Of lighthouses and family trees.

Pladda lighthouse has two towers. It was built in the days before lighthouses had flashing lights to aid their identification. Its two towers helped to make it stand out from the other great lights at the mouth of the Firth of Clyde.


After leaving Bennan Head we turned eastwards again towards the little isle of Pladda which lies off the southern tip of Arran. It is often cut off from its larger neighbour by the strong tides and winds which accelerate round this corner of Arran. We were carried round the island by this race on its southern tip, below the lighthouse.


The light was built in 1790 by Thomas Smith. His apprentice was his stepson, Robert Stevenson, who also became his son in law. Robertson Stevenson was to be the first of a dynasty of seven Stevenson lighthouse engineers. An eighth male descendant was Robert Louis Stevenson, the author. RL Stevenson started training as an engineer but was forced to give up due to ill health.


The Pladda light is white and has three flashes every 30s.


From the south of Pladda you can see volcanic plug of Ailsa Craig on the horizon. Its lighthouse was built nearly 100 years later, in 1886, by Robert's son Thomas Stevenson and Thomas's nephew David A Stevenson. That's quite a family tree, you might need to be a geneticist to understand it.

17/08/07

The Black Cave of Bennan Head, Arran

Leaving Kildonan on the south of Arran, Tony and I were actually headed for Brodick on the east coast. We decided to take a little detour first.


We paddled 3km to the west into a stiff force 4 wind. We were rewarded by the magnificent sight of the Black Cave of Bennan Head and its attendant waterfall. Some call it the Monster Cave. We saw no monsters.

17/08/07

Sea dogs #2

At Kildonan on the south coast of Arran, a number of rocky dykes run at right angles to the coast out into the Sound of Pladda. They are composed of volcanic intrusions which forced their way through the bed rock of older sandstones and shales. Over time these softer rocks have eroded leaving long fingers of volcanic rock which are known as the Arran tertiary dyke swarm.

You an also see the little island of Pladda and the more distant Ailsa Craig. Both have fine lighthouses built by the Livingstone dynasty.


Bob is Tony's dog and is a very powerful swimmer. As Tony and I paddled out past the end of one of the dykes, Bob came racing along and leaped into the water from the very end. He clearly preferred the look of my Nordkapp LV to Tony's Rockpool Alaw Bach. He made straight for my back deck and managed to climb on as I braced madly.

Bob is a very clever dog but he knows nothing about geology and plutonic activity.

17/08/07

Sea dogs #1

Rory, the Border terrier, likes the Aleut Sea II. He can come along.


He keeps a sharp lookout. He barks 3 times if he spots a picnic beach to port and 4 times for one to starboard. If he spots a sea kayaking pub he barks seven times, regardless whether it lies to port or starboard. He enjoys a small bowl of Guinness with his biscuits. So far he likes the Solway but has not been through the Grey Dogs yet.


31/07/07 one of the many faces of sea kayaking!

Red rock sunset on Erraid

As the sun slowly moved towards the northwest, the granite rocks of Erraid glowed red above the white shell sand beaches.


Finally the sun sank behind the grey gneiss of Iona and the sky above turned to fire. Far below, in the gathering darkness, our boats gently kissed the sands of Fidden and the Ross of Mull.

David Balfour's Bay Erraid

We set off from Fidden on the Ross of Mull to circumnavigate the island of Erraid. It was late evening in July and the thunder clouds of earlier in the day had moved SW over the distant Scottish mainland. After the rain, the sky was clear and bright as we wended our way through the skerries.


We stopped at Traigh Gheal on the island's SW coast. The white shell sand and red granite contrasted with the turquoise of the shallow waters. Robert Louis Stevenson, the author, spent time here while his father was constructing the remote lighthouses at Skerryvore and Dubh Artach (which lie far to the west and south west). In his novel "Kidnapped" the hero, David Balfour, was shipwrecked on this beach.

The Ross of Mull

On leaving Ulva Ferry, we drove to Fidden at the end of the Ross of Mull. Unlike the dark volcanic basalt found round Loch na Keal, the rock here was a red granite.


This beautiful red rock has been quarried for building such structures as the Skerryvore lighthouse, Iona Cathedral and further afield, Blackfriars Bridge, Holburn Viaduct and the Albert Memorial in London.