End of an Islay day.

After our rounding of the Mull of Oa, the most southerly point in the Hebrides, getting through security at Kintra was relatively easy. There was no queue and although we had to put our liquids bottles into bags (there was no volume restriction) we did not need to remove our shoes.


There was no way I was going to walk back to Port Ellen, so we pulled our kayaks up to the Kintra road end and I phoned Fiona's Taxis in Port Ellen. (Just in case there was no phone reception, I had allowed time for Jennifer and Misha to walk back to Port Ellen and recover the car.)


In the distance, far to the WNWacross Loch Indall, we could see clear sky and sunshine beyond the Rhinns of Islay lighthouse. The lighthouse is actually on the island of Orsay which lies beyond Rhinns Point. It was built in 1825 by Robert Stevenson. Its light flashes white every 5 seconds.


We got changed back at the car on the front at Port Ellen as the sun was setting.


Due to the taxi, we had about an hour to spare so we drove up to the head of Loch Indaal which is overlooked by the magnificent Paps of Jura.


The warm lights in the cottages on the far shore looked so inviting in the bitter cold winter light of the gloaming.


We stopped for a break in Bowmore the capital of Islay. The view to the head of Main Street is dominated by the iconic Round Church, which was built in 1767. I have always thought that its shape resembles that of a whisky still which is not wholly inappropriate on this island of malts! Needless to say we stopped of at the truly excellent Harbour Inn, which is a very short step from the slipway at Bowmore's little harbour. An excellent sea kayaking pub!


The only reason this trip was possible was due to one of the two Islay ferries being taken off service for annual maintenance. The usual 17:00 return sailing from Port Ellen (which would have been too early) was replaced by a 20:20 ferry from Port Askaig. Here the MV Hebridean Isles is just nudging into her dock at Port Askaig. In the foreground, our old friend, the MV Margaret Sinclair from Mull was acting as a relief ferry for the island of Jura.

Our day trip to Islay was over.

What a geo on Oa!

Soldier's Rock was barely out of our minds before we discovered the NW headland of the Oa peninsula on Islay was riven with a series of deep geos culminating in this one. It stretched for 100m, deep into the rocks and culminated in a slight opening with a steep beach behind. A lazy three foot swell was running into the geo and crashing on the steep beach in dumping surf. The repeated low BOOOMPHS reverberated along the narrow channel. We chose not to risk landing in this isolated spot and turned carefully just on the edge of the surf line and made our way back out towards the light and the open sea beyond. The hail had turned to rain but by the time we emerged it had turned to snow carried by a cold wind from the north.

We were now only 2.5km from our end point at Kintra. We had planned to stop for a well deserved second luncheon at the delightful little Port Alsaig but despite being ravenous, we decided to press on in the snowstorm.


We landed below Kintra farm at the south end of the Big Strand. This beach is the biggest on Islay and its sands stretch away for over 8km along the east shore of Loch Indaal. We were ravenous but there was little shelter in this open place so we ate our sandwiches as the snow fell. Misha had the biggest sandwich bag and ate it all! We recounted the highlights of our day as the snow fell and the light faded.


"The dolphins were this close!"


"Get away!"

What another great trip... the only fly in the ointment was that my car was 7km away at Port Ellen!

All hail Soldier's Rock, Islay

Turning another corner on the west coast of Islay's Mull of Oa, we came upon the great sea stack of Soldier's Rock.


The rain turned to hail as we paddled below its layered faces...


...then entered a great cavern with windows in its roof.


Through one window, this waterfall cascaded into the cavern.


Once our eyes adjusted to the gloom, we saw an entrance to a smaller cave at the back of the main cavern.


We reversed our kayaks in and as...


...the vault of the cave's roof closed over our heads...


... it formed a perfect frame for the great stack in the bay beyond.


All hail the Soldier's Rock!

Threading the Oa of a needle

Our exploration of the magnificent west coast of the Mull of Oa on Islay continued and we found ourselves in the bay called Bun an Easa. Roughly translated this means foot of the waterfall. On the map the burn which feeds the waterfall is called Sruthan Bun an Easa or little stream of the foot of the waterfall. The only apparent access to the shore of Bun an Easa was either over the waterfall or, perhaps more cautiously, by kayak as we did.


We both entered...


...and left Bun an Easa by this magnificent narrow slot!


A little after Bun an Easa we stopped and looked back to get our bearings. This is the view to the SW and the entrance to Bun an Easa is to the left of the distant headland.


Next, we came to another cave with a high window which in a storm will act as a blowhole.
I was able to paddle right through to the interior, which is lit by the window. However, once inside there was not enough room to turn, not even in a manoeuvrable kayak such as the Cetus! Its Gaelic name is Sraideag Alt nan Ron which might be loosely translated as narrow watery wynd of the seal.


