Better days in Kentra Bay.

After a good breakfast at Glenuig Inn, Ian and I launched in the small sandy cove of Ardtoe. It is situated at the root of the great peninsula of Ardnamurchan. It was just after high water, so we decided to start our day by exploring the tidal inlet of Kentra Bay.

As we approached the narrow entrance, the coast to our left was composed of grey rocks interspersed with white sand beaches and on our right...

 ...lay the Small Isles and...

 ...the snow covered Cuillin of Skye.

 We paddled into Kentra Bay under a leaden sky and upon a glassy sea.

 Wild wooded slopes tumbled steeply to the shores and...

 ...the ebb tide was already streaming through...

 ....the gaps between the rocky islets.

 We passed an old boathouse and a carefully...

 ...moored old Nordkapp.

Although it was March, the birch woods were still in the grip of winter. Maybe the trees were expecting the coming snows...

 This moored dinghy had seen better days but...

 ...the old Ardtoe pier is made of sterner stuff, its great stones have weathered many storms.

Nearby houses perched on the cliffs, while their boat houses clung to rocks by the shore.

Better days for some in Oban harbour.

Leaving the NLV Pharos and Pole Star, the next vessel we came upon in Oban harbour was the RNLI lifeboat. She is the RNLB "Mora Edith MacDonald". The number 14 on her hull tells she is a 14m long Trent class and 23 that she is the 23rd of the class. She is capable of speeds of up to 25 knots. She entered service at Oban in 1997 and since then has been called out on over emergencies saving almost 100 lives.


At the next jetty we found the CalMac ferry MV Isle of Cumbrae. She was built in Troon in 1976. Currently during the summer she is on the Tarbert-Portavadie route across the mouth of Loch Fyne. During the winter she is a relief vessel and I think she might have been on the Oban - Lismore run, when we saw her back in March.


We continued past the main CalMac terminal which was empty and arrived at the head of Oban Bay under McCaig's folly. It was constructed between 1897 and 1902 by a wealthy banker John Stuart McCaig, to create work at a time of high unemployment in the area. It is built from granite from the Bonawe quarry on the shores of Loch Etive, (opposite where we had left a shuttle car).


This is a good spot to land if you want a break ashore...


...but we carried on round the Bay, leaving Pharos and Pole Star far behind, until...


...we came across this sad old fishing boat, hidden away at the north side of the north pier. Sadly, she had seen better days.

Better Days in The Little Horseshoe Bay

In a break in the fog, we saw a row of neat little white washed cottages at the back of the perfect crescent of The Little Horseshoe Bay.


As we approached, it was obvious that this bay had been settled for a very long time. The grassy hillock at the entrance to the bay has a flat top which betrays it as an Iron Age hill fort.


The cottages were originally built for slate workers who worked at quarries at the south of the island. When the quarries failed a lobster industry became established here and the workers boxed lobsters for delivery to London and Southampton by train. Orders were delivered by telegraph and telegram boys from Oban Post Office. The business boomed to such an extent that Kerrera was the first Scottish island to get a telephone line installed! Today the only sign of activity was a sole oystercatcher which kept an eye on us from the safety of the beach.


Hidden away in a corner of the bay lay this sad old fishing boat. Her paint had all but peeled from her grey timbers. I could not even make out the name, under which she was once sailed with pride. Even her iron rubbing strakes had sprung free of their fastenings and come to rest at an angle on the shore, as if in a forlorn attempt to keep her upright.

Sadly, she has seen better days. Just like the boats of the Iron Age settlers before her, one day she will be gone, without a trace.

Better days in the Sound of Kerrera

This was the view from the sea front at Oban. In the near distance the island of Kerrera shelters Oban from the open waters of the Firth of Lorn. In the distance, the mountains of Mull were topped by a snow covered Ben More, at  966m, the highest mountain in the Inner Hebrides.

 A front was rapidly crossing the sky from the SE...

 ...as we crossed Oban Bay to Kerrera.

