Ravenshall Arch

Time for another arch. This one is Ravenshall Arch in Wigton Bay, Solway Firth. And yes, there were ravens about!

Signs of spring..

Our Canadian and American friends have been posting pictures of freezing and snowy conditions on their side of the Atlantic. Well, we do get snow over here too. This was exactly one year ago. The boat is a polyethylene Point 65 Crunch, a super-fast boat. I will post a review of it, which I did for Paddles mag, sometime soon.

As for today, there was no snow here in Glasgow, instead the plum blossom came out! Rather sadly I found the male blackbird, which has nested in the same place in our garden for the last 12 years, lying dead. He had started his dawn chorus about 3 weeks ago but I had not heard him for the last three days.

A grey day on Floday!

Really getting into this grey business now!

The remote island of Floday lies at the mouth of Loch Roag on the north west coast of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. On a wet, grey day our sea kayaks slid into the lagoon on its southern shore. The subtle colours of these Lewisian gneiss boulders stood out from the greyness. These rocks were formed 3,000 million years ago. They seem to have faded quite slowly.

Stornoway Grey

Yesterday I sang the praises of the subtle shades of grey that make the landscape of the Outer Hebrides so appealing.

Quote "I loved the contrast of the dazzling white shell sand against the many greys of the rocks, hills, sea and sky. They say the Inuit have a hundred words for snow. Well, the Gaels have a hundred words for grey."

It would appear that one of them is not Stornoway grey, or rather Stornaway (sic) grey, which is a paint shade available on the new and well received LandRover Freelander2


Photo credit LandRover

Councillor Angus Nicolson, writing in his weblog, has been truly insulted and is concerned that the name, Stornoway grey, will give potential visitors the wrong impression of the islands.

Well, although I love the islands' greys, the light changes five minutes later and there is a blaze of colour, especially the machair in the summer.



I do not think Angus should be too concerned about Stornaway Grey Freelander2s cluttering the streets of Chelsea. However, can you imagine the glorious sight of 181 wind turbines, all finished in sparkling Stornoway grey?


Photo montage by Lewis Wind Farm


Map of proposed Lewis Wind Farm showing position of turbines. The M25 round London is overlaid at the same scale.

Castaway

From 1/1/2000 to 1/1/2001 the BBC ran a TV series, Castaway 2000, which followed the lives of 36 adults and children who were castawayed on Taransay off the west coast of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. As you might guess from this blog, I do not watch a great deal of television but I did watch this programme for the glimpses of wonderful Hebridean seascapes, skyscapes and landscapes.

Billy and I landed and camped there in July 2005. I loved the contrast of the dazzling white shell sand against the many greys of the rocks, hills, sea and sky. They say the Inuit have a hundred words for snow. Well, the Gaels have a hundred words for grey. We made two attempts to return in 2006.



In June 2006 we were on MV Dundarg but a force 7 prevented us getting near Taransay and we sought shelter behind Scarp further to the north.



We tried again in July 2006. You can just about make out Taransay through the mist.



Unfortunately there was a little shore break to negotiate and I have to report that we (fair weather paddlers) wimped out at this opportunity to display our kayaking prowess. It can be quite a challenge to become a castaway on Taransay.

In search of a Stone Age Queen.

The north east tip of the lovely isle of Inchmarnock in the Firth of Clyde is a great bank of stones. At the end of the Neolithic Age and the start of the Bronze Age, some 4,000 years ago, the stones on this beach attracted a group of people who built a large cairn just above the shore.


Jennifer and Tony explore the cairn.

Their efforts were sustained by the fertility of Inchmarnock which at that time was covered with oak and hazel forests which were teeming with wildlife. Nearby an ancient deposit of hazel shells, three feet deep, has been uncovered. Beside the cairn these people buried the body of an important female member of their tribe.



She was buried with a magnificent jet necklace inside a grooved and rebated cist. The cairn and the cist were excavated by Dorothy Marshall in 1960. The skeleton became known as the "Queen of the Inch". Her necklace is now on display in the Bute Museum. It was originally thought to have been made from local lignite but it after being studied by the National Museums Scotland (using X ray fluorescence spectrometry) it has been discovered that it is composed of at least five older necklaces made from Whitby jet. This and the style of the cist suggest a link between the West of Scotland and Wessex (and in turn to Brittany).


Looking north west from the cairn to the mouth of Loch Fyne.

After being excavated and carbon dated the skeleton was returned to the cist in its original site and a glass lid was fitted. Which sea kayakers could resist exploring for such a find? Not us! Hamish Haswell-Smith in The Scottish Islands gives the position of the glass covered cist as 80m to the SSW of the cairn. We searched very carefully but could not find it. The stone slabs below were in about the right position.


Was this the site of the cist?

As you can see the ground is heavily trampled by a herd of organic highland cows. We wondered if the stone slabs might be over the cist to protect it or whether it had been removed and the slabs now marked its original position. I decided to write to the owner and his wife replied as follows:

"Dear Douglas

thank you very much indeed for your email. As you can see I am out of the country at the moment. I have a lot to tell you but if it can wait until my return to the UK I will give you a full brief. Everything is in safe hands and all will be explained."

Perhaps it will still be possible to see the Queen of the Inch in her glass covered cist.

Arduaine, gateway to the Isles

This sunset behind Scarba was taken from the pier at Arduaine (Ardoonie) in Argyll. The name means green point. This winter sunset was taken three years ago but in the summer, there is nothing more exciting than setting off from here as the sun is setting on a Friday night. Where will we end up? There are so many possibilities! Luing, Shuna, Seil, Kerrera, Mull, the Garvellachs, the Black Islands, Lunga, Scarba and Jura are all within a weekend's paddle and the waters to get to them include the tidal Cuan Sound, the Grey Dogs and the mighty Corryvreckan! You could embark from here 25 times and return having covered a new route each time. This variaty of possible routes is one of the reasons why I like sea kayaking on the west coast so much. This is not an A to B linear coastline!

For many years John Rintoul ran a campsite at Arduaine which was a favourite with sea kayakers. It closed before I took up sea kayaking but myself and friends used to camp here on the way north or south on motorbike touring holidays. Many years ago I watched three German kayakers carry their boats to the waters edge. There was a north east wind blowing and I was amazed when they each pulled a little rope and each kayak sprouted a mast and sail. They soon disappeared in the direction of Shuna.

The Arduaine pier was built to service the island of Shuna and we often leave cars on the broad approach to the pier overnight. There has never been any problem with this. However there are plans to build a new private house here. Its entrance will use the pier road. I do hope it will not restrict access to this valuable launching site which is our gateway to so many Isles..