We continued to wind our way through a maze...


...of tight places between stacks, cliffs and dykes. What a remarkable place.

Oa speak no evil

As we paddled the west coast of the Mull of Oa under the steady rain, there was no sound apart from the steady hiss of raindrops drops hitting the water. We discovered the reason for the silence when we came to Shhhhh... Rock. It has a wonderful window or natural arch.


The rivers, fed by the rain, were cascading over the cliffs and...


... tumbling straight into the sea like this waterfall on, the Abhainn Alt Astail.


We now entered a small bay with a group of incredible caves clustered round its head. Until now the rock scenery of the west coast of Islay's Mull of Oa had been dominated by stacks, now it was the turn of caves.


A waterfall was pouring down through a crack in the roof of this cave.

The most southerly Gargoyles in all of the Hebrides

It was pouring with rain when we left the beach below Lower Killeyan.


The mist came right in and obscured the far side of Loch Indaal, leaving the dark shapes of the stacks isolated from the rest of the landscape.


It was an eerie feeling to be paddling in such an isolated environment as we lost sight of each other in the vonvoluted rocky channels between the cliffs and stacks.


From the headland north of the beach we looked northwards to a series of bold headlands, one after the other, culminating in Dun Mor Ghil in the distance.


A little later, we looked back, from just south of Dun Mor Ghil, to the monument on the now distant Mull of Oa which still towered above the intervening sea stacks.


Rocky gargoyles looked down on us from the rain soaked heights of Dun Mor Ghil.


Back at sea level, partially submerged rocks betrayed the strength of the current in these parts, indeed, some of the headlands required a determined effort to pass.

It might have been raining, but we knew we were in sea kayaking heaven, here on Islay's Oa peninsula, the most southerly point in all of the Hebrides.

Oa what a paradise!

After our long paddle round the Oa peninsula, it was a great relief to find this small sliver of sand in a gap between the unrelenting dark rocks below Lower Killeyan farm.


In this little piece of paradise, we enjoyed a well deserved luncheon on the flat rocks next to the kayaks. Misha and Jennifer then went off to explore the cliffs to the south of the beach. They found a lean-to bothy near the mouth of a cave. Unfortunately a goat had chosen it as its last resting place, which somewhat diminished its attractiveness as a shelter from the rain that started to fall. You can see more of Misha's B&W photos from this trip over on his blog.


I decided to stay where I was and hobbled round trying to get...


...a nice photo of this stunning beach on the west coast of the Mull of Oa.


Despite the clouds and rain I think this beach is one the best we have found anywhere on our travels.

The surf forecast for the day was 3.5 to 4 feet and I had been concerned, in case we were going to have a difficult landing here. Fortunately the bay is screened by many stacks and islands and the strong current that runs to the south, between them, stopped the swells entering the bay. Given the strong currents, this would not be the ideal bay for some sea swimming!

A glimpse of distant white shell sand promised a break.

Below the Mull of Oa the tide carried us at 11km/hr. It was pleasant not to be paddling but we needed to break out north along the west side of the Mull of Oa.


This was harder than it appeared as a significant eddy was running south down the west side against where we wanted to go. Where the two currents met, there were considerable overfalls but 2 or three minutes of stiff paddling (PLF) saw us through and on our way north. Our speed over the ground had dropped to 2km/hr so the adverse current north of the point was probably about 7km/hr. For the next 3.5 km we were to face an adverse current of about 3km/hr though it was significantly more off the headlands.


The dramatic pointed stack at the end of Rubha Leac nan Laogh is in the foreground with the bold headland of Rubha Leacan Banaig at the far side of the curving bay.


At Rubha Leacan Banaig the sedimentary nature of the rocks of the Mull of Oa can be clearly seen. These are of the Appin group of Dalriadan rocks. 260 million years ago Islay was part of a desert, which became flooded by a shallow tropical sea. These layers were then laid down in the sea bed and are formed of sediment washed into the sea in rivers from surrounding land.


The west side of the Oa is littered with a series of large and small sea stacks. The larger ones are big enough to be islands.


Those sea kayakers who like to circumnavigate Islay as quickly as possible, miss this out by taking the direct route to the Rhinns across the mouth of Loch Indaal. They really should make a point of returning as this is one of the finest pieces of coast I have seen on Scotland's west coast and Hebrides.


By now we had been paddling for 3 hours and 22 minutes without a stop.


We entered a bay sheltered by offshore stacks.


The line of cliffs to our right came to a temporary end being replaced by grassy slopes and a glimpse of distant white shell sand promised a break.

Sea kayaking desktop wallpaper calendar, May 2010

May. A tricky landing, Portandea, Firth of Clyde.

The seakayakphoto.com May desktop wallpaper calendar is now available for download here.