One good thing - 22nd May 2020

In a bank shaded by a large Copper Beech tree at the edge of the garden, a clump of English Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) have flowered - the second year they've done so after we transplanted a few bulbs some years ago.

These lovely flowers, when seen in large numbers, give a violet glow to woodlands which is actually quite difficult to depict accurately on camera.  they are associated with ancient woodland and can be a good indication of where a woodland once was - good examples are found at Eilean Fhianan in Loch Shiel and Ailsa Craig in the middle of the Firth of Clyde.  In late spring and early summer Ailsa Craig's slopes are carpeted in violet blue - as shown on the visit Douglas made in 2012

Theft from St Finan's Isle

There was a sad postscript to our latest trip on Loch Shiel.  On our April visit to Eilean Fhianain (St Finan's Isle) we climbed to the ruined chapel to see the stone cross and the remarkable bell, cast in seamless bronze, which has been here since around 1100.  A visit to the island has been a highlight of all our trips on Loch Shiel.

In July the Moidart History group discovered that the bell had been removed - stolen - using a bolt cutter to cut the chain sometime between the end of June and early July; the story is reported here.  The thief or thieves must also have had a boat to access the island.

The bell has been recorded as stolen just once previously when a soldier looted it in the chaos following the 1745 uprising.  On that occasion the soldier was flogged and the bell returned.  While flogging is probably not going to happen these days, it might be hoped that somebody would have a search of their conscience and return the bell, which has great cultural value but limited financial value.

We live in sad times.

The stones and bell of St Finans Isle

We wouldn't dream of making a journey on Loch Shiel and not visiting st Finan's Isle.  The island is named for Finan, a saint of the early Celtic church who was also known as "Finan the Leper" from the disease which afflicted him.  Details of his life aren't completely clear but he is believed to have followed Columba from Ireland and became Abbot of the monastery he established on this small island.  He lived from around 520-600AD and is thought to have died at Clonmore in his native Ireland.

The location of the monastery may seem withdrawn and remote to the modern mind, but in Finan's time waterways were the main method of travel and this island was on a main travel route.  Finan is believed to have carried Christianity into much of Argyllshire and further afield, apart from the nearby Glenfinnan and Kilfinnan his name crops up in places such as St Finzean's Fair in Perth and Finzean in distant Aberdeenshire.  The names of these early pioneers from the Celtic church reach out across what were the Pictish kingdoms as he church made a determined effort to convert the Picts.

The island has been in use as a holy place down 1200 years, firstly as a monastery and then as a graveyard - use which continues to the present day.

One of the most prominent monuments on the island is a celtic cross commemorating the Rev Charles McDonald, priest of the diocese of Argyll and the Isles.  The stonework is really fine (some closer views of this side of the stone are here)......

......and the reverse side of the column is hardly plain.

The oldest of the grave markers are grouped together near to the summit of the domed island, simple slabs of stone, some of which my have borne inscriptions.

Occupying the only flat ground near the top is the ruined stone buildings which succeeded the timber and thatch of the earlier monastery buildings.  It's a simple enough complex of two stone buildings, one of which was a chapel, but there are remarkable artefacts here.

In an alcove at the end of the chapel is a very old cross with a crucifixion image on it.  Worn and weathered, it exudes age.  A wooden boat shaped vessel at the foot of the cross often has coins left on it - today there was the stump of a votive candle.  This cross alone would be an important artefact...but it's what is on the alter stone next to it which makes this such a special site.

This hand bell is cast in seamless bronze and was produced in the 10th century.  For 1100 years it has been here, surviving Viking raids, countless wars and local feuds and the upheavals within both church and state in the intervening period.

Almost anywhere else this might have been removed by theft or taken away to a museum many miles away....but it's still here, secured by a chain to the altar it has been associated with for all the centuries......just remarkable and quite uplifting.  Of course, there's a curse associated with it; whoever would remove it would have a very short and painful existence awaiting them!  Astonishingly, this 1100 year old bell rings as clear and true as the day it was cast and finished....as we can confirm having rung it on a previous visit.....how many modern products will still be fully functional in a century's time?!

As with each visit we make to this special place, we left the chapel with a sense of calm and thoughtfulness. 