Ahead a monument to David Hutcheson stands above the narrow channel, which the many ferries from Oban take to the islands. Hutchieson founded a shipping company, which has now become Caledonian Macbrayne.

To the north the mountains of Morvern were stll in the sunlight but low lying Lismore was already in the shade. The Lismore ferry, MV Eigg, was entering the channel below Dunollie Castle.

 As we approached Mount Pleasant on Kerrara we came across a ruined ship which was exposed...

...by the low spring tide. She had clearly seen better days.

Clearing fog, Ganavan Bay to Kerrera

A 29km day trip from Ganavan Bay round Kerrera, Firth of Lorn, January 2010.


Fog lifting in the Sound of Kerrera.

Ganavan, a launch site for sea kayaks and seaplanes

The fog on the Lorn...

Better Days: the wreck of the Hyacinth

Black and white in the Sound of Kerrera

Better Days in The Little Horseshoe Bay

Fleeting wraiths of fog in the Sound of Kerrera

Gylen castle and the Brooch of Lorn

Blowing the cobwebs away in the Firth of Lorn.

The strange case of the missing calves at sunset.

The liquid canvas of the sea.

Embers of a Kerrera day


Photo album map.

Better days and leaving Pladda.

The keepers' cottages at Pladda lighthouse have the Stevenson trademark flat roofs. They have been sold by NLB after the last of the lighthouse keepers left in 1990 when the light was automated. After he left the service, former keeper Peter Hill wrote an excellent book called "Stargazing: Memoirs of a Young Lighthouse Keeper". In it he describes some of the time he spent on Pladda. Another former keeper Fred has an interesting web site with a page devoted to Pladda, which he worked on in the 1970's.

When Tony and I visited in 2007 the cottages were occupied by someone who I believe worked in the London fashion industry. Tony and I had a good chat with him and Tony even climbed onto the roof to fix his TV aerial. The cottages are slowly lapsing into disrepair compared with the immaculately maintained lighthouse towers..

On this occasion no one was at home and the door was unlocked... only a check list for leaving was found on a table along with...

 ...a candle and a copy of the Arran Banner dated 27th July 2013.

 The curtain-less window looked south to Ailsa Craig and sadly...

 ...this dead butterfly on the window sill could not leave through the glass.

Below the window this old speedboat had been cast high and dry by a great storm. Like the butterfly, she had seen better days and will never leave the island..

 As we left we passed the four great paraffin tanks that once kept the original lantern burning but...

...all were now empty.

It was now time for us to leave and we returned to the little harbour where we had left the kayaks.

Better days: the wreck of the Wasa

We spent some time exploring...


...the magnificent strand of Balnahard beach on Colonsay.


Below the high water mark we found the remains of a wooden steamship, the SS Wasa. In 1919 she caught fire and was being towed to safety when she stranded here and was lost.


In this view you can see Scarba on the left, the Gulf of Corryvreckan and Jura to the right. We would have liked to have stayed all day but we knew we had to get to the south end of Colonsay and cross the 15km to Jura before night fall. We prepared to put to sea again, unlike the Wasa, which has seen better days.

Better days in Corpach.

Arriving in Loch Linnhe we almost immediately came to a large pier that runs for nearly 500m out to the deep water channel. It was built to service a large wood pulp mill which operated her from the 1960's until it closed in 1980. At its peak 900 people worked there. There is still a paper mill and a saw mill on the site.

Fort William and Corpach have reinvented themselves as the UK's outdoor capital and each year more people are drawn to the area for its skiing, snowboarding, winter and rock climbing, white water and sea kayaking, mountain biking, sailing etc. However it is not just adventure seekers, cruise ships now come and tie up at Corpach pier. This year, 16th May, the cruise liner MV Spirit of Adventure was given a little assistance to manoeuvre to the pier...

..by the diminutive but shipshape local tug, the Fiona.

Other boats were less shipshape, though there was hope for this old fishing boat as she was tied up at the local boat yard pier.

Sadly this old barge had seen better days. Her rusting plates seemed to blend into the russets of the landscape and the sea weed.