Tuesday 2nd August 2022

We caught the bus from Ardrishaig to West Tarbert to resume our walk. The day was cloudy and it was drizzling quite hard. We turned off the A83 almost immediately and were on a B road with passing places; there were a few cars and vans but they were few and far between.

The road follows roughly the coast of West Loch Tarbert. At Torinturk, several miles along the road a road sign reminds drivers that there is no footway which seems superfluous at that stage.

Unfortunately the road is wooded on both sides and so the views are not great -indeed there were no views at all because of the trees and the mist was right down across the loch. We just got on with it and walked; we did see some attractive Jacob sheep.

As usual we looked out for a suitable bum-perch so we could have coffee. In the end we came past Anchor Cottage which is not so much a cottage as looking a bit like an outdoor activities centre (but is apparently just a holiday let). Anyway, each side of the entrance is an anchor resting on a stone shelf within the wall. There was plenty of space for two small bums to perch in moderate comfort.

We continued walking with the constant dilemma of jackets on or jackets off. It was quite a warm day but it was also pretty wet each time another shower came over. 

At Kilnaish was an impressive old burial ground now becoming overgrown. I don’t really understand why in western Scotland burial grounds are often separate from churches and frequently in the middle of nowhere.

A mile or two later we passed Gortan Lodge which has an impressive farm frontage though sadly now in decay. Jill, bless her, recognised it instantly from when I cycled from Land’s End to John o’ Groats in 2009 and Jill joined me for most of the Scottish section. She recalled us we propping our bikes against the wall for a breather. She has since found a photo from that trip not only confirming we did indeed stop there but also that in those days it was all being well maintained.

A couple of miles later, near Loch Stornoway (which is obviously no where near Stornoway), we came to a big “Welcome” sign for Kilberry Church but next to it is a mile post which confirmed that it is still 3 ½ miles to Kilberry Village. It reminded me of the old joke about the railway station. (A visitor was asking a local why the railway station was more than a mile away from the village and the local replies that they thought it was better to have the station next to the railway.) Anyway, there being no bum perches, we just kept walking until we arrived at Kilberry itself at 14.00 only to find there were no public benches in the village either. The village is just a handful of houses but perhaps in the heyday of Kilberry Castle there was more to the village. However, the Kilberry Inn, which is not really a pub but a Michelin Listed restaurant, had some tables and chairs outside. Since the place was shut until the evening we took temporary possession and had our non-Michelin listed sandwiches looking out over the bay.

Having seen the interesting phone box porch yesterday I was interested to look inside the Kilberry Inn phone box.

Having dropped into our usual reasonably fast tarmac-walking pace and had only a couple of short stops, we only had about 4 miles from Kilberry to where I had planned to get the bus but that was not due until 17.15. Today was a good day to walk on because it would reduce tomorrow’s walk and the distance I would have to cycle back to retrieve the car. More on that Grand Plan tomorrow. We decided that we could get to the end of today’s walk and then do another 4 ½ miles to Achahoish School where the bus would arrive at 17.29.

The weather was now sunny with a gentle breeze and the west side of the peninsula is clear of trees and we had excellent views across to Jura and of the shore line close to us and so the walk was a pleasure.

At about 16.30 the bus approached us and as we squeezed past on the verge I called to the driver that we would like him to pick us up on his return (just in case we were not quite at the official bus stop). He acknowledged and moved on.

We had about three miles to go and an hour in which to it which was perfect. We arrived at the school bus stop five minutes before the bus. The bus driver was a very friendly chatty type. Initially he admonished me for making my wife walk so far. When I told him we were walking the coast of Britain he then continued with his witty repartee most of the way to Ardrishaig. I had to listen hard to hear him above the noise of the bus from where we were sitting and to understand his strong accent.

Monday 1st August 2022

We packed up from the self-catering flat in Campbeltown, drove to West Tarbert and then caught the bus back to Rhunahaorine where we finished last night. It meant we didn’t start walking until nearly 10.00. We walked back down to the coast and then along the sandy beach to Rhunahaorine Point before walking back up to the A83 along the north side of the point. On our way we saw a lot of wildlife and rather more of one sort than we would have liked.

