Anchors aweigh at Lochranza castle.

Although Lochranza castle has stood since  it was built by the MasSweens as a two storey hall house in the mid 13th century...

 ...it was heavily modified by the Mongomeries in the 16th century to become a tower house. Indeed this is not even the original door, which was initially on the other side of the castle.

 The interior is well worth exploring and it is fun to try and work out what function the various parts of the castle had served.

 Some of the stairways are still open so it is possible to climb to some of the upper levels.

 Helpful plaques highlight features of the castle's construction and history.

Although the sun shines in now, originally the interior would have been very dark.

 Some light now spills into this store but the claustrophobic prison was still in complete darkness so...

 ...it was a relief to escape through the tiny door to...

...the brightness of the day outside. It would have been nice to stay in this wonderful location for second breakfast but a bitterly cold wind had sprung up and not even...

...this wonderful old anchor could hold us there. It was time to move on to an unconventional alternative....

For the full StereoVision experience see Ian's account here.

A cuckoo in every corrie... a cacophony round the castle..

 The peace of our crossing to Loch Ranza in NW Arran was temporarily broken by the rumble of the MV Loch Tarbert's engines. She was running on the route from Lochranza to Claonaig on Kintyre. She soon passed on and silence returned....well not quite. The eerie calls of the divers in mid-channel were replaced by a cacophony of cuckoos calling from the corries..

There seemed to be at least four cuckoos. One in Glen Catacol to the south. One in the Coille Mor corrie, high above Lochranza village,...

...one from a corrie high on the slopes above the NE side of Loch Ranza and...

 ...at least one more, high in one of the corries above Glen Chalmadale. What an aural welcome the cuckoos made as we paddled into misty Loch Ranza as these...

 ...two yachts were preparing to leave. It was with some satisfaction that I told their crew we had been up early and had already crossed from Kintyre!

We continued up Loch Ranza as far as the peninsula upon which...

 ...the ancient walls of...

 Lochranza Castle had stood for centuries..

Like Skipness Castle across the Kilbrannan Sound (which we had passed the previous day), Lochranza Castle had originally been built by the MacSweens to control the north end of the Kilbrannan Sound. With the sound of the Lochranza cuckoos echoing round the hills, we decided to stop and explore....

Forty minutes in the natural theatre of the Kilbrannan Sound.

In the middle of the Kilbrannan Sound  the fog slowly began to clear and we could at last see which way we were going.

This guillemot seemed surprised to see us at it emerged from a thick patch of fog but it not been responsible for the haunting calls that came from an undefinable direction in the mist. Those had come from an unseen diver.

 Slowly the mountains of Arran began no emerge from the fog and we could...

...identify the hills to the south of Catacol.

 We now experienced one of the most wondrous sights we have ever experienced while crossing to Arran.
Slowly the small gap in the fog opened revealing clear blue sky to the south.

  It was as if a celestial zipper was being undone as the fog...

 ...steadily pulled back revealing....

 ...more and more of the...

 ...mountainous west Arran coast.

As we were paddling at about the same speed and direction as the receding edge of the fog, it was like being in a day of two halves and we were on the dividing line.

 At first we continued paddling in the shade but ever so slowly the edge of the fog...

 ...pulled away in front leaving us...

in full sun. We were speechless with wonder and appreciation of this natural show in the theatre of the Kilbrannan Sound. Any applause would have been both unnecessary and would have broken the spell that held us captivated on this unforgettable crossing. From the time that a peak first loomed out of a break in the fog, to when we finally entered full sunshine, this natural performance lasted for forty minutes. Those special forty minutes will last in our memories for ever.

For the full StereoVision experience see Ian's account here.

Disappearing breakfasts, otters, sharks and islands in the Kilbrannan Sound.

We awoke the following morning to low water. A feature of the Firth of Clyde is that spring tides tend to occur at midday and midnight.Arriving at a campsite in the early evening and leaving in early morning is therefore associated with LW and a long carry. Many of the "beaches" you see on Google Earth are only accessible at HW.

