Sea kayaking The Sound of Arisaig and Loch Moidart.

A 64km two day trip from north of Arisaig exploring Loch nan Ceall, the Sound of Arisaig and Loch Moidart, August 2011.

 The Cuillin of Skye from the Arisaig Skerries at the mouth of Loch nan Ceall.

Loch Ailort in the Sound of Arisaig.

Castle Tiorum in Loch Moidart.

Thank goodness for sea kayaking!

The ejaculating spoots of Arisaig.


Sea kayaking the Arisaig skerries


The plight of the sand bees on the machair at Port nam Murrach.


A bumpy crossing of the Sound of Arisaig.


High and dry at day's end in Moidart


Going to work on an Eigg but treading carefully.


Noisy children banished in Loch Moidart.


The islands and channels of inner Loch Moidart


Gracious living in Loch Moidart...but bring your own cook!


Sea kayaking to Shoe Bay, Eilean Shona.


Walking on broken glass, in Moidart paradise.


Limping Inn to Glenuig, a pub too far!


Little and large houses by the shores of Loch Ailort.


Blood on the rocks of Loch Ailort.


Seakayaking through the Borrodale Isles.


Wilderness lost and found in Arisaig.

To see this trip from another perspective have a look at my brother Donald's blog.

Wilderness lost and found in Arisaig.

We journeyed west along the north coast of the Sound of Arisaig towards...

...Eilean a' Ghaill, from which we had set off on our crossing of the Sound, just the previous day. However, as is often the case on trips with such intense experiences as this one, it felt more like a week ago! We had intended camping at Port nam Murrach further up the coast but when we got there my heart sank when I saw a large party of kayaks in the bay complete with tents and a tipi on the machair.

Some were still afloat and I had a very pleasant chat with Mike, their experienced kayak tour guide from Wilderness Scotland. However, it no longer looked like the wilderness and I didn't fancy adding our tents to this burgeoning tented village. Wilderness Scotland are very responsible and leave the wild camp sites spotless but they do use the Sound of Arisaig wild campsites very heavily during the summer. The Land Reform Act Scotland allows wild camping but I can't help thinking that regular, commercial trips of this size (which target the same small number of honey pot sites) are not in the spirit of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, which states: "Wild camping is lightweight, done in small numbers and only for two or three nights in any one place".

This is a photo from one of Wilderness Scotland's partner companies, Rockhopper. It is the wild camp site in Moidart, which we had used the night before. It shows 10 small tents and a large group tent. Wilderness Scotland say in their downloadable brochure "In order to minimise our impact, you will be asked to share a tent with another expedition member of the same sex".  That's very laudable but it makes a lot of people on a fragile spot. There will be even more next year. This year, Wilderness Scotland offered 3 five night wild camping kayak trips in the Sound of Arisaig area. In 2012 they are increasing this to 4 trips. One of the problems is that the experience level of their clients means that they only paddle about 12km per day so that means their trip is condensed into a small area and they use all of the decent camp sites in the area during the trip. Most camping sea kayakers will move about 30km between camp sites and on this day I covered about 50km.

If you want a wilderness experience in the Sound of Arisaig, the dates to avoid are: 2nd Jun - 7th Jun 2012,   30th Jun - 5th Jul 2012,   28th Jul - 2nd Aug 2012 and 1st Sep - 6th Sep 2012. Rockhopper are not advertising their 2012 overnight trips in the area yet but have one overnight trip left this year, 8th Oct - 9th Oct 2011. Of course they are not the only companies offering commercial trips in the area...

 We had a choice, either return to Eilean a' Ghaill or carry on back to Arisaig. The Arisaig option had some attractions. Although it was still over 10km away (round the skerries) it was nearly high tide and I could shave about 3km off that. I could paddle straight through the skerries and the tidal channel inside Eilean Ighe at the mouth of Loch Nan Ceall.  Another advantage was we would arrive about high water at 8:30pm, which would make recovery of the boats very easy as our cars, and Donald's static tent, were only about 25 meters from the HW mark. Decision made, Donald produced some snack bars to fuel the remainder of my 12.5 hour paddling day, then we were off, with the setting sun warming the clouds behind the Sgurr of Eigg.

