Seeing the West coast in a new light.

I have sailed extensively throughout the west coast of Scotland since 1959. This has been in a variety of dinghies and yachts such as a Wayfarer up to a 38 foot mono hull. I thought of those days last Sunday as I watched this yacht sailing right down the middle of the Sound of Bute, between Bute and Arran. I then realised that I had seen much more of the west coast in 4 years sea kayaking than I had in over 40 years sailing. Just looking at the yacht, I realised they had missed exploring the skerries, seeing the golden eagle, finding the rhyolite pebble and bat and ball and exploring for the Queen's glass covered tomb (more of which later). Not only that did you know that decent antifouling costs £90 per 2.5l tin and you need several tins?!

When mountains crumble to the sea.

If the sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you.
When mountains crumble to the sea, there will still be you and me.
"Thank You" Led Zeppelin

Finding an erratic pink rhyolite pebble on the beach at Inchmarnock took my mind to its source. It came from the mountain of Buachaille Etive Mor which sits between Glen Etive and GlenCoe nearly 100km away to the NNE. Its Gaelic name means great shepherd of Etive. It is composed mainly of rhyolite, a pink volcanic rock, which gives excellent scrambling and rock climbing.


This is the Rannoch Wall which has many popular climbing routes.


My friend, John, completes a climb up the face of the Rannoch Wall,


This is an old B&W print I took in 1973. I used an orange filter to darken the blue in the sky. It shows the King's House Hotel, which is situated at the Buachaille's feet. It was one of the old staging inns at which horse drawn carriages would stop after a day's travel. The next inn on the road north is the Clachaig, at the west end of Glen Coe, some 14km away and the next to the south is the Inveroran Hotel, 15km to the south over the Rannoch Moor, near the shores of Loch Tulla. It took a long time to travel in those days.


I wonder how long this pebble took on its journey south to Inchmarnock?

Rounders and Luncheon on Inchmarnock

Tony said "What a day indeed- a classic. Dont forget.. as well as the glacial deposits we also found a complete bat and ball set on the beach!
Looking forward to the next time.."

Indeed we did, a spiffing time was had by all.



Games were followed by second luncheon, or was it third breakfast?

Inchmarnock's beach of treasures.

Our weekend trip to Inchmarnock in the Firth of Clyde was blessed with stunning light.



We landed on a lonely beach which was patrolled by a golden eagle.



We were not the only ones disturbing the eagle's domain. Herring gulls were mobbing it.



The beach was full of treasures. The pink pebble is rhyolite which was transported here from Buachaille Etive Mor, nearly 100km to the NNE, by glaciers in the last ice age.

Another fabulous day on the Clyde

Flat calm start to the day.



We took the ferry to Bute then headed over the West Kyle of Bute to Ardlamont Point on the mainland.



We then headed down pat the west side of Inchmarnock before heading back to Bute.



Of course it did not stay calm and we had a brisk paddle into the wind for the last 9km.

It does not end there. I got the car stuck in the mud just as it was getting dark and the rain started and we only had 30 mins to catch the last ferry! Fortunately a friendly farm lad came with a very large JCB and pulled me out with a huge chain. (I had my tow hitch on.) We made the ferry by the skin of our teeth.

What a day!

Rum rocks.

The north coast of Rum is a wild place.

The Witch's Step, Arran

I recently posted about the sea level Bad Step on the Island of Skye but there are many more high level bad steps such as Ceum na Caillich (or the Witch's Step) on the north west Glen Sannox ridge in the Isle of Arran.

The view from this ridge is a simply stunning mixture of rock and sea scapes and makes for a scrambling paradise.







We recently paddled below Arran's lofty ridges and I have now posted the complete picture set over at the Scottish Seakayaking Photo Gallery.