Sammy porpoise leads us on to Maclean's skull bay!

Having tarried long on our idyllic resting spot it was now time to continue our journey round the north of Jura. Ahead lay the brooding bulk of Scarba, gatekeeper to the great Gulf of Corryvreckan and its tides and whirlpools. Fortunately Sammy porpoise acted as our guide all the way to Glengarrisdale Bay, our final stop before entering the maelstrom.


Glengarrisdale Bay was a Maclean stronghold in the mid 17th century. Their stone built fortification, Aros Castle, no longer remains but its site is marked by a solitary tree. The Macleans were defeated here by the Campbells in 1647.

If you want to avoid some very smelly mud and slippery rocks at low tide, it is better to land at the east side of the bay and not the west as we did.


The former shepherd's house was finally abandoned about 1947 and is now a well maintained bothy. When we visited there was a large party in residence. They had been brought in by boat and had a huge supply of alcoholic beverages. Strangely, they had almost no food.


Looking from Glengarrisdale Bay across to Scarba. The Garvellachs can be seen to its left. The entrance to the Corryvreckan is on the right.


A gruesome skull and femurs sat on a rock at the edge of the bay for many years. They disappeared in the 1970's. The skull had a "sword" cut in it and allegedly belonged to one of the defeated Macleans from the 1647 battle. Modern legend says it was situated in Maclean's skull cave at the east of the bay. However, in John Mercer's book "Hebridean Islands, Cononsay, Gigha, Jura" published in 1972, the above photo shows the sad relics on a rock at the west end of the bay. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

We now had an appointment with the Corryvreckan.....

Sea kayaking paradise on Jura!

Floating on crystal clear waters, we continued our journey north along the west coast of Jura.


We passed more amazing bays with arches and dunes which had been carved by ancient storms on seas which had long retreated.


The mist burned off and midsummer sun beat down on a windless sea. We landed on this idyllic cove.


From above the water looked so inviting....


that we went for a swim. (Photo Tony Page. )

Misty skies and crystal clear waters.

Leaving Shian Bay on the west coast of Jura, Tony and I came across our old friend Sammy the seal.


We passed islands of quartzite cobbles.


Under misty skies the waters of the North Atlantic were crystal clear and we watched the seals cavorting beneath our keels.

Summer mist on Jura.

Last Saturday dawned clear but a bank of sea mist rolled down West Loch Tarbert and hid Ruantallain from the world. Our clothes and tents became completely saturated as the droplets of water settled on every surface. Even the midges were grounded.


It was a surreal experience rockhopping up the wild coast of Jura. The mist muffled all sounds and we paddled steadily on, isolated in our own world.


Finally the sky began to clear at the great bay of Shian where we stopped for second breakfast. The vault of the sky became blue and the sun burned down. The adventure continues...

The Wild West of Jura

After a fantastic day on West Loch Tarbert, Jura, Tony and I headed for the rampart of cliffs which bound the unpopulated and roadless wilderness of the west coast of Jura.


As the dying sun slipped below the horizon behind Colonsay, we looked down on rockhopping heaven. The next day 27 kilometers of rugged coast lay ahead of us. It finished only on our arrival within the jaws of the great Gulf of Corryvreckan.

Even West Loch Tarbert would be exceeded on our quest for seakayaking heaven.....

The hand of Slartibartfast has touched West Loch Tarbert!

The sun sets over distant Colonsay behind the abandoned township of Ruantallain at the mouth of West Loch Tarbert on the west coast of Jura. Its last residents finally left 60 years ago.


When Tony and I were sea kayaking in the wilderness of West Loch Tarbert, he said you could not design a better sea loch. Indeed, with its raised beaches, islands, tidal narrows, caves, mountains and white sand beaches, one realizes that it is so perfect that it could only have been designed and created by Slartibartfast himself.


Even in the final hour of the ebb at neap tides, the tidal narrows of Cumhainn Beg were running at 5 km/hour


Not only are there raised beaches, there are also raised caves! Several were used to store the bodies of the dead on their way to a final resting place on the holy isle of Iona.


Landfall at the perfect white sands near Ruantallain.


The raised beach at An Sailean is even bigger than the one at nearby Camas nam Meann. This photo was taken at 32 metres above sea level yet even this giant beach is dwarfed by the mighty Paps of Jura.


The end of a perfect day. You should try to seakayak in West Loch Tarbert before you die, it really does not get much better than this.

The mysterious geoglyphic lines of Camas nam Meann, Jura

As you approach Camas nam Meann (beach of the young deer) in West Loch Tarbert from the sea, you are not prepared for its sheer scale.


The sands at the current beach level give way to cobbles.


These are difficult to walk over.


Only when you climb the hills high above the beach and look down, do you see that it is criss-crossed by mysterious straight lines. Despite what some think, these have not been made by by our ancestors, like the geoglyphic Nazca lines in Peru. Neither were they made by aliens who were unable to find suitable fields of crops on Jura.

They have been worn by countless generations of deer over the millenia since the retreat of the ice and the subsequent rise in the land. Camas nam Meann is so large that the deer choose to pick their way carefully across it rather than to walk round the easier ground behind.

Despite its size, Camas nan Meann is not the largest raised beach in West Loch Tarbert....