Descending around the summit area, one of the older grave slabs bears a vivid representation of mortality - our forebears were somewhat more pragmatic about such things it seems.

Heading back to our boats the path goes through a group of stones which look really old but are believed to date from the 18th century....quite late in the history of this place.  They certainly are a good fit here though.

A little way above the jetty is (to my knowledge) the only war grave on St Finan's Isle.  The stone commemorates Deckhand Dugald Grant, son of Peter Grant of Dalilea, Glenfinnan, who died whilst serving in HMS Vernon, the Royal Navy's torpedo and mine warfare school in Portsmouth.  The record on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website is, as so often, both poignant and fascinating. 

We returned to our boats, each of us with our own thoughts and memories of Eilean Fhianain, for all of us it remains a compelling place to visit.  For now though, our thoughts turned from the past to the future - it was time to get back onto the water.

The colours of St Finan's Isle

We enjoyed a relaxed evening on the shore of Loch Shiel, talking late into a clear evening.  There was a cover of high cloud when we emerged from the tents which merged into mist towards the head of the loch.

Breakfasts of various types were prepared, tents taken down and boats repacked.  We were in no particular hurry but soon enough were getting back on the water.

Not far from our camp site the loch narrows and takes a twist; the water is here between the moraines of the glacier which carved out Loch Shiel.  The shoreline on the north side is used as rough grazing for sheep and cattle, the south shore is quite rocky and forested with spruce.  Gorse was in full bloom, making for a colourful backdrop

As we passed through the narrow twist of the loch a view opened up to Eilean Fhianain (St Finan's Isle).  We wouldn't dream of doing a trip on Loch Shiel and not visiting this fascinating island, so full of interest and history.  You'll notice that in this image it appears greener than the surrounding hills - seen with the eye this is even more marked and the island is a green jewel among the highland scenery.

We landed on a narrow strip of shingle near to the pier on the island to spend some time exploring.  If landing here, it's worth knowing that this little strip of shingle drops very steeply into deeper water really close to the shoreline and can make for an awkward landing if the water level is low.  There's something quite pleasing about the colourful sight of a group of kayaks on a beach!

We left our sails rigged as the breeze was both light and onshore.  All of our small flotilla were rigged with Flat Earth sea kayak sails made in Australia, and we noticed that there was almost a full range of Mick MacRobb's production designs, two versions of the Code Zero, a Tradewind .80, a Footloose .80 and an early prototype sail are all represented in this image.  If you haven't yet tried sea kayak sailing, we can all vouch for how much fun there is to be had!

Our boats weren't the only splashes of colour on the shore of St Finan's Isle - the bright yellow stars of Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna) flowers studded the grassy shore......

.....while the whole of the steep west slope of the island was carpeted in a mist of Common Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) which were just coming into full bloom - a wonderful sight. 

Stones, bones and clear tones on the island of Finan the Leper

We were up and about early at our camp on the shore of Loch Shiel, the cool air of post dawn a reminder that the season was turning.  It was cool rather than cold though and there was no sense of needing to get moving to warm up.

 The morning sun was beginning to rise above the hills on the east shore of the loch as we finished packing, though our beach remained in deep shade. 

 By the time we were about ready the morning clouds were beginning to burn off....

 ....and it looked set to be a fine autumn day. 

 After a short distance we came to the narrow twist which marks the end of Loch Shiel proper, and a distinct change in scenery.  We'd been journeying through rugged and wild mountain scenery, ahead lay lower ground with wider views towards the sea.  The narrow bend as the loch finds its way from the mountains is almost blocked by a small island - the terminal moraine of the glacier which ground out Loch Shiel.

Eilean Fhianain (Finan's Island) may be small and unspectacular from a distance, but it has a wealth of interest and history and there was no way we were going to pass by without exploring a little of it.  Finan was an early Celtic saint who is believed to have lived from around 520 to 600AD.  Details of his life are uncertain but he seems to have followed Columba from Ireland and became Abbot of a small monastery on the island now named after him.  He is believed to have evangelised much of Argyllshire, but considering that his name crops up all over Scotland - as well as the obvious Glenfinnan and Kilfinnan, there is a St Finzean's Fair in Perth and a Finzean as far away as Aberdeenshire, he must have travelled extensively

Known as "Finan the Leper" from the disease which afflicted him, he seems to have favoured small islands on lochs; he is also recorded as the founder of at Inisfallen on Lough Leane in Ireland's County Kerry.  Finan died, it is thought, at Clonmore in his native Ireland.