We entered the South Channel of Loch nan Ceall together and marvelled at the back drop of the Skye Cuillin mountains beyond. Donald then kept to the main channel while I...

...slid through the skerries. The putter of his outboard soon died away and I was left in peace in this amazing place. The boats and the people gathering "spoot" shells had all gone. The sea birds were roosting for the night and even the seals had all slid off the rocks and were out of sight. Apart from the drip from my paddle blades and an occasional pip from an oyster catcher the world of the skerries was silent. I was now glad we had not set up camp on Port nan Murrach. I love paddling on my own in the evening.

As our journey neared its end, the evening mists curled round the jagged peaks of the Cuillin and I felt I had found the Wilderness again.

Seakayaking through the Borrodale Isles.

We left Loch Ailort and entered Loch nan Uamh. At first the head of the loch was obstructed by the dark ridges of the north Ardnish coast...

...but soon we could see the ridge above the loch head illuminated in a shaft of sun. The Prince's Cairn lies just behind Eilean Gobhlach (the dark rocky islet about 1/3 of the way from the left side of the photo). It was here that Bonny Prince Charlie both landed and departed from the Scottish mainland at the time of the 1745 rebellion.

On reaching the north shore of Loch nan Uamh, we turned west and found ourselves exploring the delightful chain of the Borrodale Isles. This one is called Eilean nan Cabar; isle of the timber. It has clearly had trees on it for some time.

The Borrodale Isles have very steep shores with no easy landing spots so we left Eilean nan Cabar in our wakes and continued...

...towards Eilean an Sgurra...

...the isle of the pointed rock...

...where we met a party on a Wilderness Scotland trip.  They were staying in the Glenuig Inn and were clearly enjoying every minute of their holiday. I enjoyed stopping for a chat because it was a distraction from the pain in my bad knee.

It had been a long day and we needed to press on to our intended camp site, which was still about an hour and a half away...

Photo Donald Wilcox

...beyond the mouth of Loch nan Uamh and at the far end of the Sound of Arisaig.

Blood on the rocks of Loch Ailort

Photo Donald Wilcox

Donald and I had been crossing the mouth of Loch Ailort with the intention of taking a luncheon on one of the beaches on the Ardnish peninsula. However, my knee was now causing so much pain that I was desperate to get out the kayak and stretch my legs, never mind check the dressing on my recently lacerated toe. I spotted this lovely strand of sand on the delightful little Eilean a' Chaolais and called Donald over. We had found another corner of paradise. 

The rock pools were filled with crystal clear water and we had the beach to ourselves apart from...

...this starfish. This beach is covered at high water so we were fortunate to pass when we did.

We were surrounded by the silence and beauty of this huge landscape.

Once we had eaten our lunch Donald returned to his boat...

 ...to fix his flooded engine while...

...I sat on the lichen covered rocks and changed the blood soaked bandages on my right foot. These lichen colonies are probably several hundred years old. They were probably here when Bonny Prince Charlie landed nearby and raised his standard at the start of the Jacobite Rebellion in 1745. After initial success he was defeated at Culloden near Inverness. This was the last pitched battle of two land armies on British soil and resulted in much bloodshed and loss of life. The Highlands were never the same again.

Some (quite a few actually) drops of my bright red blood spilled onto the rocks and added their own colour to that of the rich orange and gold lichen. I may have left a bit of myself  in paradise but in turn, this paradise was now etched indelibly on my brain. We who live in Scotland are so fortunate to be surrounded by such natural beauty, sometimes we just don't appreciate the extent of our birthright.

Little and large houses by the shores of Loch Ailort.

From Glenuig, Donald in his boat and myself in my kayak made our way across the mouth of Loch Ailort.

 The scene was dominated by Rois_Bheinn (878m)...

...which rose above the eponymous estate house of Roshven. This is available as a holiday let and the Dining room sits 20. I am not sure if hirers are advised to bring their own cook as at Eilean Shona House, which we had passed earlier in the day. The house was built as a second home in 1857 for Hugh Blackburn who was professor of mathematics at Glasgow University. Academics must have been better paid in those days!

