Josephine and I set off towing my sailing dinghy from Fleet in Hampshire to Arisaig in Scotland. It is a long drive and so we stopped overnight at a camp site in the Cheviot hills. Arisaig is an attractive village close to numerous small islets and white sandy beaches and it offered our basic requirements of a slipway and a car park. There is also a railway station which could be useful if we needed to get back by public transport.
I shall now describe our itinerary on a day by day basis:
The first days sailing from Arisaig was wet and windy. We tacked South towards Ardnamurchan, looking for the entrance to Loch Moidart which our pilot book recommended as being as picturesque as any Loch on the West Coast of Scotland. Loch Moidart has two entrances to the sea but we somehow sailed past both entrances and eventually closed the shore in Kentra bay at the base of the Ardnamurchan peninsula. Here we found a sheltered sandy beach where we had lunch and studied the chart before turning back to find Loch Moidart. Loch Moidart is indeed a beautiful sea loch, with steep wooded banks and small islands. One of these islands is crowned with a ruined castle, castle Tioram, and we landed by the sandy causeway which links this island to the shore of the lock. Here we set up our land tent in an ideal spot with a view of loch and castle, although we later noticed that the tent was rather close to an area marked by 'no camping' signs. I should explain that we carried two tents, one being for use on shore and the other being a purpose made boat tent which fits over the boom. If there is nowhere suitable to camp on the shore then camping on the boat is the only option. If there is a place to camp on the shore, as there often is in remote areas of Scotland, then this is more convenient for shore exploration, although it does mean extra work carrying luggage to and from the boat.
We left our tent standing and in the morning we looked at the ruins of castle Tioram then walked in the rain to the village of Acharacle where we brought provisions and visited the hotel for haggis lunch. In the evening the rain stopped and we went for a sail to see the upper part of the loch.
We sailed out of Loch Moidart in sunshine and with a following wind. We rounded the Ardnamurchan peninsula then continued South to Dervaig on the North West of the Isle of Mull. Dervaig village is about three miles inland and to reach it we rowed through the narrow channel which links the sea to Dervaig lock. The village is at the head of this loch which is shallow and almost non-tidal so we were able to anchor in only a couple of feet of water and yet stay afloat all night. This bit of inland waterways cruising was a sudden contrast to the open sea sailing earlier in the day.
Leaving Dervaig in the morning was one of the two occasions on which we resorted to use of the outboard motor. The tide was rushing in through the channel from the sea and at about 5 knots with the engine we were only just able to creep forward against this torrent. A more peaceful alternative might have been to wait an hour or two for the current to slacken. Having cleared the narrows there was as yet little wind and we carried on motoring as far as the northernmost island in the chain of the Treshnish Isles. We stopped here to pack away the motor and also to have a quick look at the island which was once used as a castle. We tried to climb up from the beach to view the ruins on the flat top of the island but were unable to do so since when the island had been fortified all the obvious ways up from the beach had been blocked off with stonework. In the afternoon we enjoyed a gentle reaching breeze sailing South past Staffa to view the famous Fingal's cave. The name Staffa derives from the the term the Vikings used to describe the construction of their houses which were built from vertical tree trunks looking like the spectacular basalt columns which surround the entrance to Fingal's cave. We did not land on Staffa but we did sail close up to the cave entrance for a good look and to take photos before sailing for Iona which we could see far away on the southerly horizon. As we approached Iona it started to rain and with the tide now against us and the wind falling light we were glad to chance upon the hamlet of Kintra, almost hidden behind the islets along the shore. Kintra provided a sheltered sandy beach where we moored in front of a row of small cottages, now mainly occupied by retired people from the mainland. It rained hard overnight and we were very glad that we had sealed up various gaps in the boat tent so as to make it fully rainproof.
We left the boat at Kintra and walked to Fionphort to take the ferry across to the island of Iona where we joined numerous other trippers in visiting the restored abbey and the teashops. The abbey cathedral is fairly simple in style and is better suited by its surrounding environment than are cathedrals which have become engulfed by large cities. After returning on the last ferry of the day we made a change from camping by finding a bed and breakfast near to Kintra.
After our night under a tiled roof we had a leisurely breakfast then walked the mile or so along the shore to the boat. We had a fast and windy sail to the Isle of Erraid which is at the southern end of the sound of Iona and on the Mull side. We were attracted to this island by the sandy beaches apparent on our OS map and after investigating the well known Tinkers Hole anchorage we anchored off one of these beaches and spent the rest of the day exploring the island on foot. The weather was now deteriorating fast with rain and sun alternating about every hour. On reaching the highest point on Erraid we sheltered behind a cairn because of the hailstones and lashing gale.
The wind continued to blow all night and we had little sleep on account of the flapping of the boat tent and the bumping as the boat dried out on the sand then later refloated with the tide. In the morning we were keen to find indoor shelter and so we went for a long wet walk to the nearest pub which was several miles away, back at Fionphort. We dried out in the pub then took a quick ferry trip to buy provisions on Iona before returning by the same route to the boat. The gale was now moderating but to be sure of a quieter night we set up the land tent in a sheltered spot at the top of the beach. Because the tent was actually on the sand of the beach, tent pegs were of little use until they were weighted down with heavy stones.
