Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Destined for Holy Island.

Ian is currently on shore leave from his sea faring job. So it was a great opportunity for Mike and I to get back on the water with him again. However, our plans for a bank holiday weekend on Tiree did not come to fruition due to a complex low pressure system sitting over the UK. In fact the weather was so bad that the Thursday ferry to Coll and Tiree from Oban was cancelled. With the weather gods clearly against us, we decided instead to meet at Ardrossan at 1630. This would give us time to get a weather update then catch either the 1800 ferry to Arran or the 1840 ferry to Campbeltown depending on the severity of the forecast. As the next few days were forecast to be F4-6 NE, we decided that the east Kintyre coast would be a long slog followed by a rough crossing of the Kilbrannan Sound to back Arran so we...

 ...decided to head for the Arran ferry instead. When we arrived it was pouring with rain so we changed into our dry suits in the comfort of the car deck as the vehicles were disembarking before us.

We were on the water just after the MV Caledonian Isles left to return to Ardrossan however, we were slightly delayed in setting off. The little beach to the east of the ferry jetty is composed of coarse sand and fine shingle. There is guaranteed to be something that will jam every skeg box and indeed each of us had to clear our skeg boxes twice before we had working skegs.

 We decided to circumnavigate clockwise and spend the first two days running south before the strongest winds of the weekend. I always enjoy the sense of weightlessness that occurs as soon as you get a heavily laden sea kayak afloat. Soon after leaving Brodick we spotted the first of many otters we would see round Arran.The woods along the shore were full of birdsong.

 The pouring rain did nothing to dampen our spirits but looking back...

 ...a stream of dark clouds was streaming downwind from the summit of Goatfell.

The east Arran hills were still covered in wild hyacinths which are commonly called bluebells (but the Scottish bluebell is actually the harebell).

Just before 20:15 we spotted the peak of our destination, Holy Island rising behind Clauchlands Point. There have been  recent problems of access for wild camping on Holy Island caused by the Buddhist monks banning camping, However, I had recently been reassured by the Ayrshire and Arran Access Officer that the the monks (who own) the island had now accepted that under the Scottish Land Reform Act, they could not ban people from wanting to wild camp. However (as of today) the Holy Island web site still states "We strongly discourage camping anywhere on the island" which is clearly at odds with the Law of Scotland. What sort of welcome would we get...? 

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Thirty glorious hours in the Firth of Clyde.

It was with some sadness that we left the north end of Inchmarnock. Our adventure round the isles  and peninsulas of the Firth of Clyde would soon be over.

 Gradually the isles of Inchmarnock and Arran and the distant Kintyre peninsula (where we had set off from that morning)...
 ...receded into the haze and patches of sea mist behind us.

 Soon we were paddling across Ettrick Bay on Bute towards Kildavanan Point near where we had set out just the previous day...

 ...only 30 hours previously. We each commented that it seemed we had been on our adventure for a much longer time. It was as if we had entered another time zone where time ran more slowly.

 As we looked out at Ardlamont Point on the right to distant Kintyre then to mountainous Arran and low lying Inchmarnock on the right, we realised that we had experienced true wilderness and an amazing variety of wildlife so very close to home. You do not need to travel to the far corners of the World to find adventure, it is much closer than you think. We didn't even paddle very far....

...we covered just 55km over the two days.


Postscript.
 Ian's wife arrived with a car to run the shuttle back to Rothesay to pick up Mike's car. While they were away I slowly carried the bags of our gear up the beach to near the road. When I finished, I sat down to enjoy, for the last time,  the wonderful panorama of where we had been during those 30 hours. Behind me the woodland and fields were alive with bird song.Cheeky chaffinches hopped round my feet looking for crumbs from my last biscuit and in the air high above a meadow pippit was descending slowly with its wonderful trilling song.

 Shortly afterwards Ian, his wife...

 ..and Mike arrived to load the kayaks onto the cars for the journey home.

While we were waiting at the ferry terminal Ian ran back to Zavaroni's to get some tubs of ice cream. I kept having to move round to get the photo of Ian with the cones in the background. Real men don't eat ice cream in cones!

We did not have long to wait for the ferry and soon we were leaving Rothesay (framed by the distant Arran mountains) behind in the wake of the ...

 ...MV Bute.

When we passed Toward lighthouse and could see the houses of Wemyss Bay, we knew our adventure was over.


Friday, May 16, 2014

A tale of a Queen, a Saint and a Lord on Inchmarnock.

Our voyage now took us north where we entered the sheltered Inchmarnock Sound which separates the lovely isle of Inchmarnock from the larger island of Bute. Inchmarnock means isle of St Marnock who was a seventh century Christian missionary ( he also had churches named after him at Kilmarnock or Cille Marnock and elsewhere  in Scotland). After his death, St Marnock's head was frequently carried in procession to ensure good weather for harvests etc. (I do hope he did not die from decapitation.) Long before Marnock's day it was also home to the Queen of the Inch. We planned to pass her burial spot later.

As we would now be paddling in sheltered coastal waters, we had ditched the dry suits and were now much more comfortable. The east coast of Inchmarnock is less rugged and more fertile than its wilder west coast. It is said that people suffering from alcohol problems from Bute were once marooned here as there was no pub on the island (as you will have  read previously, we made judicious provisioning and brought our own supplies).

 Soon we passed below the sad ruins of the deserted Mid Park farm buildings and...

 ...its still fertile fields. Although Inchmarnock has not had a resident population for many years, it was bought in 1999 by Robert Smith, the Rt. Hon. The Lord Smith of Kelvin, KT, Kt. He introduced a herd of pedigree highland cattle which are farmed organically.

