Unlocked island doors.

For centuries the unlocked door has been a feature of the hospitality of remote Highland and Island communities. Perhaps it has grown from an inate trust in human nature, or the need to take shelter from the frequent and sudden deteriorations in the weather. Some unkind commentators have said the houses had nothing worth stealing. Whatever, it is an enduring sign of an alternative approach to life in remote communities that has survived to the 21st century.



The lovely little island of Colonsay which lies in the Inner Hebrides between Jura and Mull, is studded with dazzling white shell sand beaches. On the machair behind the beaches lives the corncrake which is one the rarest birds in Britain. It shares the island with some wild goats, descended from those who survived the wrecking of a Spanish warship from the Armada. There are also 100 human residents who do not lock their doors.

Unfortunately the island has just suffered its first crime in 7 years. A visiting workman from Glasgow sold a crofter a bag of wood. After the crofter left the house, the workman returned and stole £60 from the money tin. (There is no bank on the island.) Fortunately the loss was discovered on a day when there was no ferry. The workman was detained by the island's joiner who is also a special constable. The thief was escorted to the ferry the next day and was arrested by police on the mainland.

A resident said "We are a close-knit community and we won't change our lifestyle."

Eilean Donan castle

A particular feature of Scottish sea kayaking is being able to paddle right up under the walls of many of the great castles which are dotted round the coastline. In the past, the sea was the main transport artery for the people living around Scotland. Eilean Donan castle is strategically placed at the head of Loch Alsh where it splits into Loch Long and Loch Duich. The mouth of Loch Alsh faces the island of Skye so it has two exits to the sea through the tidal races of Kyleakin and Kylerea. The castle dates from 1230 but was destroyed by an English warship in 1719 when it was being held by the Jacobites. They wished to see the return of a Stuart king to the throne of Great Britain. The Jacobite garrison thought they were safe, protected from large warships by the powerful tidal races but a local pilot, sympathetic to the government, guided the warship to the castle. Its cannon reduced the ancient walls to rubble and it was not restored to its present state until 1932.

The bottlenose dolphins of Gigha and the Brownie of Cara

Recent talk of community buyouts takes us south again to the islands of Gigha and Cara. They lie at the south end of the Sound of Jura off the west coast of the Kintyre peninsula. There is a pod of bottlenosed dolphins which are frequently seen in these waters. One has a distinctive lateral curve to the dorsal fin and I have also seen them 60km further north in the Sound of Luing.

Although Gigha and Cara are not far from the mainland, the waters off their southern points can be very rough as they are exposed to westerly swells from the Atlantic.





The only house on Cara is haunted by a spirit called the "Brownie". It pays to be polite and doff a cap and greet the Brownie on arrival. If this is done, the Brownie can be a helpful spirit who can tidy up and make sure kayaks are above high water etc. However, if you upset him or if you are a Campbell, then he can be very mischievous and hide things in places you have already looked for them or even wake you with a hard slap.



If you sit round a fire, you would be advised to leave an empty space for the Brownie....



The three Paps of Jura lie across the Sound of Jura from Gigha. From further north, there is a more anatomically correct view which shows only two Paps.

Hebridean roots and island community buyout.

Benbecula



South Uist



Eriskay

My daughters have ancestral roots in several places in the outer Hebrides including Solas and Greinetobht in North Uist, Baile a' Mhanaich and Cill Eireabhagh on Benbecula and Loch a'Charnain and Staoniebrig in South Uist. Generations of depopulation have led to our family leaving the islands for places like Glasgow, Australia and New Zealand. My friend Cailean is a more recent emigrant from Lewis to Inverness which is near where I grew up in Dingwall.

I was delighted to hear that the remaining residents of the South Uist Estate, which includes Eriskay and parts of Benbecula, have been awarded £2 million Lottery funding towards a community buy out of the estate.

Other remote Scottish estates have been successfully bought by their communities. Gigha for example is now thriving again. I wish the residents of South Uist Estate good fortune in the future.

PS 14/11/2006 Highlands and Islands Enterprise has donated a further £2 million to the buy out fund.

Ailsa Craig and the return of its puffins.

Having teased you with remote glimpses of Ailsa Craig from the Clyde coast of Ayrshire, I think it is time for a closer look. It is best to choose a day with a good forecast as the volcanic plug stands in spendid isolation, 15km from the nearest land. It is also known as Paddy's Milestone as it is half way between Belfast and Glasgow. It is on the sea route taken by many Irish families who travelled to Scotland following famine in Ireland. Its microgranite has been quarried for the production of curling stones used in a popular Scottish winter pastime.



We went in May when the thousands of seabirds had returned to their breeding grounds on its precipitous cliffs. We paddled past colonies of gannets, fulmars, guillemots, black guillemots. and razorbills.



A particular treat was to see a small group of colourful puffins. Last century, a colony of over 30,000 pairs had been wiped out by rats which escaped from a ship wreck. The puffin burrows were too accessible and the rats preyed on the chicks and eggs in the spring and summer then cannibalised each other during the autumn and winter. The rats were recently exterminated using poisoned grain. Within a few years, a small breeding colony of puffins has reestablished itself. They are now a welcome sight, evidence, on a very small scale, that what man has done, he can undo. Let's just hope the climate is as fortunate as a few puffins.

More from the cave of Mr Sawney Bean

The entrance to Sawney Bean's cave is at the foot of Bennane Head on the lower Firth of Clyde. It is in a fabulous, remote situation with the monolith of Ailsa Craig punctuating the horizon. At high tide, the cave is entered by a traverse on rocks above the sea, followed by a climb of about 10 metres to the entrance. As the walls of the cave are worn smooth it must have been created by the sea following the last ice age when sea levels were higher. The land had been depressed by the sheer weight of thousands of metres of ice. The ice had also worn away the ash cone of Ailsa Craig and transported erratic granite boulders from its volcanic plug as far south as Wales.



Grafitti pointing to the inner chamber of the cave where over 1,000 souls are reputed to have been murdered before being cannibalised by the Bean clan.



It was a welcome relief to escape to the open sea and sky.

A Kayaking Bean feast.

A trip to Bennane Head on the lower Clyde found us inside the cave and principal dwelling of a Mr Alexander Bean who frequented these parts in the 17th century. He was known as "Sawney" to his friends (most of his aquaintances had little time to develop friendship). Together with his brood of 48 butchers he is reputed to have cannibalised about 1,000 victims over a 25 year reign of terror. The Bean family were finally run to ground and the males were executed by amputation of the limbs and the females by burning. The walls of the cave have stood as silent witness to this horror for thee centuries. Today, they ran red with iron oxide, as if still bleeding in silent sympathy with those who had met their grisly end within. We found no femurs. Despite the ancient land of Alba having a past brim full of blood thirsty deeds, the historical veracity of Sawney Bean's place in Scottish history is in some doubt.





The coastline from Lendalfoot (where Mr Alastair Wilson of Lendal Paddles has a home) to Loch Ryan was a superb mixture of volcanic rocks, including pillow lavas, and huge shingle beaches. The section from Ballantrae south was a rockhopping paradise. The coast is commiting, being exposed to the NW Atlantic swells, and a force 4 to 5 SW wind developed as the day wore on. Entering Loch Ryan the Stenna Line HSS ferry threw up a 2 metre wake. We made sure we were well clear of the rocks but were nearly caught out by the rebound of her other wake which was reflected back across from the far side of the loch some time later.