 We'd visited Eilean Fhianain on our winter trip in 2014 and found it to be a gem of a place.  That visit had been made in brilliant sunshine, this one in quite different lighting, but the place still had an air of peace.  We passed the gravestones which appear very old but in fact are probably 18th century......

 ....and stopped to admire the cross commemorating Rev Charles McDonald, priest of the diocese of Argyll and the Isles.  I hadn't noticed on our previous visit, but many of the trees on the island are Rowans, the tree of protection. 

 The sides of the column bear fine sculptures in the distinctive Celtic style, and there's a clear difference between the weathering on the western side of the cross which faces the prevailing weather.....

 ....and those on the more sheltered eastern face, these tail-chasing beasts and intertwined snakes are still in sharp relief. 

Note: Our friend Leif  has pointed out that the bodies of the snakes seem to form the letters "V" and "M" - it would be fascinating to know whether this was deliberate or a coincidence of pattern; and if deliberate what the letters represent.

 The ruined chapel near to the highest point of the island has an intact altar slab, behind which a very old stone cross occupies the niche, and a wooden boat-shaped object upon which small offerings of coins had been left.  A rummage in our pockets produced some coins to add to the amount.

But it is the bell which captures the imagination -  seamlessly cast in bronze, it has lain here for almost eleven centuries.  It takes a moment for that to sink in....produced in the 10th century, it has survived all the long tumult of history intact.  Nowadays secured by a small chain, one can clearly see the marks on the altar slab where the bell has rested.

Not only is the bell still intact, it remains fully functional -  Douglas' video of it being rung catches the clear tone.

 If St Finan's bell is the jewel of the island, nature has provided a few of her own.  It's amazing how often the walls of ruined churches are studded with the blue flowers of Ivy-leaved Toadflax (Cymbalaria muralis), here growing intertwined with a fern.

We continued over the island from the ruined chapel and Lorna found a remarkable grave-slab half concealed below the grass.   We cleared the grass a little to find......

 ...a very definite image of mortality carved in stone.  It seems that our predecessors were altogether less reticent about portraying death in this way - it's a fascinating grave if a little startling to the modern eye.

 As we made our way back to the boats we passed a much more recent grave, well tended and laid with flowers, backed with a bush fired with intense autumn colour.

This small island had proved well worth a second exploration - and on future visits we'll stop here again without doubt.

We got back on the water as a breeze sprang up, clearing the cloud quickly.  The mountains lay behind us, and ahead lay a river and the sea.....

An echo down the centuries from Eilean Fhianain

We took a last look back up Loch Shiel before we turned the corner at Camas Drollaman.  From this point the mountains which hem in the upper loch so closely and give it a fjord character begin to fall back and gradually there is a more open character to the scenery.  To have experienced the loch in such still conditions for two days was a rare treat and we wondered whether we could ever match these two days on future visits to Loch Shiel.

On the low grassy ground near the very point of Camas Drollaman we came across this Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula).  A member of the Plover family and related to Lapwings, these dapper little waders are beginning to breed on more inland sites in addition to their more usual sites on sand and shingle seashore.

The UK breeding population of Ringed Plovers may be less than 6000 pairs, though numbers are boosted in the winter to about six times this figure with birds from Greenland and Canada.  I'm taking a guess that this this particular bird is a resident as it was in breeding plumage; the easiest way to tell the difference is that the bill turns from black in winter to bright yellow-orange with a black tip.

Ringed Plovers lay their beautifully marked eggs in a shallow scrape in sand or gravel.  If the nest site is approached by a predator (or a sea kayaker), the adult will try to lure away the threat by feigning a broken wing. If encountering this display, it's wise to keep a very close watch on where you put your feet as the eggs are so well camouflaged.  Seeing this display in Spring and early Summer on a beach at you intend to camp should be a cue to move on somewhere else to avoid disturbing the birds.  Mike, Douglas and I had last seen nesting Ringed Plovers on Arran in the previous summer and on that occasion had stayed well below the tideline during our second breakfast in order to avoid disturbance.