This is the long rocky gully we carried our boats up the previous night. It was taken with a telephoto lens so it is foreshortened and is longer than it looks.

A decent number of calories were required for our forthcoming labours. In case any one is concerned about any dietary imbalance, I consumed this lot in a whole meal wrap. Yum Yum!

Although the sun attempted to break through, a thick bank of fog rolled in. I just missed the otter in this photo but with the eye of...

...considerable faith I hope you can see the large basking shark through the fog!. I have never seen them in the Clyde so early.

After considerable humphing we set off from Rubh a na h-Airde Baine which roughly translated means "point of the pale high beach"
.

We set off across the Kilbrannan Sound but of the Isle of Arran, which is...

surprisingly large, there was not a sign!

15 year old malt and baked potatoes in the Kilbrannan Sound.

From Skipness Point we continued our voyage down the Kintyre coast of Kilbrannan Sound. A pesky headwind had got up which slowed our progress somewhat. Being gentle-persons of a certain age, we decided not to continue to our original destination, which was still over an hour away.

We had spotted a good camp site, sheltered from the prevailing wind, above a shingle storm beach. However, it was low water and the only access to the beach was a 77 meter long, slippery, rocky channel which narrowed to less than 1 meter. We unloaded our gear into our trusty IKEA bags at the water's edge and made several journeys up to the HW mark. We then used one Karitek portage strap to allow the three of us to carry each empty boat up the beach.

 Somewhat exhausted, it took a little while to set up camp and get changed.

 It was good to get the evening meal on. I was grateful that Ian and Mike gathered wood for the fire as my knees were rather painful by this stage.

After dinner it was time to crack open the whisky. It was challenging deciding which we preferred, the 15 year old Dalmore or the 15 year old Dalwhinnie. As the night wore on we declared a draw...

...as we tucked into baked potatoes and salted butter.

Je suis prest in Skipness Chapel graveyard.

 Skipness or Kilbrannan Chapel is a short walk from the beach at Skipness Point on the Kintyre peninsula.

 The chapel dates from the 13th century though details like this lancet window in old red sandstone probably date from later. It was dedicated to St Brendan (Kilbrannan means church of  Brendan).                                    

 The chapel was abandoned for regular worship in the 18th century but the graveyard is still in use.

 There oldest memorials are carved mediaeval grave slabs and...

...the older grave stones date from the early 18th century. This one was erected in 1710 to the memory of Archibald JOHNSTON sailer and Agnes McMILEN his spows. 

Later stones date from the late 19th century like this Fraser stone with the clan crest and motto "Je suis prest". This  translates as "I am ready" which is rather appropriate on a grave stone.

As we left the environs of the chapel we looked over to Skipness Castle which also dates from the 13th century. The oldest parts were built by Sven the Red, a Viking who founded the McSween clan. The castle is open to the public but time was getting on, so we made our way back to the boats.

Skipness bombing range and the Tirpitz.

We made our way up from the beach at Skipness Point to the Old Chapel and its walled graveyard. Just to the east of the graveyard we came across this old concrete arrow.

It can be clearly seen in this view from Google Maps.

The arrow points straight down the Kilbrannan Sound and it formed part of the Skipness bombing range in WW2. RAF and Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm pilots based at nearby RAF Machrihanish practised dropping bombs and torpedoes here.

They were observed by a team of about 45 Wrens who recorded the bombing runs from a lookout post on the west side of Skipness Bay. In March 1944 the Skipness range was used to train squadrons for the attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz. After a series of partially successful raids using aircraft carrier based light aircraft, Tirpitz was eventually sunk by heavy RAF Lancaster bombers in Tromsø fjord on the 12th of November 1944. Afterwards, a RN Vice Admiral visited Skipness to congratulate the Wrens for their part in the effort to sink Tirpitz.

The horror of WW2 seemed very far away as lambs grazed the fresh spring grass growing round the old concrete arrow.