It was a desperately sad walk because there were so many sea birds, almost all guillemots, washed up having died from Avian Flu. In our two mile walk along the shore I estimated we passed about 3000 dead birds. There was roughly one bird every pace we took.

A lighter moment on that part of the walk happened just as we were approaching the end of the beach; Jill spotted an otter swimming in the bay. I was ahead of her and didn’t hear her call so was nearly up on the top of the dunes when I turned to see her gesturing with her binoculars. I managed to spot the otter – Jill said that through the binoculars she could see it rolling on its back and lifting its tail vertically up out of the water before its characteristic arched dive and the wait for it to re-emerge nearby.

I have never seen a piece of driftwood encrusted with goose barnacles. Apparently the “foot” can be from 4-6 inches long and the barnacle itself has five plates instead of the six plates of other barnacles.

Our wildlife encounters did not end there. We could hear a plaintive bird call and I asked Jill if she knew what it was. Jill wondered if it was coming from the single black bird out at sea which she felt didn’t look like any of “the usual suspects”. She wondered if it could be a diver of some kind and looking through her binoculars could see it had distinctive markings but didn’t know what it was. It was swimming away from us but Jill managed to get a couple of very distant photos for identification purposes and later confirmed it was a great northern diver. This is usually a winter visitor to the UK as their main summer breeding grounds are in N.America (where they are known as common loons), Iceland and Greenland but this bird was definitely in its summer breeding plumage (in winter the neck and back lose the striped patch on the neck and the chequered pattern on the back) so it is just possible that this bird might be one of the few that are known to breed in Scotland – or it was a very early arrival for the winter. Their plaintive call is much-loved by film producers as a sound effect indicative of eerie wilderness.

Back on the A83 we verge-hopped and lorry-dodged for mile after mile. We did have some good views across to Islay and Jura.

There was a paucity of suitable places to perch and have some coffee and so in the end we just kept going and came to Clachan at 12.45. As there was bench by the bus stop, I suggested to Jill that we should stop and have an early lunch. A bench under the bum is worth two down the road.

Whilst sitting on the bench a woman came out to put something in her bin and saw us on the bench eating our rolls. She asked if we would like a cup of tea and said to knock on her door if we would like to use her loo. Such unexpected kindness!

Whilst eating lunch this willow warbler was bouncing around.

When we moved on after lunch we found there were two benches 150 yards down the road.

From Clachan we followed what I imagine was the old road for 1½ miles before it joined the A83 once more.

Now we were a little further from the loch-side and so we couldn’t really see the water most of the time. The intermittent traffic speeding in both direction kept us on our toes and on and off the verges.

Just over a mile from West Tarbert there is a track which the OS maps show joins the B road at the West Tarbert jetty. We were looking forward to getting off the main road for the last couple of miles of the walk. As we started along the track a dog walker stopped to chat and he told us that the track was impassable having been blocked off by the owner of a bungalow. So, after further chat about footpaths in Scotland and the presence of ospreys on the loch, (we will look for them tomorrow) we followed an alternative path that brought us back to the main A83 rather sooner than we would have liked.

Fortunately the last half mile or so the A83 to West Tarbert has a footpath. As we were passing the cemetery a few big drops of rain appeared on our shirts and in the few minutes it took to reach the car we were entirely wet.

Sunday 31st July 2022

We left the car at Machrihanish and were walking soon after 8.00. We crossed the golf course to the beach and enjoyed four miles of damp sand walking. It was a beautiful day with a blue sky and a few clouds and a steady breeze. It seemed such a contrast to yesterday. 

At the end of the beach we came up to the road which we would follow for nearly all of the remainder of the walk

The main A83 is a very fast road or at least the vehicles on it are generally driven very fast. Fortunately the sight lines are generally pretty good and so we could be seen from a long way off. Even so we wore our hi-vis waistcoats. Just occasionally we had anxious moments when cars from opposite directions passed close to us at the same time. Some drivers seem to forget they have brakes and simply try to squeeze past without any attempt to slow down as they pass.