In the morning the weather was much improved and we continued our anti-clockwise circumnavigation of Mull. We tried to take a short cut through the shallow sandy channel which separates Erraid from Mull, but we found that even at high tide there was not enough water in this channel, it probably fills only at spring high water. Having spent a few hours on this excursion we eventually put to sea through the main entrance of the sound of Iona. We then had a fast sail along the Southern shore of Mull, inshore of the Torran rocks then sailing past miles of unspoilt and mostly very inaccessible shoreline. Studying our guide books we read about the monastic remains on the Garvellach islands which translates as the 'Isles of the Sea' and which were the landing place of St Columbia after he left Ireland. We decided to visit these islands even though this required a 90 degree change of course to head South and out into the open sea. As the shore of Mull receded and dusk fell I wondered if this was a good idea. We sailed along the south eastern side of Eileach an Naoimh, which is one of the two larger islands in the Garvellach chain and we looked at the anchorage suggested by the pilot book as a possible temporary stopping place. It seemed that there would not be much shelter if the wind backed South as was forecast and so with some desperation we searched for an alternative. We found a cleft in the steep rocky shoreline offering a pool not much wider than the length of the boat and here we spotted a couple of probably ancient iron hooks bedded into the rock, presumably indicating that this was a place to moor a boat. We spent the night rocking in the slight swell and held just clear of the rocks by lines fore and aft, one of our more unusual mooring places.
We wanted to go ashore to look at the monastic ruins but after scrambling up the rocks above the boat we found that we could go nowhere since the terrain was too rough and overgrown with brambles as well as the usual heather, bracken and scrub bushes. We climbed back down into the boat and rowed to a landing place closer to the ruins and with less difficult terrain. With an anchor placed off the shore the tidal stream was sufficient to hold the boat clear of the steep rock face and we took a line ashore so that we could pull the boat back to re-embark. The ruins include an ancient bee-hive shaped dwelling and the grave of St Columbia's mother.
We next made a brief stop to look at the slate quarrying remains on the small low lying island of Benhula. Although this island is now uninhabited it was once the home of two hundred quarry workers. The centre of the island has been quarried away leaving a lagoon and the beach and sea bed around the island is overlaid with slate waste.
Our next stop was on the small Easdale island which is about 100m off the Western side of the larger island of Seil. Easdale Island was also used for slate quarrying and the wharfs and bed of the small artificial harbour are entirely slate waste. The rows of single storey slate workers cottages form an attractive car free hamlet which includes an interesting museum of local history. We took the small motor ferry for a shopping trip across the narrow sound to Easdale village itself which is on Seil, adjacent to Easdale Island. Our shopping was not successful, there being a couple of large shops selling souvenirs and brick-a-brack but nowhere open to sell bread or milk.
From Easdale we sailed on North to the popular and sheltered anchorage at Pulldoran. In the evening we had a good meal at the pub adjacent to the 'Bridge over the Atlantic'. This attractive semi-circular stone arch spans the Clachan sound which separates Seil from the mainland and which could be considered to be a very small part of the Atlantic ocean.
With sunshine but little wind we sailed slowly out of Pulldoran then across the Firth of Lorn to anchor off castle Duart, the home of the MacClean clan. We visited the castle and teashop then rowed up the sound of Mull as far as Craignure bay. Here we anchored the boat adjacent to a proper camp site and set up our land tent and used the camp site facilities.
Again we had sun but little wind. We rowed and sailed several miles North through the sound of Mull before starting the engine and motoring into Tobermory for a shopping expedition. Leaving Tobermory there was a gentle southerly breeze and we had the option of either sailing back round Ardnamurchan to Arisaig, or sailing inland up Loch Sunart then returning to Arisaig by bus and train. We chose to explore Loch Sunart since it was new territory and was recommended by our guide books. Loch Sunart penetrates 20 miles inland and we sailed about two thirds of the length to anchor in the bay off the village of Salen. The sun was setting as we sailed past beautiful and remote scenery around the Isle of Oronsay in the lower part of the loch. The upper part above Salen is slightly less remote having a relatively major road along the North shore. It was pitch dark when we arrived at Salen and we fumbled around to find a place to anchor amongst the local craft.
Again it was a lovely sunny day but it was now time to stop sailing and to get back to Arisaig to collect car and trailer. We started by walking along the lane to Acharacle, the village we had previously walked to from Loch Moidart. We had another meal in the Acharacle hotel while waiting for the mid-day bus which took us along winding coastal lanes to the station at Lochailort. The train was a bit late but eventually we reached Arisaig, then in the evening we returned to Salen by car. We hauled the boat out onto its trailer and spent the night at a camp site a few miles East along the shore of Lock Sunart.
Driving home, we called at an interesting industrial/folk museum at Coatbridge to the East of Glasgow and we spent Saturday night at Arnside youth hostel, the hostel which has several times been a staging post on the way to the Lake District for an HSC Easter trip.