We passed to the west of Eilean nan Gobhar...

...then on towards the Ardnish peninsula with its abandoned settlement...

...at Peanmeanach. Nowadays only the bothy is roofed and stands in a line of roofless black houses built on the raised beach behind the present shore. The bothy was the most recent building in the settlement and probably was the post office for the whole Ardnish peninsula. In the days when transport was by the sea this bustling place had a population of about 80. When the railway line to Mallaig, which bypassed the Ardnish peninsula, was built in 1901, the end was in sight for the few remaining crofters.

We had planned to land on the Ardnish peninsula for a second luncheon but as it was still low tide, we were tempted by this delightful little beach on Eilean a' Chaolais.

Limping Inn to Glenuig, a pub too far!

Heading north past the Smirisary coast, Donald was well ahead as he tracked a shoal of fish with his fish finder.

I kept close inshore and as we turned into  the Sound of Arisaig I caught him up. His main engine had stopped while idling during his fishing and would not restart. I checked he could get his auxilliary going and left him to cleaning his spark plug.

We arranged to meet at Glenuig and I set off towards...

...the twin summits of Rois-Bheinn and An Stac, which rose majestically into the low cloud.

 Once I had passed Samalan Island, the sheltered sandy cove behind it looked very inviting...

 ...but I continued on to Glenuig Bay...

 ...where the excellent Glenuig Inn can be found! The Inn has a reputation for being sea kayak friendly.

At this point, I would normally sacrifice a significant amount of my personal time to provide you, the reader, with another in depth  sea kayaking pubs review. I was really looking forward to this one, as the Glenuig Inn serves real ales. However, there was a problem. It was low tide and the Inn was nearly 400m away. I had been paddling for six and a half hours and was desperately drouthy but sadly the Glenuig Inn was just a pub too far. To be dying of thirst within sight of a pub is about as much as any sea kayaker can bear.

Unfortunately it was not just thirst that was bothering me. The pain in my bad knee was now too bad to contemplate the direct route over the sand and seaweed covered rocks or even the longer, easier route by the jetty and the road. I also had the bad cut in my toe to contend with. It was still bleeding and by the time I had cleaned and redressed it, I was too done to go walking. Just limping a few yards to get a photo was as much as I could manage. All I can do, to assuage the disappointment the reader may feel about the lack of a sea kayaking pubs review, is to promise to visit again soon, preferably at high tide!

I had just got myself ready for sea again when Donald limped in to the bay under his auxiliary power...

PS Most sea kayaking visitors, with even moderate mobility, will find that the Glenuig Inn is very conveniently situated.

Walking on broken glass, in Moidart paradise.

From the west coast of Moidart, we enjoyed a stunning view over the sea to Eigg and Rum. Donald kept well out from the numerous skerries while he fished.

It was now  definitely time for lunch as some time had elapsed since third breakfast, so we took a break  on the sands of Port Achadh an Aonaich (port of the upland moor field).

While Donald came in from his fishing, I chatted to a nice Canadian couple from Vancouver Island. They had walked in from Smirisary.

After they left, I decided to go for a swim to cool off.  Coming out the water I put my boots on to walk over the sand and rocks to where I had left my paddling kit. Unfortunately my feet were so cold that I was unaware that something sharp had cut right through my boot and deeply lacerated my toe.

I ate my lunch enjoying the warmth of some hazy sun, which helped me dry off. It was only when I removed my boot that I realized I had a serious cut to my toe. My boot was full of blood and a small jet of arterial blood was spurting from the end of my toe which was literally hanging by a thread. I squeezed my toe for about 20 minutes but it was still spurting. I shouted for Donald to bring my first aid kit. Donald did not like the look of all the blood on the grass and excused himself. Using a variety of steri-strips and bandages I staunched the flow and limped back to the boats. I noticed a recently broken glass bottle on the sands. I was sorry to find such a thing in such a remote and beautiful spot and put it in my rubbish bag.

It was good to get back on the water after an eventful stop.