Thwarted by the young guardian of the Royal Cave, Jura

It might have only have been 9:40am (and we might only have had time for first breakfast) but all four of us reported for launching/photographic duties...


...and soon the kayaks were afloat and waiting to transport us on a tour of Loch Tarbert, Jura. This must be one of the most beautiful but infrequently visited of all the Scottish sea lochs.


We left Ruantallain and travelled east along a line of raised beaches and cliffs with dry caves.


Apart from ourselves the only signs of human life were the contrails of trans Atlantic jets flying on the Great Circle route.


We were going to land at Uamh Righ, the Royal Cave, but grey seals were pupping along the shore and so we kept our distance. The cave has been inhabited since the Bronze age
but during the Christian period up until the Reformation the cave held a special significance in the burial rights of people who died on the mainland. The cave was on the funeral routes to Oronsay Priory and Iona Abbey. If storms prevented crossing to the islands the bodies were left in the cave until such time as the weather improved. There are still many crosses carved on the walls of the cave.


Only partially disappointed at not being able to land at the cave, we continued on our journey into the loch. We looked south to the beautiful sands of Glen Battrick Bay but we did not stop. Our destination lay further east, towards the outer narrows of the Loch....

Sun rise at Ruantallain beach, Jura

Slowly the sun rose over the ridge formed by the giant raised beach...


... and warmed the sands of Ruantallain.


Down on the beach there were fewer midges, so we cooked breakfast beside the kayaks.


The beaches at the mouth of Loch Tarbert are like those four on Colonsay and Oronsay, which are ranked in the top 20 Scottish Highland and Island beaches. We had now been on five out of the twenty in the last three days!

We sat admiring the view and warmed ourselves in the early morning sun like lizards, in preparation for the exertions ahead.

A new dawn on the fossil rock glacier of Beinn Shiantaidh, Jura

Before dawn there was not a breath of wind to disturb Loch Tarbert on Jura. The humidity was very high and condensation was everywhere.


The sun had not yet hit the summits of the Paps of Jura and it was still too cold for the midges to make their appearance.


Then slowly the Sun's rays shone through the coll between Corra Bheinn (573m) and Beinn Shiantaidh (757m) and warmed its summit slopes. This coll is the site of a very unusual geological structure on the Shiantaidh side. There is a fossil rock glacier at the base of the large (sunlit) scree slope above. It formed between 11,000 and 10,000 years ago and is thought to be evidence of low altitude permafrost in this part of Scotland at that time.


As the sun continued to rise, it caught the NLV Polar Star as she was preparing to leave the loch. Some of us were not exactly ready to weigh anchor...

Seeing stars in Loch Tarbert, Jura

The midge attack was ferocious as we put the tents up on the shore of Loch Tarbert. Fortunately it was a clear night and the temperature plummeted, sending the little illegitimate insects back to the swamp from which they had come. We lit our fire on the beach but its little pool of light did not extend far into the darkness of the moonless night. The vault of the sky twinkled with so many stars that their number was completely beyond the comprehension of us city dwellers.

To the south, Altair twinkled brightly before being joined by the steady brightness of Jupiter as it rose above the dark shadow of the Paps of Jura. The Milky Way arched clear across the sky from the SW to the NE horizons. High above us, to the NE, the "W" of the constellation Cassiopeia shone brightly. I used one of the arms of the "W" to guide me to where the Andromeda galaxy lies. I am pretty sure I saw it, but my eyes are not as sharp as they used to be and I regretted not bringing binoculars. To the NW, Ursa Major (or the Plough) guided our eyes to the Pole Star, high in the northern sky.

Our necks were aching by the time we lowered our gaze to the horizon. But what was that bright light out in the darkness of the middle of the Loch?


We had almost expected it to be a UFO but there, all lit up like a Christmas tree, was the NLV Pole Star. She is one of the Northern Lighthouse Board's two ships for maintaining lighthouses and navigation buoys. We had seen her sister ship, the NLV Pharos off Ardnamurchan Point earlier this year.

The NLV Pole Star was launched in 2000 and is 51.52m long. She has a dynamic positioning system which means that she can hold an exact position, even in pretty testing conditions, by using a combination of GPS and thrusters. She has a shallower draught than her larger sister ship, so she can operate in more restricted waters.

The beaches of Loch Tarbert, Jura

We rounded Rubh an t-Sailean (Ruantallain) into the shelter of Loch Tarbert, just as the sun hit the western horizon. The low red light warmed the stones of a huge raised beach. It rises about 36 metres from the current high water mark. At its summit the stones are as clean as if the tide last went out a few hours ago. However, it is 10,000 years since salt water last lapped these stones.


We were keen to get the tents up before nightfall. You can just see the gable of a bothy on the horizon, but it has slipped into disrepair and tents are now a more comfortable option.


It was good to stretch our legs after the long crossing.


David innocently asked, "Do you think there will be any midges?"

Colonsay to Jura by sea kayak

Sadly, it was now time to take our leave of Colonsay. We had our last supper on one of her superlative beaches on the SE coast. The day was getting on, it was now about 2hrs 30minutes to sunset. We had paddled only 21km, since setting off in the morning, and still had a 15km crossing to our destination, at the mouth of West Loch Tarbert on Jura. It looked like we would be setting up camp in the dark again.


At first we paddled on flat water, while we were still in the lee of Colonsay. The hills of Islay and Jura seemed a long way away.


The wind and swell picked up as we left the shelter of the Oronsay reefs and became exposed to the open Atlanic ocean with a force four westerly and swells. I had to put my camera away for most of the crossing.


Fortunately, the wind began to drop, with the setting sun, as we made our final approach to the dramatic coast of Jura. The summits of her Paps were covered with a modesty blanket of cloud.

The superlative beaches of Colonsay

The beaches of SE Colonsay, like this one at Rubha Dubh, are simply stunning.


This is Traigh an Eacaill (Cable Bay).


We then found Port a' Chapuill...


...and decided we had to explore some of its many coves.


I went for a swim at this one but the water was not exactly warm.


In 1977, Scottish Natural Heritage commissioned a survey of the beaches in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. The whole area is noted for the beauty of its beaches. Over 250 beaches were assessed for scenic quality on a scale of 1 to 3 for the beach itself, its setting, the view into the beach and, finally, the view out from the beach. Only 20 beaches scored 12 or 11.

Four out of these 20 superlative beaches are to be found on Colonsay and Oronsay...


Ritchie, W. and Mather. A.S. (1977). The beaches of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Commissioned by the Countryside Commission for Scotland 1977. Reprinted 2005 by
Scottish Natural Heritage as Commissioned Report No. 048.