCormaig Islands lie within the powerful tides of the Sound of Jura. They are a great sea kayaking destination. Not only is it interesting getting there but they are fascinating to explore. On Eilean Mor is the 12th century Chapel dedicated to St Cormac (d.640). In the distance are the Paps of Jura and in front stands the shaft of an early Celtic cross. Unfortunately the round stone bearing the cross has fallen off but you can see the cut outs in the shaft where the cross once sat.



Inside the vaulted chancel there is a small crypt covered with a slab decorated with the effigy of an ecclesiastical figure. Some believe that this is the tomb of St Cormac but he was buried some distance away on the island and of course the chapel was not built until 600 years after his death.

The bridge over the Atlantic.

In a recent post on Easdale, I mentioned the Island of Seil. Since 1793, a single arch bridge has connected Seil to the mainland of Lorn south of Oban. The delicate sandstone arch on Tanera Beag brought the Clachan Bridge to mind. It spans the tidal Clachan Sound which is connected to the ocean, hence its common name "the bridge over the Atlantic". The narrow Clachan Sound runs straight for 1.5 kilometers before it joins the Seil Sound to the south to the Firth of Lorn to the north. Some think it must have been dug out as a canal but it is natural, occupying a fault line. It is a sheltered highlight on a circumnavigation of Seil but you need to get the tides right as the Sound can run like a river!

The Rum Cuillin and Bloodstone Hill

This is the view from the turquoise lagoon in the skerries at the mouth of Loch nan Ceal, Arisaig. The Cuillin of Rum are not so well known as their sisters on the misty isle of Skye but they have been attracting seafarers for thousands of years. Modern day Scottish sea kayakers know that one day they will paddle the wild shores of the Small Isles of the Inner Hebrides. The great arch in my recent post abuts onto Rum's remote north shore where Bloodstone Hill tumbles straight into the Sound of Canna. Bloodstone is one of the few rocks in Scotland which is good for making stone implements. It was also here that the sea eagle was reintroduced to Scotland.

Our ancestors have been visiting Rum 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.

At that time their boats were dug out canoes hewn from a single tree trunk. We modern kayakers paddle in the wakes of countless generations of skilled seafarers. It is humbling.

Dunure Castle and the roasting of the Abbot!

The grim walls of Dunure Castle on the Ayrshire coast can be best appreciated from the sea. After all, the sea was the motorway in the age of the great maritime castles of Scotland. At that time travel across land was time consuming, arduous and dangerous. The castles were built to control the faster sea routes used by travellers, traders and invaders.

They all have a history but few can have been witness to such an awful deed as the roasting of the Abbot of Crossraguel Abbey. In 1570 Gilbert, the 4th Earl of Cassillis, kidnapped the Abbot, Alan Stewart, and threw him into the Black Vault which lay deep within the walls of Dunure. Here he roasted Stewart on a spit until he agreed to sign over the Church's land to Gilbert.



Today you can paddle into the nearby fishing harbour of Dunure. The village pub, the Anchorage, is as convenient for the sea as the castle. It makes a welcome stop for the modern day seafaring kayaker.