Category: Scotland
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Dùn Bheolain
I find walking along the western seaboard of Scotland extremely exhilerating. More so that bagging summits in the clag. This is from Rubha Lamanais or Smaull point, just north of Saligo on Islay. It offer superb views of a trio of sharks teeth peaks, sometimes called Smaull Rocks or sometimes Opera Rocks. The latter must…
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Caolas nan Gall
Portnahaven and Port Wemyss are two fishing villages on the south-western tip of the island of Islay. They are protected from the Atlantic rollers by the islands of Orsay and Eilean an Mhic Coinnich. We arrived on a falling tide, with waves breaking in the Caolas nan Gall, the narrows which separates the islands, and…
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Sound of Islay
A breezy crossing over to Islay. The hypnotic movement of the wake. The Sound of Islay is the 20 mile long narrows between the islands of Jura and Islay. With its 5 knot tides it has a notorious reputation, the graveyard of many shipwrecks, particularly around Glas Eilean, that small skerry in the left distance…
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Port na Cùile
Or where are all the Basking sharks? A report in The Scotsman on the 18th May 1939 tells of “a great migration of basking sharks into the Firth of Clyde [having taken] place in the past few days“. Large schools of sharks had been “seen passing into the Firth through the Sound of Sanda, at…
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Saddell Castle
Saddell Castle was built in the early sixteenth century for the Bishop of Argyll. In one of the pillars of its gate are indentations which Kintyre tradition claims are the finger-and thumbprints of the Devil. The story goes that the Laird of Saddell mischievously wagered a village tailor to spend a night in the graveyard…
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Mull of Kintyre lighthouse
The road to the Mull of Kintyre is long and tortuous, finishing at a small public car park about 350m above sea level with super views across the North Channel to County Antrim in Northern Island. It’s easy to overlook how short a distance this is; up to the 1840s ferry boats plied the crossing,…
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Carradale Point
A Brobdingnagian finger pointing due south into the Kilbrannon Sound. The headland is protected by a jungle of rhododendron and populated by feral goats. A narrow dyke of igneous microgabbro 23 to 66 million years old runs down the centreline of the isthmus but the dominant rock is much, much older, heavily banded Schist, folded…
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Skipness Castle
A spur of the moment to turn right after leaving the Lochranza to Cloanaig ferry brought us to Skipness Castle. We could tell from the map there was a castle but hadn’t expected this gem. And another one probably built by Dubhghall mac Suibhne — of the MacSween clan — who also built Lochranza castle,…
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Stacach, Goatfell
The ridge connecting Goatfell with its subsidary top, North Goatfell. Momentarily cleared in the swirling mists. Goatfell, at 874m, is Arran’s highest peak; North Goatfell is 818m high. The main route up Goatfell is a well-graded trail, and very popular, almost a pilgrimage. The Stacach ridge is a bit more serious. Goatfell has a third…
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Lochranza Castle
Standing on a grassy spit of sand and shingle in the middle of Loch Ranza looking out to sea, the castle is in a pretty ruinious state. The aspect is rather spoilt by ugly industrial fencing intended to keep the unwary out. The original castle was built in the 13th-century by the Lords of Knapdale,…