All the essential sea kayaking elements round Morvern.

As we approached the head of Loch Sunart we came to the Liddesdale narrows. It was spring tides and the ebb rate runs out at 3.5 knots. We arrived at slack HW and negotiated entrance to the inner loch with minimal effort.

Garbh Bheinn (Garven) 885m dominated the view to the head of the loch. It is one of the highest mountains in Ardgour which borders the Morvern peninsula to the north.

The wind freshened in the inner loch and David and I made full use of it.

We soon left Phil in our wakes but as he is such a fast paddler we felt little sympathy for his exertions.

Our voyage was nearly coming to an end and we drifted in the wind while Phil caught up. High up in the hills, a pair of golden eagles soared in the updraught from the summit crags.

 We were now nearing the end at the public slipway at Strontian. The surrounding hills contain lead and other minerals. An ore was discovered here in 1790 from which the rare element Strontium was extracted and identified in 1808. However, we were about to discover a local compound, which was present in some abundance. The heavens opened in a torrential rainstorm. Thank goodness it finished as we landed. We were able to load the trailer and run the shuttle in the dry. What a wonderful paddle the Morvern circumnavigation had proved to be. All the essential elements were there, a wild landscape, tides, mountains, castles, wild camping, great beaches, islands, hidden lochs, wildlife, waterside restaurants, picturesque villages and even hot showers! Oh and we had great company!

Umbrellas in a sunny Loch Sunart.

After lunch we continued westwards, deep into Loch Sunart. As we passed  Rubha Aird Earnaich we were passed...

...by the Ronja Pioneer, a live fish carrier, which was making her way up the Loch to a fish farm. Once she had loaded with fish she would make for the fish processing plant in Loch Creran.

A nice westerly breeze got up and I soon hoisted my Flat Earth sail.

Not to be outdone, David put his trusty brolly up.

It was a very pleasant cruise in the summer sunshine to another beach...

...on the Ardnamurchan shore.

We could hardly drag ourselves away from this lovely spot.

A post prandial doze under the ancient oak woods of Ardnamurchan.

From Loch Teacuis we crossed to the north shore of Loch Sunart...

...and landed at a lovely little beach under the ancient oak woods of Ardnamurchan.

David was a little too keen to land and he fell out of his cockpit, getting soaked in the process!

While David got changed, Phil and I started our luncheon. Out came oatcakes and a selection of fine mature cheeses, though we left the runnier French ones to David. All this was washed down with a variety of excellent malt whiskies.

After lunch we enjoyed a well deserved post prandial dose in the sun. We were disturbed only by the gentle lapping of the waves, some buzzing bees and David's snoring! Then the tide came in...

...reminding us we still had a fair distance to go!

Three jewels of Loch Sunart: Oronsay, Loch Teacuis and a buried diamond!

A little breeze soon cleared the mist from Loch Drumbuie as we headed off on the third and final day of our circumnavigation of Morvern.

We left Loch Drumbuie by its west entrance as it was still low water and the shallow eastern entrance was still dry.

We were now on a mini circumnavigation of the tidal island Oronsay which divides Loch Drumbuie from Loch Sunart. There are several Oronsays scattered round Scotland. In Old Norse it means tidal island.

We entered an inlet on the north side of Oronsay. Although Oronsay is now uninhabited, the shells of long abandoned cottages looked down on us from  a high ridge.

Back in Loch Sunart, the ice sculpted rocks of the north coast of Oronsay fall steeply into the sea. A rumble of engines behind....

...warned us of the approach of the cruise ship MV Lord of the Glens. Tobermory had clearly not detained her passengers for long and now they were going to do Loch Sunart including Glen Borrowdale Castle. Borrowdale was a Viking who settled here and built a castle to protect his new lands. The current castle was built in 1902 by Charles Rudd, a diamond mine owner. Reputedly, before he died, he buried  a large diamond somewhere in the grounds !

We had now completed our circumnavigation of Oronsay and entered...

...the narrow channel between Carna and the Morvern mainland. This led us through into a beautiful hidden loch, Loch Teacuis, which bites deep into the Morvern peninsula.

We were delighted to meet members of the Inverness Canoe Club, who were out on a day paddle from the Resipole camp site on the shore of Loch Sunart.

Misty Morven morning.

We awoke on a comfortable meadow of grass by the shores of Loch Drumbuie.

A light breeze meant that there was not a single midge to disturb the morning.

There are two kayaking schools. Those that carry their kayaks right up to the tent, regardless how far the tent is from the shore, and those that abandon their kayaks just above the high water mark. We are definitely in the second school.

I love misty mornings on the Scottish west coast...

...especially when the mist is moving and alternately hiding and revealing the mountains.

The mist alters the scale of the landscape and adds a sense of mystery.  Our route would take us through the narrow mouth of Loch Drumbuie and out into Loch Sunart under the summit of Ben Hiant which floated above a sea of mist.

A banquet in Loch Drumbuie!

We had now left the Sound of Mull and were paddling east into Loch Sunart. From a line between Ardnamurchan Point to Mull, Loch Sunart winds for 45 km, deep into the heart of the west coast of Scotland. It forms the northern boundary of the Morvern peninsula.

Mist was gathering over the Ardnamurchan hills at sunset.

We landed at several little bays on the south shore of Loch Sunart but all were backed by bog or great mounds of tussocky grass and entirely unsuitable for a comfortable night's sleep. In truth, I was not really expecting to be able to camp on the shore of Loch Sunart. I had explored it at leisure on previous visits and had indeed chosen not to camp at Auliston Point before. I also had the security of a midge jacket... I knew of a lovely flat grassy meadow deep within the confines of Loch na Droma Buidhe (Loch Drumbuie) which in Gaelic is Loch of the yellow ridge. There was some dissension in the ranks, as we still had about 5km paddling from Aulistion Point. However, since both David and Phil had been equally unwilling to stop at Auliston there was little more than some grumbling and that was mostly from our stomachs due to the inadequate size of our "large" fish suppers.

We entered the narrow channel at the west end  of Loch Drumbuie to find ourselves in a windless paradise at sunset.

A paradise for midges that is, and we were first second and third courses of their banquet! At least David and I had our midge jackets! Poor Phil fully suffered one of the most savage attacks I have ever encountered! Then I remembered I had a spare midge hood, stashed away at the bottom of my emergency bag. Phil's relief was wonderful. We pitched the tents in near darkness then a remarkable thing happened. The midges disappeared with the last light! We had brought a sack of logs and soon had a fire going on the beach. We cooked our evening meal by the crackling logs and under the twinkling stars. Paradise indeed.

A barren point and fateful decision.

We set off from Tobermory, past the RNLI Severn class lifeboat Elizabeth Fairlie Ramsay, to cross the Sound of Mull for the second time that day. We were bound for Auliston Point, the NW tip of Morvern.

Rubha nan Gall lighthouse stands at the  NW entrance to the Sound of Mull with the Ardnamurchan peninsula behind.The lighthouse was built in 1857 by David and Thomas Stevenson. It flashes once every three seconds and was automated in 1960.

I hoped to camp at Auliston Point, perhaps on its summit where the breeze would keep the midges away.

 The sun was now setting quickly, behind Ardnamurchan Point with the open sea behind.

We pressed on in the hope of getting the tents up in daylight.

However, after the creature comforts of Tobermory, David and Phil thought Auliston Point a somewhat barrenlooking place for gentlemen sea kayakers to camp at. We now left the Sound of Mull and paddled into Loch Sunart and the approaching night. They would soon learn the error of their ways....