Clear skies over Gigha.

The forecast for mainland Scotland was not looking good; with the possibility of torrential rain and thunderstorms but lightish winds. We looked west to Gigha, which is a beautiful low lying isle of the west coast of the Mull of Kintyre. I reckoned it would not have enough area to create a thermal uprising for a thunder cloud.

Donald had been going to head up to the far north west but had been equally dubious about the weather there. So we met up with Phil at Tayinloan pier.


Donald loves the sea but is not exactly a sea kayaker. He explores the west coast in a little inflatable boat powered by a 2.5hp outboard with another 2hp outboard as backup.


It was not long till we were afloat...


...and heading across the Sound of Gigha. The distant Paps of Jura heaved above the low hills of Gigha in the foreground.


At first, dark clouds rose above us but...


...we soon left the clouds above Kintyre behind and...


...by the time we had crossed the Sound of Gigha, the sky was clear. We landed on Gigha at Port na h-Atha near the Boathouse...


...with its little white sand beach, backing a bay of crystal clear water. Donald's little boat looked quite at home between the two kayaks.


It was still a little early for a cold drink but I noticed that since our last visit, the Boathouse Cafe Bar now serves draught beer. They have also installed a filter coffee machine, so we settled for some coffee, while we planned the rest of our itinerary...

You can follow Donald's view our trip to Gigha here.

A hell of a shuttle at Loch Fyne!

By the time we left Inver Cottage restaurant, the tide had come in.


We still had an adverse breeze as the sun sank towards the horizon.


At Lephinmore we came across these proud parents with 5 Canada geese chicks.


When the sun dropped to the horizon the temperature plummeted beneath the clear skies.


We still had a considerable way to go and well after sunset...


...the western sky took on a beautiful pink glow until...


...darkness fell as we approached our destination; Otter Ferry. There was an enticing glow from the inns's windows but on this occasion we would have to forgo any temptation to enter. We had a hell of a shuttle ahead of us!

Phil's car could not take three kayaks, so we had to drive 32km north to St Catherine's to pick up David's car then drive 32km back to Otter Ferry to load up the kayaks. Our original intention had been to drive east from Otter Ferry for 32 km to Hunter's Quay and cross the Clyde to Gourock from there. Unfortunately we had missed the last ferry so we had to drive 32km north to St Catherine's again (the fourth time we had traversed this road since we started) and then take a a further 70km detour by Arrochar and cross the Clyde at the Erskine Bridge!

We got home late but happy!

Sea kayaking hardship in Loch Fyne.

There is an excellent pub with fine food in Furnace but it was only 16:00hrs and so we decided to cross to east shore of Loch Fyne. David and I soon left Phil behind as we set off on a close reach across the loch.


Unfortunately we could not point as high as we would have liked so we dropped sails and prepared for a windward slog.


Phil was soon nowhere in sight, far behind and downwind of us. Away to the north, the windmills on the new wind farm at Clachan Flats at the head of the loch were billing round. Beinn Bhuidhe (the yellow mountain) 948m towered above the loch.


Phil was in David's kayak and had not realised that the hydroskeg/rudder does not work as a rudder when paddling at 45 degrees into a fresh wind. He ended up at least a kilometer downwind of us. To compound matters, David's "seat" had come adrift and Phil had developed David's famous sore back!.Phil was not happy when he came ashore and cursed David's boat (and all "fittings" therein) loudly. David was quite offended, as his own design flexible seating arrangements have some fame in the west coast sea kayaking world.


After a stop at Newton...


...we continued south down Loch Fyne past another roadless shore.


We were sweating a little due to the fresh head wind.


After a while we came to the ruins of 15th century Lachlan Castle, which was quite recently abondoned by its owners...


...in the 18th century, when the Lachlans moved just round the corner to the new Castle Lachlan.

The tide was out in Lachlan Bay but we made a long trek to its head. There we entered the precincts of...


Inver Cottage restaurant where we partook of some Guinness and an excellent evening meal. Phil soon recovered his composure, if not his sore back!

It's a tough place to paddle, Loch Fyne.

The forests of Loch Fyne.

From Kenmore south to Furnace we entered a wild paradise, a quite exceptional coast to explore by sea kayak.


Steep rocks plunged into the deep waters of Loch Fyne.


These rocks had been smoothed by the glacier that had created Loch Fyne, the longest sea loch in Britain.


Round every corner there were new vistas...


...which brought smiles to our faces. On the far side of the loch great swathes of commercial forest plantation have recently been harvested and transported by sea to Troon.