The road runs close to the shore and so we had good views of the rocky shoreline and the pretty little bays, all of which the motorists must barely glimpse. We had great views across to Islay, Jura, Cerra and Gigha and these were our companions all day. 

We stopped for coffee near Bellochanty and perched on a rock and enjoyed gazing at the sea. 

We saw quite a few birds of various sorts but being on the road there was also roadkill; we saw a dead slow worm and a dead flycatcher.

Back on Tuesday when we drove to Campbeltown we had discovered a really nice café shop and garden centre at Glen Bar. Today we would be passing there soon  after midday and it seemed like an opportunity not to be missed. Jill rang to book a table just to be on the safe side. As it was, we arrived at about 12.20 and so we had a very leisurely and enjoyable lunch, glad to be out of the sun and away from the traffic noise. We would recommend the Glen Bar café very highly. 

After lunch it was back to the perils of the A83. Soon after Mausdale the road becomes narrower and the verge narrow to non-existent. 

Mostly the road was very quiet but we had a rude awakening when two police cars sped past us, blue lights flashing, heading north. I guess that was both Campbeltown’s police cars. 

At Tayinloan we turned down the road to the Gigha ferry and were delighted to find a café by the ferry terminal. So we treated ourselves to ice creams.

We had about two miles still to walk and we ended the day as we had begun – with a beach walk.

There is a largely sandy beach from the ferry terminal to Rhunahaorine Point. We turned off at the camping site just before The Point and walked up to the A83 and Rhunahaorine School and the bus stop. We had about an hour to wait for the bus and then a half hour ride back to Campbeltown. Once back at the flat, I cycled back to Machrihanish to get the car while Jill did some shopping and got supper ready. Tomorrow we move on to the Grey Gull Hotel at Ardrishaig.

Saturday 30th July 2022

Today was our “big day”. After four days of predominantly tarmac walking we were going to follow the Kintyre Way over the hills to Machrihanish. The weather forecast for today had been poor with a weather front moving through but when we awoke this morning the weather forecast was quite good; it seemed the wet weather had come through early and by 10.00 we could expect sunshine and cloud.

We got the 8.00 bus from Campbeltown to Southend and were the only passengers after the first mile. We started walking at 08.30. We passed the notable landmark of the Keil Hotel, a modernist building constructed between 1937 and 1939. It was naval hospital during the war. Between 1947 and 1990 it was a functioning hotel but is now a “building at risk.”

It was dry – just but the cloud was quite low. The first four or five miles are on tarmac, roughly following Breackerie Water up Breakerie Glen to a farm called Amod.

It was now very gloomy, cloud and mist draped the hills around us and it was raining albeit not too heavily for all the difference that made. We crossed the farm bridge and the route immediately turned alongside fields; the grass was very long and very wet. Having opted to wear gaiters rather than waterproof trousers because it was quite warm, the gaiters made a fine conduit for the water from our soaked trousers to fill our boots. 

The path crossed a fence by a very high stile onto rough pasture or moorland. It was very tussocky and uneven underfoot making for slow progress then all of a sudden the path was very difficult to follow because the grass was so long. Fortunately there are some blue posts to aim for so long as we could spot them in the mist. After crossing a burn, the path simply climbed steeply through more long grass to the top of Amod Hill.

Shortly before the top and some forestry land, there was a picnic bench and we were very happy to sit there and have our morning coffee stop. It was comfortable but the only view was of the cloud all around us.

We moved on again and the path continued alongside the forestry plantation. The path remained a narrow groove in the ground, at times obscured by the grass but it was definitely there if we looked hard. This brought us to the top of Remuil Hill (302m).

At some point we entered the Largiebaan Nature Reserve

I was struggling to see because of the rain falling on my glasses combined with the steaming up of my lenses as I puffed uphill. Eventually the path levelled off and I had the feeling that there might have been views because the ground seemed to fall away on both sides but who knows?

