The hand-less piper of Duntrune Castle.

Loch Crinan is guarded on its north shore by the austere greyness of the tower of Duntrune Castle. It dates from the 12th century and was a Campbell stronghold for many centuries but has been owned by the Malcolm family since 1792. It is reputed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited buildings in Scotland and as such it is unfortunately not open to the public.

It is haunted by the ghost of a hand-less piper. He was a MacDonald who was captured in the early 1600’s. His life was spared, as he was known as a fine piper, but he was imprisoned with his pipes in a small room at the top of the tower. One day, from his high vantage point he saw his chief's (Coll MacDonald) galley approaching a Campbell ambush. He played a lament "Cholla mo Run, Seachain a Dun" or “My beloved Coll, avoid the castle”. The Campbells were so incensed by his warning that they cut his hands off so he would never play again.

Of course, there are often two sides to stories involving the MacDonalds and the Campbells. Coll had sent the piper as a spy into the Campbell Castle.

12/02/2008

Set the controls for the heart of the sun.

We launched from the old jetty on the NW side of the Craignish peninsula. The sun was just rising above the hills. We paddled north round Eilean Ona then ferried across the south going tide to Reisa Mhic Phadean.


Paddling down the Sound of Jura with the Craignish peninsula leading down to the Dorus Mor tide race between it and the island of Garbh Reisa.


Looking west through the Corryvreckan.


Entering the Dorus Mor.

12/02/2008

Glorious Dorus Day!

Today it was glorious in the west of Scotland.


It was 2 days after springs so we decided to take two little runs through the Dorus Mor tide race while it was going full tilt. With this tidal assistance we had a very easy 30km day (and all two and a half hours from home).

The staff of seakayakphoto.com live in paradise.

12/02/2008

Hand dived scallops of Harris.

It was quite windy in Loch Reasort, a deep sea loch on the west coast of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. It was perhaps a little too breezy for sea kayaking.


So we went for a walk...


....while the divers went... diving in nearby Loch Tamnabhaigh.


They brought up a good haul of hand dived scallops. Recently StuartA commented "Maybe for hand-caught scallops? Yum!"


There is a worrying number of bits and pieces in there...


... but as Stuart said, Yum! (This photo Mike Marshall.)

12/06/2006

Greenan, the fourth castle of Carrick, and a corpse.

Leaving Dunure (and its quickly receding tide) we made good progress NE towards the Heads of Ayr.


Spying a convenient landing spot, we took a short break at Bracken Bay.


We passed the Heads of Ayr, which are the remains of the lava flow from a volcano on the Carrick Hills. This was active (at the same time as Ailsa Craig) when Europe and America began to drift apart as the Atlantic Ocean widened.


At last we paddled past Greenan Castle, the fourth castle on this sea kayaking tour of "the four coastal castles of Carrick".


This photo (from a previous trip on 09/11/2003) shows the castle's supreme defensive position on the very edge of a cliff to the south of Ayr. There have been defensive buildings on this site for over a thousand years but the present tower house dates from the 16th century.

In 1602 Sir Thomas Kennedy of Culzean spent the night at Greenan prior to setting off on a long ride Edinburgh. Unfortunately he only made it a few miles to St. Leonard's woods in Ayr. He was ambushed and murdered there by a kinsman, Thomas Kennedy of Drummurchie, who was a Bargany Kennedy. The Culzean and Bargany Kennedys were bitter enemies and their long and bloody feud was immortalised by Sir Walter Scott in "An Ayrshire Tragedy" and by SR Crocket in "The Grey Man".

The road where Sir Thomas's corpse was discovered was renamed Corsehill Road. I used to live in Corsehill Road and on stormy nights, when the wind was howling through the trees, it was always a relief to shut and bolt the door!


The day was nearly done by the time we got back to Seafield beach at Ayr. We made our way home up Corsehill Road in the gathering winter darkness. Of Sir Thomas, there was not a sight. May he rest in peace.

And that brings to a close our four castles (and three pints and innumerable tales) of Carrick sea kayaking tour. I hope you have enjoyed "paddling" along with us on the way.

20/01/2008

The tidal anomaly of the third castle of Carrick.

Paddling north from Culzean Bay we rounded a headland and found ourselves under the grim walls of Dunure castle. This is the third castle on our "Four Castles" tour. As Scottish castles were built by people who did not particularly like their neighbours, they are separated by respectable distances and, as a result, we were by now feeling both tired and thirsty.


We decided to cheer ourselves by taking a short break.


Despite the fact we ran all the way back from the pub, we were somewhat surprised to discover just how far the tide had gone out. We could only conclude that there is either a previously unreported tidal anomaly in the Clyde or a localised warp in the space time continuum!

A ship's bell rings down the years.

This is the bell of the SS Valkyrian, which was wrecked off Dunure harbour in Ayrshire. I recently posted about the bravery of William "Buckie" Munro and 30 other fishermen from Dunure who bravely rescued all but one of the Vakyrian's crew.

I was absolutely delighted to receive a comment from William Munro, who is a descendant of Buckie Munro. It turns out the bell remained in the possession of his family until 1985! He has very kindly added to and corrected some the information I discovered in Dunure and on the internet.

Here is his comment:


"What is shown in your good account is not a postcard but a painting of the ship which previously was hanging on the wall in Mr Mckinney Maersk Moller's office in Copenhagen.


It was presented to me by Mr Moller in December 1985. Thus the date is in fact 1986 on the inscription. It was presented to me as a gift when the bell from the ship (photo in your article)was donated to the Maersk museum in Copenhagen. It had been in the family since the time of the sinking."

What a wonderful story, two families exchanging tokens and mementos of a momentous event which had thrown their ancestors together 102 years before! Of course, if we had paddled from headland to headland, we would have missed Dunure and been none the wiser. This is an important part of the history of this coastline and now thanks to William we have a first hand account of a consequential event. I have corrected and added to my previous posts.

20/01/2008