We had never seen such an abundance of mussels.


Great trees grew right beside the sea and ...


...their boughs stretched out over us, giving temporary shade from the sun.


This verdant coast line is not seen from a passing car and we relished it...


...particularly the maritime sessile oaks...


...until all too soon the trees petered out leaving a bare rocky peninsula announcing our imminent arrival at the village of Furnace. This was named after an iron furnace which was established here in 1755 taking advantage of the abundance of trees that could be used to make the charcoal for the smelting process. The furnace closed in 1813 but was replaced in 1841 by a powder works which also used charcoal from the trees to make gunpowder. This factory came to a very sudden end in 1883. Also in 1841, a granite quarry opened, which supplied cobbles for the streets of Glasgow. The quarry is still in production today.

I am pleasantly surprised that there are any natural trees left.

The Mountain Minstrel of Loch Fyne!

We stuck to the west shore of Loch Fyne and David whistled some wind up.


The Flat Earth kayak sails strained to the wind and our ears also strained as...


...David burst into spontaneous song, which echoed round the hills!


Near the settlement of Kenmore we came across a monument standing on the rocks that form the shore here.


It is to commemorate local Gaelic poet, Evan McColl, who was born here at Kenmore in 1808. He died in 1898 and this monument was unveiled in 1930 by the Duke of Argyll. He was the author of "Clarsach nam Beann" - the Mountain Minstrel.

So is David is the modern day mountain minstrel?

Indecision on Loch Fyne...

Ftom Inveraray we set off down the west side of Loch Fyne.


Despite its size, Loch Fyne is seldom paddled. Many sea kayakers drive for some way along its shores on their way to the west coast of Argyll and never think of stopping....


...perhaps because they think they can see it all from the road. Nothing could be further from the truth. Between Dalchenna and Furnace there is only a track by the western shore and the tree covered hillsides tumble right down to the shore.


We decided to take a break at a little spit of land with a view back up the loch...


...towards distant Inveraray and the mountains beyond.


We enjoyed a fine luncheon of humous on oatcakes and stilton cheese on Latvian rye bread...


...while trying to decide when to cross to the far shore, where we had left the shuttle cars.

A gelati and a free crossing to Inveraray for peasants, the blind and pilgrims.

Leaving Inveraray Castle, we drifted down the River Aray and reentered the sea at Loch Shira, a side arm of Loch Fyne. Loch Fyne is a deep indentation of the Firth of Clyde which stretches 137km into the mountains of Argyll from the mouth of the Firth. The delightful town of Inveraray was a planned town built by the 3rd Duke of Argyll in the latter half of the 18th century.


For the first couple of centuries much of Inveraray's communication and transport depended on the sea. There is a maritime museum based at the town's pier.


We paddled towards two of the ships that are current exhibits. In years gone by the pier would have been several thick with Loch Fyne skiffs, which were used to catch herring which were at one time plentiful in the Clyde. My great, great grandfather's brother was a herring fisherman on Loch Fyne but he drowned when his skiff sank in a storm with the loss of all hands. The bodies were never recovered.


This three masted schooner was built in Dublin in 1910 as a lightship called the LV Penguin. She was converted to a sail training ship in 1966 and renamed the Arctic Penguin. She has been at Inveraray since 1995. The smaller ship is the last of the Clyde puffers, the VIC 72 built in 1944. She has been renamed the Vital Spark after the Neil Munro novels about Para Handy, a puffer captain. Her original name was Eilean Easdale and she operated between Ayr harbour and the Isle of Easdale through the Crinan canal. VIC stands for Victualling Inshore Craft. These were designed to go through the Crinan canal and so had to be less than 67 feet long. They had flat bottoms so that they could be beached at communities without a harbour and unloaded when the tide went out.


We now paddled round to the south side of Inveraray's pier and saw another of the town's museums. The solid looking building at the left of this photo is Inveraray courthouse and jail.


It was built in 1820 but closed as a jail in 1889. The courthouse remained in occasional use until 1954 when the Sheriff Court moved to Dunoon. Inveraray's importance to Argyll had declined with the fishing fleet and better road links to other centres.


We decided to land to the south of the pier. We walked up to West Main Street and Mr Pia's ice cream parlour where we purchased some gelati, which we consumed upon the shore of Inveraray.


We looked over Loch Fyne to St Catherine's, whence we had come. There was a regular ferry between the two towns from 1680 until 1963. The steam ship pioneer David Napier put the SS Argyle on the route in 1856. The ferry's charter stated that it should provide free crossing for "peasants, the blind and pilgrims".