Stacks of colour at Rubha Reidh

The point and lighthouse at Rubha Reidh marked the extent of our outward journey on this superlative summer day.  We turned and headed back around the point, pausing to investigate the tiny jetty at Port an Amaill which was used to supply the light with paraffin and stores for many years - the narrow, twisting road from Melvaig to Rubha Reidh was only completed in 1962.

Seen from the west the stacks are even more impressive than our initial view from the east as they stand out from the cliffs.  It's a great place to explore with a sea kayak and one can paddle in and around the narrow channels at the base of each stack - so we did!

A last run between tow of the larger stacks in perfect conditions brought us back out to the eastern side....

...and back out into the riot of colour in the bay of Camas Mor.  I'd rate this pace, in these conditions, as one of the best places I've ever explored by kayak - just superb.

Image by Allan McCourt

We took turns to pose in our boats for photographs, seemingly suspended on brilliant aquamarine water which would grace a tropical island.

After spending time just absorbing the intensity of the colours we headed in to a small beach we'd spotted on our outward leg.  If Camas Mor is difficult of access on foot, then this beach takes it to another level.  At spring tide high water it will pretty much disappear and is guarded by rocks and reefs, but if you make it here, and it's possible to land, we recommend that you do so.....

 ....we promise you won't be disappointed!  An utterly superb beach, surrounded by dramatic rock architecture and lapped by a sea of stunningly intense colour; it's a great place.

Smooth headland, smooth going

We left Camas Mor with some reluctance, it's a lovely spot and one that's usually difficult to land on.  Ahead of us the sea shaded from aquamarine to indigo and every shade of aqua blue in between.  The cliffs are high here and we began to pick out the stacks near to our destination.

A glimpse of another strip of pale golden sand caught our attention - and if Camas Mor is difficult of access then this beach takes it to another level.  Backed by rugged, loose cliffs it would be a tricky scramble down and back.  The scale of the place is put in perspective by the group of walkers on the skyline near the lowest cliffs......

We were now paddling in emerald green water - an indication of some depth over a sandy seabed.  The sandstone stacks rose up in front of us, intricate and challenging.

When we came to shallower water the sea colour changed again - bright turquoise alternating with a deep green where patches of laminaria weed grow from the seabed......

...while behind us the emerald green was stunning - flashes of light darting across the seabed as the bright sunshine was refracted off the ripples on the surface.

As if this couldn't get any better, the colour of the water intensified close to the stacks, which added their own warm red shade to provide contrast.

Against an intensely blue summer sky, the contrast of the sandstone's red was startling.

 Suddenly, we were past the stacks and the height of the land fell quickly to Rubh Reidh (the smooth headland).  Rubh Reidh is named for the appearance of the sloping slabs.  These are of a different type of sandstone, termed autoclastic (made of itself) and are understood to have been sediments broken and tilted 30 degrees to the northwest, possibly by earthquakes.

Across the headland, Rubh Reidh lighthouse stands tall and distinct, visible from many miles up and down this northern coast.  Built by David Alan Stevenson between 1908 and 1912, the tower stands 25 metres tall (37 metres above the sea) and shows four white flashes every fifteen seconds.  I've travelled this coast in large vessels and the intricate chain of lights is perfect, each distinct and in just the right place - one of the great engineering and navigational feats.

To be here, at the Smooth Headland, in smooth conditions was a real treat.  I've walked to the light and tried three previous times by sea kayak to turn this point; each time conditions were too big for me.  the tide sweeps around at 3 knots, it's absolutely exposed and despite it's lack of height is described in yachtsman's pilot books and the sea kayak guide to the north west as "the most dramatic and challenging of the Wester Ross headlands".  We felt pretty lucky!

Springtime on the Moray coast

Spring has arrived in the north of Scotland. After a long and more "normal" winter, the weather is warming as the days lengthen, though there will no doubt be the customary colder spells punctuating the progress towards summer. On two consecutive weekends we headed up to the Moray Firth coast......

Firstly on a day of brilliant warm sunshine, the first properly warm day of the year.  The dark soils of the coastal fields were "smoking" as they absorbed the sun's warmth, giving off their moisture into cool morning air. 

The soundtrack to our walk between Portgordon and Spey Bay was cascading torrents of song from numerous Skylarks. We were treated to really close encounters as the birds took off from close by and climbed into the air, trailing their gorgeous song behind them - "larks ascending" indeed.

On the return leg we kept close to the long pebble beach which forms much of this stretch of coast.  The millions of tons of pebbles are regularly re-arranged by storms and there's usually dumping surf along the whole length of the beach as the waves run up to the steep berm.  This morning things were relatively calm, particularly at a lower state of tide.  Out to sea, great banks of haar drifted in and out, formed by the mix of warming air over a cold sea.