After paddling around Eilean Camas Drollaman, a wooded island which has evidence of a "bloomery" once used to smelt iron, we headed for the narrow twist of the loch containing Eilean Fhianain (Finan's Island).  We landed next to the small stone jetty, which wasn't the easiest landing due to the water deepening quite quickly immediately off the shore.

Finan was an early Celtic saint who is believed to have lived from around 520 to 600AD.  Details of his life are sketchy but he seems to have followed Columba from Ireland and became Abbot of a small monastery on the island now named after him, but which is also known as the Green Island.  He is believed to have evangelised much of Argyllshire, but considering that his name crops up all over Scotland - as well as the obvious Glenfinnan and Kilfinnan, there is a St Finzean's Fair in Perth and a Finzean as far away as Aberdeenshire, he must have travelled extensively

Known as "Finan the Leper" from the disease which afflicted him, he appears to have favoured small islands on lochs; he is also recorded as the founder of at Inisfallen on Lough Leane in Ireland's County Kerry.  Finan died, it is thought, at Clonmore in his native Ireland.

I've often thought that the early Celtic churchmen knew a good spot when they saw one, and the island which Finan chose as his base is certainly that.  A grassy green hump formed of glacial sand and till, it sits away from the shadow of the high hills and has great a view up Loch Shiel and down to the sea at Moidart.  Crucially for the purposes of the early church it sat in a prominent position on the sea and land routes through Argyll, Sunart and Moidart.

The first of the daffodils were opening on the sunny slopes as we climbed up to explore Finan's island, a splash of bright yellow against the late winter colours elsewhere.

The top of the island is largely given over to a burial ground; some of the graveslabs here are very old, probably early mediaeval, but though some of this group of crosses appear very old they date from the 18th century.  The island was a traditional burial place for the chiefs of Moidart, indeed it may have already been in use as a burial place when Finan arrived in the 6th century.  The island is still used as a place to commemorate the dead, we saw several recent stones marking the interment of ashes - a continuity of use which would surely please Finan the Leper.

A very fine Celtic cross monument stands in a prominent spot overlooking lower Loch Shiel, commemorating  a Reverend Charles MacDonald, priest of the diocese of Argyll and the Isles who also wrote a history of Moidart and of Clanranald.

The stonework on the monument is very fine indeed with celtic motifs, designs and a range of tail-casing animals.

The ruins of a stone chapel sit in a small hollow high on the island, dating from about the 16th century.  It was the centre of worship for those of the Catholic faith but fell into disuse in the 1700's, possibly in the bloody aftermath of the 1745 rebellion.  The visible ruins themselves replaced a wooden chapel which was probably built by Allan MacRuari, a chieftain of Clanranald who had a distinctly violent reputation.

But predating even this is a remarkable artifact - and one which you might reasonably expect to find in a glass case in a musem rather than exposed to the elements in this place.

On the roughly formed altar slab, sitting next to a weathered stone cross is a bronze bell which dates from the 10th century.  It takes a moment for the significance of the thing to sink in - a seamless bronze hand-bell which is in excess of 1000 years old on a small island in Loch Shiel.....

It has survived the ravages of time, of the vikings and all the tumult of the years since to remain intact on the altar here, secured with a small chain.  There are of course stories telling of the curse which will befall any person removing the bell which must have been persuasive enough for the authorities to leave it in place.

We can vouch for the fact that the bell is fully functional, an experimental ring brought a clear tone which echoed back in the still morning air and caused deer over a kilometre away on the mainland to raise their heads - it's an echo which has been heard here down ten centuries.

Eilean Fhianain is a real gem of a place and very well worth a visit.  We spent an hour or so exploring the island and its history before returning to the jetty to make coffee prior to setting out again on our route to the sea.   To have simply paddled past, intent on racking up distance would have been a great shame, one of the advantages of paddling with like-minded friends is that small explorations such as this are a real highlight of the journey as a whole.

From Eilean Fhianain we would paddle the shallow lower part of Loch Shiel and we now started to think ahead to our transition from fresh to salt water.