Some matters concerning frost, condensation, mist, "evaporation", disappearing water and the golden light of dawn on Loch Shiel.

The skies cleared about 1a.m. and turned into a bitterly cold night on the shores of Loch Shiel. We had planned to rise at 6am and right on cue a timber lorry rumbled down the forestry road on the far side of the loch. It was the first sound of human activity we had heard since leaving Glenfinnan the previous day.

The sun had not yet risen and the frost lay thick on the ground round our camp site.

We rubbed our hands to keep them warm while our water boiled then after breakfast...

...we loaded the boats. At least, being a fresh water loch, we had not had to carry them far due to the lack of tide! However, the "tide marks" on the sand showed that the level of the loch had dropped 15cm overnight. This might not sound much but Loch Shiel has a surface area of 19.3km2! That is a huge volume of water that had disappeared overnight. Since it clearly had not evaporated it must have gone somewhere else and that somewhere is where we were going....!

We launched just as the first rays of sun hit the mountain slopes high above. You will note that I had brought my Aries 155. It swallowed gear and food for 3 nights and 4 days in winter with no bother though it was right down to the seam.

We were still in deep shade when we launched but by the time our cold fingers fumbled with the spray decks...

...the sun had risen above the mountains.

We turned our backs to the sun and aimed our bows...

...to the SW...

...down the long defile of Loch Sheil. A layer of mist on the water began to rise leaving the...

...air crystal clear in the golden light of dawn. Ian and I snapped away with our DSLR cameras but they were so cold and the air was so humid that the lenses misted up with condensation.

The light was so wonderful that I really did not want to miss any shots. So I landed and spent some time with lens tissues and holding the lens to the sun to warm it.

The tattie stick of Loch Shiel.

 After our "tea stop" we continued down Loch Shiel and passed...

 ..the delta of the River Aladale which flows out of Glen Aladale, the ancestral home of the Jacobite MacDonalds. We were keen to get as far down the loch as possible before night fall so we pressed on. Just as the sun was setting a cold SW wind got up and made finding a camp site more urgent.

We came to a spot where there were two potential camp sites a few hundred metres apart. One had better ground but was exposed to the cold wind. We were getting tired and visited each site twice before making our final decision.

 In the end we decided on the more sheltered location and soon had the tents up and our evening meal cooking.

We got all our things in order by the time darkness fell over Loch Shiel by which time, it was time to get the camp fire lit.

0Baked potatoes were cooking in the embers as we warmed our toes by the fire. We toasted the success of our first day with several malts before the tattie stick was produced to howk the tatties oot the fire. One thing the prudent camper must not do is to chuck all the sticks on the fire before the potatoes are removed. One suitably long stick must be retained! With some butter and salt, the baked potatoes were absolutely delicious and were unanimously voted the best ever.

Reflections on Loch Shiel. All is not what it seems; shown the water and across the water.

As we proceeded down Loch Shiel in the early evening, the waters of the loch became...

 ...even calmer.

It was down this loch the Prince Charles Edward Stuart the "Young Pretender" to the British throne made his way after the defeat of the Jacobite army at Culloden in 1746. He knew he was safe here. MacDonald of Glenaladale, on the NW shore of the loch was a staunch Jacobite. George II's soldiers hunted Charles down ruthlessly but despite a £30,000 reward, none of the Highlanders who sheltered him betrayed him. In 1746 the Highlands were in turmoil, a long way from the calm of the loch today. The Jacobite cause was complex. It was not just a simple Scottish/English or Highland/Lowland or Catholic/Protestant divide but it led to the destruction of the traditional Scottish Clan system and the clearing of the many small communities that populated the Highland glens. Even the wearing of tartan was banned and it was not until over a century later that Sir Walter Scott and Queen Victoria re-popularised Highland culture and the wearing of tartan became acceptable again..

There was no sign of spring in the rugged mountain slopes though...

 ...the snows had receded to the high corries.

As we paddled steadily down the loch...

...we passed many headlands...

 ...backed by deciduous woodland.

 Their rocks had once been polished by ice but...

...were were now reflected by the calm water.

It was quite disorienting paddling close to the shore, sometimes it was not easy to say what was up and what was down!

 There were surprises round every corner such as...

 ...Eilean Dubh and if you did not look back, you might miss...

 ...some lovely beaches.

 The only sign of man's influence was the forestry track on the SE shore.

 The striking thing about the symmetry in Loch Shiel was that...

 ...sometimes....

...the reflections were...

 ...more vivid than the reality.

We had been paddling in silence for some time. Each of us was immersed in our own thoughts.

 At last I turned back and looking at the now distant head of the loch, realised how far we had come.

 It was definitely time for an early evening tea stop.

We found a delightful beach just north of Glenaladale to stretch our legs and take a refreshment. We were of course deep in the Highlands of Scotland where "tea" does not necessarily come from a bush.

Oh no! We are talking of refreshment that comes from the barley. Ian produced a flask of cask strength Linkwood. Liquor of this strength requires to be "shown" a little water to bring out its full flavour and avoid numbing the palate.

Where better to get some water to show to the whisky than the crystal clear waters of Loch Sheil? In true Royal Navy tradition, we remained seated during our toasts. As it was a Tuesday, we toasted ourselves, our expedition and our friends, in that order. In times gone by, the MacDonalds of Glenaladale would have toasted the "King over the Water" i.e. the Young Pretender, Bonny Prince Charlie. If they were at a function where they had to give the Loyal Toast to the Hanovarian King George, they would pass their glass over their finger bowl as the said "The King!" In so doing the whisky passed "over the water" before they drank it. Thus although they pretended to toast King George, this was a secret sign that their loyalty lay instead with the King over the Water.

