A tale of a Queen, a Saint and a Lord on Inchmarnock.

Our voyage now took us north where we entered the sheltered Inchmarnock Sound which separates the lovely isle of Inchmarnock from the larger island of Bute. Inchmarnock means isle of St Marnock who was a seventh century Christian missionary ( he also had churches named after him at Kilmarnock or Cille Marnock and elsewhere  in Scotland). After his death, St Marnock's head was frequently carried in procession to ensure good weather for harvests etc. (I do hope he did not die from decapitation.) Long before Marnock's day it was also home to the Queen of the Inch. We planned to pass her burial spot later.

As we would now be paddling in sheltered coastal waters, we had ditched the dry suits and were now much more comfortable. The east coast of Inchmarnock is less rugged and more fertile than its wilder west coast. It is said that people suffering from alcohol problems from Bute were once marooned here as there was no pub on the island (as you will have  read previously, we made judicious provisioning and brought our own supplies).

 Soon we passed below the sad ruins of the deserted Mid Park farm buildings and...

 ...its still fertile fields. Although Inchmarnock has not had a resident population for many years, it was bought in 1999 by Robert Smith, the Rt. Hon. The Lord Smith of Kelvin, KT, Kt. He introduced a herd of pedigree highland cattle which are farmed organically.

A little north of Mid Park, we came to the new landing place, where the MV Marnock was moored. Lord Smith commissioned her from the Ardmaleish boatyard on the neighbouring island of Bute. Her main task is related to the island's farm. As I approached I heard a chif chaff's distinctive call. I was rather surprised to see it perched on one of the Marnock's aerials. Although you often hear chiff chaffs, you seldom see them in the open, they prefer to flit unseen through the leaf canopy in woodland.

 A little breeze got up and Mike and I put our sails up but Ian was not left behind as...

 ...it never reached the forecast force four.

All too soon we neared the north of the isle and spotted the remains of North Park farm above the yellow gorse bushes by the shore.

At the north end of Inchmarnock there is a large colony of common seals. They like to haul out near the shingle beach...

.... above which the 4,000 year old remains of...

...the Queen of the Inch were discovered in a stone cist. The above photo of the cist was taken in 2007 when the disinterred Queen's remains were being studied by archaeologists from Headland Archaeology. I contacted Inchmarnock Estate by email, asking for more information. Lord Smith himself  kindly phoned back and explained that he intended to have her remains re-interred on the island, which subsequently happened in 2010. I enjoyed a fascinating hour talking to Lord Smith about the history of Inchmarnock. He has a deep interest in the island and funded an archaeological dig by Headland Archaeology. Their results were published in 2008.

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

There is nothing in our club's constitution to prevent our members taking an early luncheon...

When we landed at Inchmarnock it was high water. Our temperatures were also high and we were so hot that we wasted no time in getting out of our hot dry suits.

Though Mike showed better judgement, Ian and I threw ourselves headlong into the inviting cool looking waters of the Sound of Bute. The air temperature may have been 18C but what I can tell you is that a water temperature of 7.5C is scarcely compatible with human metabolism and life. Ian and I staggered out of the icy waters after only a few seconds. After some time, we regained the power of speech and assured Mike that it had been wonderfully refreshing.

Fortunately there was no wind and the sun had warmed the pebbles on the beach. We warmed up nicely as we enjoyed our first luncheon. Ian and I are often quizzed on the difference between third breakfast and first luncheon. It is really very simple. As we had enjoyed a snifter of 15y old Dalmore with our meal, this was first luncheon. We are most abstemious and NEVER take liquor with breakfast of any description. It is the only rule in our little sea kayaking club. Of course, there is nothing in our club's constitution to prevent our members taking an early luncheon...

It was difficult to imagine anywhere in the World where we would rather be. There was not another soul, boat, ship or building in sight. The only sound was the occasional lapping of a wavelet on the shingle of the beach. We enjoyed a wonderful view over the Sound of Bute to the mountains of Arran beyond. All this yet I was only 50 kilometres from my home in Glasgow!

We savoured the environs of Inchmarnock for over am hour before we somewhat reluctantly took to the boats again and...

...paddled out of Inchmarnock's beautiful lagoon.

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

Fog, Hercules, porpoise and greylag on the morning run to Inchmarnock.

We paddled round the north coast of  the Cock of Arran until our GPS showed the distance to our next waypoint on the isle of  Inchmarnock had stopped falling. 

We then set off on the second crossing of the day. The south end of Inchmarnock was 9km across the Sound of Bute but although the sky was clearing there was still fog at sea level and...

 ...there was not a sign of Inchmarnock on the horizon.

We set off on a compass bearing but shortly after leaving the coast of Arran the GPS showed the flood tide was drifting us to port so we continued on a ferry angle to starboard.

A roar of turboprop engines while we were mid-crossing announced the arrival of this RAF Hercules transport plane. They must have enjoyed a nice tour of the SW of Scotland as my wife saw it flying over the Solway Firth (125 km distant) a little earlier in the day.

 Just as the mist cleared allowing us to see Inchmarnock a solitary porpoise surfaced ahead of us.

At last the skies cleared revealing the...

 ...bright quartzite beach at the south end of Inchmarnock. The heat of the day was building and we had chosen to wear dry suits for the open crossings as the water temperature was only 7.5 degrees C and the wind had been forecast to get up to F4 southerly.The wind never appeared with the result was that we were boiled in the bag. The air temperature was 18C on the coast (24C inland) and it was the hottest day of the year so far.

As we approached the reefs of Inchmarnock a flight of greylag geese passed by. These large geese are not resident in the Clyde and migrate further north in the summer. It was the 29th of April and the other species of migratory geese had long since gone. The greylags do lag behind the other geese somewhat as they are always the last to leave in the spring.

Generations of geology students have swarmed over his unconformity on the way to the Cock of Arran,.

We made our way out of Loch Ranza and turned north along...

...the Newton shore where we chose to stop for second breakfast near the site of a considerable nonconformity.

Just below the wreck of this old boat (which has seen better days) lies an interesting geological feature,.It attracted the interest of the 18th century Scottish geologist James Hutton. He observed dipping old metamorphic rocks which were immediately overlain by gently sloping layers of much younger sedimentary rocks. There was no evidence of any intermediary rocks between the layers despite them being separated by 160 million years. Hutton used this unconformity to deduce that the underlying metamorphic rock had been created, metamorphosed, (altered by great forces) then uplifted and eroded before the later sedimentary rocks were overlain. Lastly, the two layers were then further uplifted then eroded to expose their junction on what is now Newton shore. He deduced from all this that the World was much older than had been previously thought.

Generations of geology students have followed Hutton to swarm all over his unconformity.

Leaving the unnconformity we passed the Fairy Glen on our way north.

This rock pippit was hopping between great...

...priapic boulders of conglomerate...

... which lay on the old red sandstone of the Cock of Arran.

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

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....