An misty crossing from Rum to Eigg

 It was mid morning by the time we were preparing to get back on the water after our brief look at Kinloch Castle.  We also chatted briefly to Sandy, who with his wife Fliss runs a small craft shop.  Sandy is also a master furniture maker, designing and constructing beautiful pieces from wood sourced on the island.  When we mentioned the Eigg B & B we'd be staying in he was able to tell us that he'd made the beds we'd be sleeping in - another nice coincidence!

The morning was very misty and calm as we paddled out of Loch Scresort and turned south down the coast of Rum.  Our timing was good - the ebb tide would be running our way and would give some assistance, though we'd need to take account of it during our crossing to Eigg later.

Near the mouth of Loch Scresort are some of the remains of a settlement at Port-na-Caranean; Rum was subject to Clearances as many parts of the Highlands and Islands were.  The population of the island in 1795 was recorded as 443 people; in 1800 the island was leased to one Lachlan MacLean of Coll who wanted to use the land to graze sheep.  By 1826 the population had been reduced to 50 people by forced clearance and the majority of these were removed by 1828.  MacLean diverted a couple of families of MacLeans who were themselves being cleared from Skye to act as shepherds.  The ruins here are the remains of the houses they built on the shore.

Initially these just looked like another "rickle o' stanes", but a closer look showed us that the site had been chosen with care.  Two sills of rock reached out from the shore and the beach between had been cleared of stones to make a boat "noust".  It's probable that this work predated the MacLean shepherds by hundreds, if not thousands of years and shows that sites were frequently re-used.  Heavy seas have moved stones back into the noust, but the site is clearly visible still.

The price of mutton fell dramatically in 1839 and MacLean sold the island to the Marquis of Salisbury in 1850, who reduced sheep numbers and vastly increased the numbers of deer in order to convert the island to a shooting estate.  Port-na-Caranean was abandoned in the same year, some of the people moved to Kinloch and others left the island altogether.  The population has ebbed and flowed since then with the fortunes of the sporting estate.  There was dramatic change after World War I, and under SNH ownership together with the Isle of Rum Community Trust the current population is a little less than 40.  The future seems good for the island and its people though - we mostly found folk optimistic about opportunities and the way forward for the community.

The east coast of Rum south of Loch Scresort has only a couple of landing opportunities.  We planned to land at the first of these, a small beach at Bagh na-h Uamh (bay of the caves) to have lunch prior to making the crossing to Eigg.

The sand on this beach was a warm buff colour from the underlying Torridonian sandstones.  Whilst we ate lunch, the mist came down further and we could no longer see the outline of Eigg across the 8 kilometre wide Sound of Rum.  We carefully watched two vessels of the Koninklikje Marine (Royal Netherlands Navy) which were moving south down the Sound at slow speed - we didn't wish to get in their way!

As the ships passed us we set out on the crossing, using a combination of compass bearings, GPS waypoints and observation to keep ourselves on track.  The beaches we were aiming for are the only landing places on the west side of Eigg - we wanted to make sure we arrived at the right spot.

As we crossed the Sound of Rum, the coast of Eigg slowly emerged from the mist.  It was very atmospheric and very quiet on the water, the only sounds really were our paddle strokes and conversation.  Once again we reflected on how fortunate we were to be able to make this journey.

Behind us, the island of Rum disappeared into the mist.  We'd had two fantastic days paddling some of the coast and exploring a little of the island - and we know that we'll return soon.

Up to the north, the tip of Eigg was catching some sunlight through a hole on the banks of mist.

Whilst ahead of us the line of surf showed that we were right on track to land at the beautiful silver sands of Camas Sgiotaig.  We had arrived on Eigg!

Return to a Rum retreat

I took no photographs at all on our crossing of the Sound of Canna from the west end of Sanday, around the south of Sandy and across the open water to the north tip of Rum.  Douglas took one image just as we left Sanday and it shows the swells beginning to build up - and this was some 3.5km from the main tidal race.

As soon as we left the shelter of the bay we'd camped in we were exposed to an Atlantic swell and a good deal of clapotis generated by the swell crashing onto the south coast of Sanday.  We moved out into more open water and kept close together, if we got separated it would have been easy for us to lose sight of each other.

Initially the wind blown chop was the dominant sea condition, but fairly soon we moved into the main tidal race which was pushing  eastward.  Though in its final third this was still quite strong, and was maginfying the big swells coming in from the open ocean.  these swells were being further compressed as they were funnelled into the Sound and we were very aware of their increasing size.

Several times we backed off the crests of these swells as they threatened to become rollers - but they rarely actually broke.  After about an hour of these conditions, which could fairly described as "having our full attention" we passed out of the narrower part of the Sound of Canna and the swell and tidal movement gradually subsided, allowing us to use the now much more manageable swells to push us towards the tip of Rum.

Exposure to the weather is a feature of the Small Isles, any trip here is at the mercy of the conditions.  We'd hoped to have paddled right around Canna and to have journeyed down the west coast of Rum; neither of those would have been prudent (or enjoyable) in the heavy swell and gusty wind.  Here, the flexibility of our plans served us well.


Turning the cornerat the north tip of Rum was to enter another world......

Entirely sheltered from both wind and swell, the east coast of Rum was glassy calm.  The mist and low cloud hid the view of Skye completely.

We landed back at the beautiful bay of Samhan Insir for first luncheon and a small measure of Golden Steadying Liquid.  Although today wasn't a sunny day like the previous day when the breathtaking colours of this beach were fairly zinging.....

There was still plenty to admire....

In the intricate patterns of water on the sand.

Suitably fed and watered, we mad our way down the coast to Loch Scresort.  Here too it was glassy calm; we could clearly hear voices over a couple of kilometres of water.  We shuddered to think what the midges would have been like on a still, overcast evening like this had it been summer!

Our accommodation for the night would be somewhat different from the tents of the previous night!