After 1746 so many people did this that even the Hanovarians realized what was going on and such was the fear of another uprising that finger bowls were banned from formal functions where the Loyal Toast was to be given. Jacobites quicky developed a new sign, they passed their hand over the top of their glass before drinking. Again this symbolised "over the water". It was not until after Edward VII came to the throne in 1902 that he felt the Monarchy was by then secure enough to allow finger bowls to placed on formal tables again.

Alexander MacDonald of Glenaladale was a Jacobite descendent of the MacDonalds who had sheltered Bonny Prince Charlie in Loch Sheil. For many years he wanted to build a monument at the head of Loch Shiel to commemorate where Bonny Prince Charlie raised his standard at the start of the 1745 Rebellion. It was only after the significant part played by Scottish infantry and cavalry regiments in the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 that Hanovarian concern about another Jacobite rebellion had eased and he was finally given permission. Unfortunately he died before it could be completed.

The design was a simple tower with a statue of "a highlander" on its top. MacDonald had to swear that the statue was of a simple and "anonymous highlander" and to this day the exhibition at the National Trust for Scotland visitor centre tells the same story. However, modern day Jacobites such as A Circle of Gentlemen and the 1745 Association know differently.

Photo by Kutsa from Wikipedia of the statue of the "Anonymous Highlander" on the top of the Glenfinnan monument.

This is no Anonymous Highlander! The tower is high so most people cannot make out the detail of the statue. It is worth looking through a pair of binoculars. Then just look at the fine tailored jacket, the fold of cloth on the left shoulder to represent the common Highlander's untailored plaid (the Feileadh-mhor), the wig, the feather in the bonnet that represented the chief in battle and the Star of St Andrew on his left breast. This is a statue of Bonnie Prince Charlie himself! Here is a contemporary description of the Prince by John Home, a Hanovarian, when the Prince entered Edinburgh after leaving Glenfinnan:

"He was in the prime of youth, tall and handsome, of a fair complexion; he had a light coloured periwig with his own hair combed over the front: he wore the Highland dress, that is a tartan short coat without the plaid, a blue bonnet on his head, and on his breast the star of St. Andrew."

From Wikipedia, this is the portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie as he arrived in Edinburgh by William Mosman painted ~1750.  It  hangs in the National Gallery of Scotland.

In Loch Shiel, all is not what it seems. On the beach at Glenaladale, where the MacDonalds once trod, we gave the toast slàinte mhòr! (great health!) This too is not what it seems. At first it looks like a variation of the common Gaelic toast  slàinte mhath (good health) but it is also a Jacobite toast with a hidden meaning, "health to Marion", which was a code word for Bonnie Prince Charlie! With a code name like that , was he a cross dresser? Well, yes he was. While on the run from Hanovarian troops in 1746 he escaped from Benbecula dressed as Flora MacDonald's maid!

To this day Jacobite sympathisers gather at Glenfinnan Monument on the 19th of August each year and raise a toast to the statue of Bonnie Prince Charlie at the top of the tower, "Slàinte mhòr!"

Surreal on Loch Shiel, surrounded by solitude and silence.

After visiting the monument to Bonnie Prince Charlie at Glenfinnan, we turned our bows to the SW and were rewarded by the dramatic view of Loch Shiel stretching away through the mountains of Sunart and Moidart. Although it is seldom visited, this view is familiar to millions as it features in the Harry Potter films. The railway to Hogwarts circles the top of Loch Shiel via the Glenfinnan viaduct.

The loch stretches for 28 kilometres until its outflow into the River Shiel. It was carved by a glacier in the Ice Age and is 128m at its deepest. After the ice retreated about 10,000 years ago it was a sea water loch. However, Scotland is slowly rising after the weight of the ice sheet has gone and the loch is now 4.5m above sea level and has been a fresh water loch for the last few thousand years.

There is no public road on either side of the loch and it was only recently that a forestry road was constructed along its SE shore. The loch side still has extensive areas of native woodland (Scots, pine, sessile oak, birch, rowan and alder) as its remoteness protected it from over grazing and clearance by man.

The remoteness of Loch Shiel is preserved to this day as none of the surrounding mountains exceed 3,000 feet in height and therefore achieve Munro status. As a result, they do not attract droves of Munro "baggers", those at the OCD end of the outdoor sports spectrum who collect all 282 (or whatever the current number is) summits. This creates great erosion on the Munros while neighbouring peaks, just a few feet below 3000 feet, often remain in near pristine wilderness.

After leaving Glenfinnan we passed the delightful wooded isle of Eilean Ghleann Fhionainn and then we were surrounded by solitude and silence. The surface of the loch was so calm that the only disturbance to the reflections of the...

...forests and mountains was our wake. These were perfect conditions for spotting An t-Seileag (or Shiela as the monster of Loch Shiel is more commonly known). If you have not heard of Shiela you probably are more familiar with her cousin Nessie  who inhabits the depths of Loch Ness. Other large fresh water lochs in Scotland also have monsters such as Morag in Loch Morar, just to the north of Loch Shiel. We kept our eyes peeled for any sign of disturbance on the surface of the loch but Sheila was shy and there was no sign of her serpentine coils.

 As we slowly made our way down Loch Shiel we savoured every stroke as we passed Sgurr Ghiubhsachain, 849m on our left and...

....Bein Odhar Mhor, 870m on our right.