MV Lochranza

The forecast for today was for a dry day, starting with thin cloud but brightening later. We decided to have a little adventure. Starting from Cairnbaan we drove South past Lochgilphead and through Tarbert, past the ferry terminal for Islay at Kennacraig, the thirty or so miles to Tayinloan on the West side of Kintyre. We were going to take Maeve the Deerhound on her first ferry as a foot passenger and have a few hours on the Isle of Gigha (the good island, or God's island in old Norse). Maeve was fine in the foot passengers lounge on the ferry. There was only a light breeze and hardly any roll on the ferry, although she did know something was different :-)

We disembarked at Ardminish Bay where there is a small white sand beach. The island did belong to the MacNeill clan in the past, but passed into private ownership and finally in a landmark purchase for Scotland it is now owned in a Community Trust by the islanders themselves.

Of historical note, in the sound off the island in 1263 King Hakon of Norway anchored his fleet before heading South to the battle of Largs.

We walked South along the island's main road and stopped at the craft centre where there was an art exhibition with jewellery and paintings by an artist from Tiree. Then we continued on to the gardens at Achamore. The gardens were very impressive, even at this time of year, with Hydrangeas still in bloom and the lovely walled garden with its borders had many flowers still giving plenty of colour. At the top of the garden there is a curving path that goes up to the top of a hill and there is a nice place to sit and look over to the Southern coast of Islay.

When we came out of the garden we climbed a slope up to the ruined church of the Irish saint Catan. The small church is surrounded by a graveyard and there are many carved grave slabs, some of the MacNeills. We then walked back up to the ferry terminal to catch the MV Lochranza for the twenty minute crossing back to the mainland. We enjoyed out few hours on the island and is was a pity that the day didn't really brighten until we were back on the ferry.

After a very late lunch in Tarbert on the way North, we decided to make best use of the bright afternoon by driving up past Lochgilphead and Cairnbaan to see the cairn at Dunchraigaig and the standing stones at Ballymeanoch. By the time we got there and walked along the path to the stones the sun was almost dropping over the hills to the West near Crinan and the light was golden and the trees were showing their Autumn colours at their absolute best. There are two lines of stones still standing at Ballymeanoch, one of four and one of two and they have cup marks visible. Also worth a look, nearby to the North, near the entrance to Kilmartin Glen proper are cup and ring marked slabs of rock.

As we drove back to our holiday house on the Crinan Canal there was an amazing sunset, with pink and red streaked clouds over the hills and trees making a nice end to our adventure :-)