The following weekend we returned to the Moray coast, this time I took a kayak - and since a lively but steady easterly breeze was forecast, a Flat Earth sail.  Heading out from Lossiemouth, the first leg took me out to Halliman Skerries, a reef which is submerged above half tide, marked by a lattice tower.  The sea conditions out in the shallow waters around the skerry were decidedly bouncy with some wind over tide too - there are no photographs from that section!

Turning downwind, I enjoyed a fast run along the shore, maintaining a steady 10 km/h with some faster bursts in a decent breeze.

In no time at all I was approaching Covesea lighthouse, sadly no longer in use as a working light.  On the shore nearby are some of the concrete blocks placed during World War 2 to prevent amphibious invasion on the beaches here.

I made my own amphibious landing some way along the shore in an angle of the beach protected from the swell by a rocky spit.  It was a beautiful day and I was able to sit and relax in the warm sunshine with a flask of tea and some lunch.

There were plenty of folk out enjoying the beach and the spring weather.  The air was crystal clear and the colours seemed to be very vibrant.

Continuing west, I landed again near to the two-legged stack which is a prominent feature on this part of the shore.  I was surprised to see that most of the pebbles have been scoured from the beach around the stack, perhaps moved in the winter storms.

A last look back along the shore to Covesea lighthouse before turning into Clashach cove - a sparkling blue sea fringed with brilliant white surf - the North Sea is often dismissed as grey.......

The creeler "Calypso" has been up on the rocks here since 30th April 2017 when she lost power while lifting pots close to shore - fortunately her owner was able to get off safely.  I was mildly surprised that she hasn't yet been washed off the rocky shelf or completely broken up by big waves.

In Clashach Cove just west of Hopeman there are a number of superb caves cut into the honey coloured sandstone, well worth exploring.  Today, though this image appears calm, there was a fair swell running in and out and I didn't venture into any of them.  All too soon I was turning into the sandy beach inside the harbour to end a great few hours on the water.

It had been really good to have some warm sunshine - and it really feels that Spring has arrived.  Lambs are everywhere and on the 21st April we heard the first Willow Warbler as the summer visitors begin arriving.  We enjoyed an ice cream from the harbour shop to round off a day by the seaside in traditional style....Spring may be here, but as the Hopeman weather forecasting station reminded us - we don't really have a "climate" in Scotland, we have "weather"!

Arriving in Campbeltown with a bang

The weather pattern across Scotland in late July 2016 was unsettled with periods of dry weather and strong winds punctuated with short periods of complete calm accompanied by heavy rain. With the pattern seeming set to continue, Douglas and I looked to try and make the most of it by doing a trip which would start in the rain but then get some of the bright and breezy weather, but at the same time maximise shelter from the strongest of the wind.

On the afternoon of 24th July we arrived at Ardrossan ferry terminal in good time to catch the 1350 Sunday sailing to Campbeltown.  The three times a week Campbeltown service runs from the end of April to the end of September and has this year been put on a more permanent footing after a period running as a pilot scheme.  Aside from the advantage to both local businesses and car visitors to the Kintyre peninsula (access by road involves a very long journey) the ferry opens up great opportunities for cyclists and sea kayakers to start or finish trips - both bikes and kayaks travel free on Calmac services and users pay the pedestrian fare.

Our plan was to journey up the sheltered eastern side of the Kintyre peninsula, then cross to Arran to paddle around the north of the island and down to Brodick to catch a ferry back to Ardrossan.  We planned a relaxed pace with plenty of time to explore and had packed sufficient food for three nights wild camping.

Having packed our boats in heavy rain we were glad to be able to wheel them down into the vehicle deck of the "Isle of Arran" and head up to the to take luncheon in the cafeteria, both of us opting for the excellent fish and chips.  Boat trolleys are pretty much essential for using ferries, it just wouldn't be practical to try and carry loaded boats on and off the vehicle decks. Our KCS Expedition trolleys are tough and stable and can be dismantled easily to fit in a bag on the rear deck when the kayak is full with kit and food.

After lunch we went out on deck to find that although the heavy rain had stopped, the breeze had died too and the island of Arran was draped with very low cloud.  The occasional glimpse of blue sky gradually disappeared as we passed south of Arran and arrived in Campbeltown......

...where the rain resumed very heavily almost as soon as we wheeled our boats off the ferry.  As we stowed the trolleys onto the boats and prepared to get on the water there was an intense flash of lightning followed almost instantly by an enormous thunderclap, which had definitely not been forecast.  We appeared to have arrived in Campbeltown with a bang, and given that we both had carbon paddles and aluminium kayak sail masts we elected to wait awhile before getting underway; we had no desire to leave our earthly existence with a similar bang!

While waiting we watched a huge and very heavy section of a wind turbine being discharged from the cargo ship "BBC Holland" the weight of the section being loaded to a heavy truck obvious as the ship heeled a couple of degrees.  Ships which have large deck cranes to discharge and load cargo are particularly suited to harbours such as Campbeltown where there are no port cranes.

