Ruairidh, Monica, Gerry and I had a fabulous long weekend covering the lochs and coast line from WLT to Crinan during the great weather we had in June. The trip took Ruairidh back to his childhood haunts around West Loch Tarbert and Loch Stornoway and was carefully timed to allow us to make the most of the north flooding tide to help us along our way each day.
We assembled at the pier and slipway at WLT on Friday 16th and were under way by 1015 paddling down the NW shore to keep clear of the Cal Mac ferries from Kennacraig to and from Islay. Fabulous weather, as has been the case for several weeks so no need for cags and lots of sun lotion applied. The first sea eagle of the trip was spotted as we paddled past the impressive Ardpatrick House and then we rounded the similarly named Point to start our journey up the coast. Loch Stornoway was explored for old time sake and we continued northwards past small beaches of Port Mor and Port na Gaillinn looking for a camp site which we found at the beach just before Kilberry Bay – it wasn’t just us who appreciated its qualities: a bull and a dozen bullocks had beaten us to it so we became reluctant neighbours for the night. Cleggs (horse-flies) were a-plenty as we put up our tents but thankfully left us alone when we all swam. A cracking fire kept the midges at bay with thanks to the stocks of wood we found on the beach (in between cow pats!). The sun sank slowly over the Paps of Jura and finally set beautifully with many photos taken (expect a few entries in June’s Photo of the Month!)
In the middle of the night, I had a close encounter with the bovine gang when they surrounded my tent after I’d nipped out for a pee – banging my metal cup and billy-can had little effect other than waking up my human neighbours so I gave up and hoped that the deep breathing bullocks would eventually move off – which of course they did.
On Saturday we set off northwards up and turned right to follow the SE shore of Loch Caolisport to the top. We saw lots of massive Moon jelly fish as we started back down the loch then rounded the Point of Knap and turned northwards passing between Eilean Ghamhna and Eilean nan Leac before the tide turned to get to the Island of Danna at the end of Loch Sween. More cows on our beach – this time a mixed herd – welcomed us ashore in the bay just east of Eilean nan Uan and we made camp on the small peninsular to the right, this time leaving our boats in the next bay where we could keep a better eye on them as the previous night our bovine buddies had been very inquisitive about our craft and had nudged them all over the place. I made sure I was furthest away from any beasts with comrades between me and them! Less wood on this beach but Gerry and I managed to haul a massive tree trunk across the beach to supplement Ruairidh’s collection which we burned over 2 slightly midgey nights as we intended leaving the tents up and going up Loch Sween next day.
Rain overnight and a cloudier morning dawned on Sunday (no cow trouble for any of us or our boats) and winds remained south easterly, so we headed east round the bottom right hand corner of Danna and crossed the over the loch to Castle Sween and its enormous static caravan site before stopping for coffee at a slipway at Rubh’an Tacair by which time the sun was back out again. Back in our boats, we continued up the SE shore leaving Eilean Loain to port and crossed over to the headland at Port Lunna in a strong NE wind piling down from Achnamara and headed for the entrance of Caol Scotnish, a long thin loch on the left just before Tayvallich where we spotted the infamous black spidery looking starfish which are peculiar to this part of Loch Sween. Wood stocks were replenished after lunch near the top of Caol Scotnish and we returned down the loch and doubled back round to the Fairy Isles which were truly magical not least because we spent 10 minutes in the company of a calm but watchful seal and her pup as we drifted motionless watching on. Soon after we paddled away 2 power boats came motoring in and spoiled the serenity of this tranquil place. Next up was the café at Tayvallich and the promise of coffee and cake but unfortunately it closed just as we arrived so we had to indulge in Magnum ice creams instead. Replenished we set off on the last leg of our day: down the NE shore with a strong wind and waves blowing us along to Danna with a stop off at The Piggery at Taynish House. The lucky pigs here had a trough running though their piggery directly from the kitchens of the big house so feasted on all the best treats without anyone having to lug buckets out to them. As we neared the bottom of the loch we saw at least 3 sea eagles being buzzed and harrassed by gulls.
It was after 7pm when we got back to Danna, it had been a near 40km day so we all had a chill out and some food and re-assembled back at the fire. At about 9pm we saw a group of 5 paddlers crossing our bay heading towards Loch Sween only to return a while later making for us, so we sent Gerry over to welcome them ashore and join us (more tents meant even less chance of nocturnal cow trouble as far as I was concerned!) These guys had paddled over from Jura having portaged their boats over from Loch Tarbert and were very glad to make camp – a couple of distillery visits the day before had made them especially tired (!)
Overnight it bucketed and blew. We knew the tide wasn’t due to turn till midday so we delayed our departure till 11am and had an easy trip round the west side of Danna, north eastwards along the coast and through the lovely collection of islands before Carsaig Bay which we by-passed as we were making the most of the tidal flow and wind. With little effort and brightening skies we found ourselves rounding Ardnoe Point to turn right into Loch Crinan where we landed on the slipway at the Harbour at 2.40pm. The sun was by now out again and as we unpacked our boats and ate some lunch, Ruairidh pointed the plume of smoke coming from VIC 32 which is one of the last few surviving coal-fired steam-powered puffer boats as she steamed into Crinan.
We had all had a grand 4 day outing with mainly great weather and not many midges and thanks to some excellent trip planning our pre-arranged pick-up arrived a hour later to drive us and our boats back to West Loch Tarbert where we’d begun our wonderful journey 4 days earlier.
Many thanks to Ruairidh, Monica and Gerry for their excellent company.
Clare Eadie