A little north of Mid Park, we came to the new landing place, where the MV Marnock was moored. Lord Smith commissioned her from the Ardmaleish boatyard on the neighbouring island of Bute. Her main task is related to the island's farm. As I approached I heard a chif chaff's distinctive call. I was rather surprised to see it perched on one of the Marnock's aerials. Although you often hear chiff chaffs, you seldom see them in the open, they prefer to flit unseen through the leaf canopy in woodland.

 A little breeze got up and Mike and I put our sails up but Ian was not left behind as...

 ...it never reached the forecast force four.

All too soon we neared the north of the isle and spotted the remains of North Park farm above the yellow gorse bushes by the shore.

At the north end of Inchmarnock there is a large colony of common seals. They like to haul out near the shingle beach...
.... above which the 4,000 year old remains of...

...the Queen of the Inch were discovered in a stone cist. The above photo of the cist was taken in 2007 when the disinterred Queen's remains were being studied by archaeologists from Headland Archaeology. I contacted Inchmarnock Estate by email, asking for more information. Lord Smith himself  kindly phoned back and explained that he intended to have her remains re-interred on the island, which subsequently happened in 2010. I enjoyed a fascinating hour talking to Lord Smith about the history of Inchmarnock. He has a deep interest in the island and funded an archaeological dig by Headland Archaeology. Their results were published in 2008.

For the full StereoVision experience see Ian's account here.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

There is nothing in our club's constitution to prevent our members taking an early luncheon...

When we landed at Inchmarnock it was high water. Our temperatures were also high and we were so hot that we wasted no time in getting out of our hot dry suits.

Though Mike showed better judgement, Ian and I threw ourselves headlong into the inviting cool looking waters of the Sound of Bute. The air temperature may have been 18C but what I can tell you is that a water temperature of 7.5C is scarcely compatible with human metabolism and life. Ian and I staggered out of the icy waters after only a few seconds. After some time, we regained the power of speech and assured Mike that it had been wonderfully refreshing.

Fortunately there was no wind and the sun had warmed the pebbles on the beach. We warmed up nicely as we enjoyed our first luncheon. Ian and I are often quizzed on the difference between third breakfast and first luncheon. It is really very simple. As we had enjoyed a snifter of 15y old Dalmore with our meal, this was first luncheon. We are most abstemious and NEVER take liquor with breakfast of any description. It is the only rule in our little sea kayaking club. Of course, there is nothing in our club's constitution to prevent our members taking an early luncheon...

It was difficult to imagine anywhere in the World where we would rather be. There was not another soul, boat, ship or building in sight. The only sound was the occasional lapping of a wavelet on the shingle of the beach. We enjoyed a wonderful view over the Sound of Bute to the mountains of Arran beyond. All this yet I was only 50 kilometres from my home in Glasgow!

We savoured the environs of Inchmarnock for over am hour before we somewhat reluctantly took to the boats again and...

...paddled out of Inchmarnock's beautiful lagoon.

For the full StereoVision experience see Ian's account here.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Fog, Hercules, porpoise and greylag on the morning run to Inchmarnock.

We paddled round the north coast of  the Cock of Arran until our GPS showed the distance to our next waypoint on the isle of  Inchmarnock had stopped falling. 

We then set off on the second crossing of the day. The south end of Inchmarnock was 9km across the Sound of Bute but although the sky was clearing there was still fog at sea level and...

 ...there was not a sign of Inchmarnock on the horizon.

We set off on a compass bearing but shortly after leaving the coast of Arran the GPS showed the flood tide was drifting us to port so we continued on a ferry angle to starboard.

A roar of turboprop engines while we were mid-crossing announced the arrival of this RAF Hercules transport plane. They must have enjoyed a nice tour of the SW of Scotland as my wife saw it flying over the Solway Firth (125 km distant) a little earlier in the day.

 Just as the mist cleared allowing us to see Inchmarnock a solitary porpoise surfaced ahead of us.

At last the skies cleared revealing the...

 ...bright quartzite beach at the south end of Inchmarnock. The heat of the day was building and we had chosen to wear dry suits for the open crossings as the water temperature was only 7.5 degrees C and the wind had been forecast to get up to F4 southerly.The wind never appeared with the result was that we were boiled in the bag. The air temperature was 18C on the coast (24C inland) and it was the hottest day of the year so far.

As we approached the reefs of Inchmarnock a flight of greylag geese passed by. These large geese are not resident in the Clyde and migrate further north in the summer. It was the 29th of April and the other species of migratory geese had long since gone. The greylags do lag behind the other geese somewhat as they are always the last to leave in the spring.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Generations of geology students have swarmed over his unconformity on the way to the Cock of Arran,.

We made our way out of Loch Ranza and turned north along...

...the Newton shore where we chose to stop for second breakfast near the site of a considerable nonconformity.

Just below the wreck of this old boat (which has seen better days) lies an interesting geological feature,.It attracted the interest of the 18th century Scottish geologist James Hutton. He observed dipping old metamorphic rocks which were immediately overlain by gently sloping layers of much younger sedimentary rocks. There was no evidence of any intermediary rocks between the layers despite them being separated by 160 million years. Hutton used this unconformity to deduce that the underlying metamorphic rock had been created, metamorphosed, (altered by great forces) then uplifted and eroded before the later sedimentary rocks were overlain. Lastly, the two layers were then further uplifted then eroded to expose their junction on what is now Newton shore. He deduced from all this that the World was much older than had been previously thought.

Generations of geology students have followed Hutton to swarm all over his unconformity.

Leaving the unnconformity we passed the Fairy Glen on our way north.

This rock pippit was hopping between great...

...priapic boulders of conglomerate...

... which lay on the old red sandstone of the Cock of Arran.

For the full StereoVision experience read Ian's account here.