The turbine section left on a low-loader accompanied by a police escort bound for one of the large windfarms which are proliferating on the Kintyre peninsula.  As there hadn't been any more lightning flashes after the impressive single discharge some 30 minutes previously, we judged that it would be good to leave too.....

...and headed out of the harbour past the fishing pier.  The rain continued heavy and the scene was fairly grey and grim for a July afternoon!

As we left Campbeltown the rain eased to leave flat calm water and a cloudbase less than a hundred metres above the sea.

In these low light conditions any bright colour seemed intensified - while certainly not the ideal "summer" afternoon there was beauty in the scene as well as absolute pleasure in being out on the water at the start of another trip.

Campbeltown Loch is sheltered by Island Davaar, not a true island as it is connected to the shore by a shingle spit at low water.  At the steep north end of the island is Davaar lighthouse, built under the supervision of David and Thomas Stevenson in 1854, the light is a double white flash once every 10 seconds and visible for 23 nautical miles.

As we came level with the lighthouse our route turned north to head north up the coast of Kintyre into Kilbrannan Sound.  Our pace was leisurely - we had just over 15km to paddle and plenty of daylight in which to reach our planned camp site.

Thunder and light

After an extended luncheon stop at Balfour's Bay on Erraid we got back into the boats to continue along the south coast of the Ross of Mull.  We had no specific goal in mind, just to explore the coast and then turn around to head back to Fidden.  If you visit this bay on a sunny day such this - you'll find it a hard spot to leave!

As we headed east along the rocky shore there were intruiging glimpses into other small sandy bays - it's a stretch of coast where many hours can be spent; short paddles between stunning beaches.

Donald went ahead in his F-RIB, intending to visit a couple of the larger skerries which form the inner part of the Torran Rocks.

As we followed at a slower pace, Douglas and I spotted a familiar silhouette through the haze on the horizon.....

 ...beyond the skerries and the low-lying shape of Colonsay rose the unmistakeable outline of the Paps of Jura. Our memories of a superb Spring trip to Jura still were still fresh - a place I'm very keen to return to!

In the foreground are some of the innermost skerries of the Torran Rocks.  This scattered group of rocks, islets and reefs lies to the south of the Ross of Mull to an extent of some 25 square kilometres.  They're well named - Torran is "Thunder" in Gaelic and a hint of the nature of the reef system can be found in some of the individual rock names such as "MacPhail's Anvil".  The largest of the rocks are up to 10 metres above high water but many are hidden and for every rock and hazard which shows above the surface there's as much shoal water below.  Hamish Haswell-Smith, in his indispensable guide "The Scottish Islands" describes the Torran Rocks as "scattered over a wide area like dragon's teeth.  They lurk menacingly just below the surface, occasionally showing themselves in a froth of white spittle".

Part of the reason that the Torrans are such a hazard to shipping is that they lie right in the track of vessels heading to and from the Firth of Lorn and up and down the west coast of Mull, as can be seen from this large scale map.   It was in response to the mounting toll of shipwrecks in the 19th century that the Northern Lighthouse Board authorised Thomas Stevenson to build the Dubh Artach light, one of the great "sea lights", it bridges the gap between the lighthouses at Rhinns of Islay and Skerryvore.

There is a passage between the Torran Rocks and the Ross of Mull, normally used by smaller vessels.  Coming up over our right shoulders, a rather larger vessel was rapidly overhauling us.....

 ..she's the Northern Lighthouse Board's tender "Pharos", one of two large vessels operated by the NLB.  She's 84 metres long with a beam of 16.5 metres, but a shallow draught of just 4.5 metres which enables her to operate close inshore.  We figured that if any vessel would have knowledge of the intricacies of the coastal routes around Scotland, it would be "Pharos"!

 We next came to Eilean a' Chalmain (Dove island), a rocky place where we found this rock formation resembling a frozen wave.

 Hidden on the east side of the island, Douglas knew of a possible landing place, and sure enough a flash of white sand backed with grass was tucked into in a corner of the island.

 At first the landing appeared to be blocked by boulders.......

 ...... but we found a strip of sand just large enough for us all to land and stretch our legs.

We now decided to head a little further along the coast to visit one of the two beaches named "Traigh Geal" (white beach) - there's always time on a  sunny day for another beach!  As we left Eilean a' Chalmain though, the sky to the north told of a coming change in the weather as a cloud-sheet reached across the Ross of Mull towards us.  Perhaps our luck with the sunshine had run out....

Light lunch at David Balfour's Bay

 This beautiful bay at the south of Erraid is marked on Ordnance Survey maps as Traigh Gheal (White Beach), but is better known as "David Balfour's Bay" after the principal character in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "Kidnapped".

Robert Louis Stevenson (RLS) was born in 1850 into a famous dynasty of lighthouse builders.  His father Thomas was one of three brothers active in the Stevenson firm at the time - Alan had completed the Skerryvore lighthouse southwest of Tiree in 1844, considered by many to be the most graceful and technically perfect lighthouse anywhere in the world.  In 1867 Thomas and another brother David were joint Engineers to the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) and were appointed to oversee construction of a tower light on the Dubh Heartach (now spelled Dubh Artach) rocks, along with the Engineer who would supervise most of the actual construction, Alan Brebner.

Dubh Artach is a boss of black basalt at the outer edge of an extensive reef system which includes the Torran (Thunder) rocks which extend out from the Ross of Mull for many miles.  As can be seen in this large scale map, the rocks lie right in the track of vessels heading to and from the Firth of Lorne and heading from the Atlantic to the North Channel for the ports of the Clyde and the Mersey.  Erraid was chosen as the shore base and the quarry for Dubh Artach, the granite was of excellent quality and there was a shelter for the shore works.  A small village and port was established to load the cut stones, the Stevenson "template" was to try out the precise fit of each interlocking stone (which weighed several tons each) prior to shipping out to the rock.

In 1870 a rather reluctant RLS found himself on Erraid understudying his father and uncle.  He had little interest in the family lighthouse trade, preferring instead travel and writing.  This was anathema to the Victorian values of hard work and service by which Thomas Stevenson lived and RLS' failure to accede to his father's desire for him to follow the lighthouse trade would be the result of many quarrels and would strain their relationship to the end of Thomas' life.  In his own later life, RLS came to appreciate the towering achievements of his family much more and looked back on his time touring the lights and on Erraid with some fondness.  The Dubh Artach light was completed and lit in 1872.  Automated in 1971, it still shines out its two white flashes every 30 seconds, visible for 20 nautical miles.  The author Bella Bathurst has written a very readable book covering of some of the Stevenson lighthouses, including chapters on the construction of Skerryvore and Dubh Artach.

RLS didn't waste his leisure time on Erraid in 1870 and must have explored the island thoroughly when not engaged in his apprenticeship.  He had a real skill of observation and used what he saw to good effect when he wrote "Kidnapped" in 1886.  In one of the most memorable parts of the book David Balfour and Alan Breck Stewart find themselves unwilling passengers onboard the brig "Covenant" which is caught among the Torran Rocks in a gale at night, the bursting spray all around the ship lit by moonlight.  Despite desperate efforts to win clear, the "Covenant" is driven onto a reef and wrecked.  David is thrown into the sea and survives drowning by clutching onto a broken spar.  It is at Traigh Gheal he is washed up, exhausted and freezing.  He then spends several wretched days surviving on shellfish, which make him very ill, believing he will die on the island before two Gaelic fishermen make him understand that Erraid is a tidal island (the name is from the Gaelic Arthraigh meaning just that) and he manages to wade ashore to the Ross of Mull where his adventures continue.  The combination of historical fact, vivid description of actual places and great paced adventure make "Kidnapped" my favourite of all RLS' novels.

 Our own landing at Traigh Gheal was something of a contrast to David Balfour's - we landed in hot sunshine on an early summer afternoon with everything we needed for immediate comfort!

 Once our boats were drawn up on the white sands we took our gear up to some nearby rocks......

  .....then Allan, Douglas and I....

 .......emulated David Balfour in taking a swim.  We can report that the water was beautifully clear, and on the refreshing side of cool.  The contrast of an air temperature of 24 Celcius and a water temperature of 9 degrees Celcius produced a stinging exhilaration, and we didn't linger too long before heading up to sit and dry off in the sunshine whilst taking a late second luncheon.

 Donald had been doing a little exploring while we swam, which had clearly left him with a healthy appetite.  He felt no desire to further emulate David Balfour in eating raw limpets, but had obviously enjoyed his light lunch.........  :o)

After lingering at Balfour's Bay for an hour or so we packed the boats with some reluctance - on a day such as this it's a hard place to leave.

 Heading back around the tip of Erraid we had the choice of either heading directly back to Fidden via the Tinker's Hole to have an early dinner, or exploring the skerries and islands off Erraid and cooking dinner later.  With such lovely weather and daylight until at least 2200, this really wasn't a hard decision to make, so we headed out into the maze of rocky outcrops west of Erraid.....

 ....passing the entrance to the Tinker's Hole channel.  On the highest point of Erraid, the small white tower is the former observatory and signal station used to communicate with the Dubh Artach light and, when the station at Hynish in Tiree closed, Skerryvore.  With the advent of radio, signalling was moved to Oban and the observatory fell into disuse but has been well preserved.

 We started up the chain of small islands, looking for a spot Douglas had mentioned as being worth visiting.... if we could find it!