Eventually I was struggling  so much to find the path that I removed my glasses. The reason I wear glasses is a problem with double vision and my glasses have a prism to help correct this. Unfortunately when I remove my specs my eye muscles have to try and correct the double vision and it takes about 15 minutes before they have got their act together. Eventually I have an uneasy compromise; a slightly fuzzy view of the world but not steamed up and not distorted by rivulets of rain.

High up in the middle of nowhere, we dropped down on to a farm track – it seemed rather incongruous but we were not complaining at having ¾ mile of easy walking. The track leads to Largiebaan. Largiebaan was a shieling; a cluster of buildings of stone and turf used as summer accommodation when cattle were grazed on the uplands. We did not actually visit the remains but we could hear a tractor not so very far away.

At Largiebaan the path takes a left turn to head directly west towards the cliff tops. On the way the path goes through a gate with a huge puddle of water rendering it impassable. I tested it with my walking pole and it was quite deep and below the water was soft mud. However, hopping over the fence alongside meant we could just squeeze around it.  On the other side of a gate was a another picnic table. This one was at a jaunty 30 degree angle. I think a cow (of which there was ample evidence underfoot) must have leaned on it when scratching and shifted it off its footings. I sat on the end of one bench and my weight was enough to level it up and Jill perched just along from me and we managed to keep an even keel whilst we had half our lunch – with nothing to see but cloud.

Moving on after lunch we continued towards the cliff at Grianan Ardrie.

We lost altitude then came to a gate where the path turned right and climbed steeply uphill. Looking at the map we were right on the edge of the cliffs, but there was nothing we could see. We continued to climb up to the summit at Binnein Fithich (350m) from where we 360 degree view of – nothing but cloud.

Jill went to the edge of the turf to take a photo over the edge and found not being able to see anything very disorientating and disconcerting.

Then we descended steeply and we just followed the blue posts and the narrow path on the ground. At last we dropped out of the cloud and we could see Innean Bay and Sailor’s Grave beneath us. This is one of many locations around the coast of Scotland bearing the name “Sailor’s Grave” where a body that has been washed up, assumed to be that of a sailor, has been buried.

There was a tumbledown wall and so we sat on some of the fallen stones and had the rest of our lunch with a view of the bay, the white stones of the Sailor’s Grave and a washed-up wreck of a sailing boat. Interestingly the sailing boat looks in remarkably good condition for a washed-up boat and the remains of the blue sail are clear to see suggesting it was under sail when it was abandoned. I have been unable to find anything about the history of this boat. For the rest of the walk we would at least be able to see where we were going.

After lunch we turned eastward up Innean Glen. Now we had sunshine and, though we were feeling a little weary, the day was looking up.

It was a steady, stroll gently uphill though the path was quite boggy in places. Once over top of the glen there was a long, gradual descent across boggy moorland to Balygroggan. The name sounded remarkably Irish but we were not many miles from Northern Ireland.

From Balygroggan there a couple of miles of road to Machrihanish where I left the car last night.

It was a sixteen mile walk that felt like twenty. It was an unexpectedly tough walk which took us 7½  hours. The Kintyre Way website says to allow 7-10 hours and so I guess we did alright.

Friday 29th July 2022

Today’s walk was once more to be mainly tarmac but quite hilly.

We set off from the holiday flat in which we are staying at about 8.00 and walked down to the front and turned south. The road is quite a minor road and initially follows the shore past Davaar Island.

The tide was well out and so there is a wide, sandy platform between Davaar and the mainland. There was a truck driving over the causeway; perhaps a farmer has livestock grazing on the island. There was also a couple apparently walking around Davaar on the rocky shore exposed by the low tide. A few seals hauled out on the sands were singing or bellowing according to your point of view.

We passed the Oil Fuel Depot which services Royal Navy and Nato vessels.

We were passed by a car which then stopped on the verge and a man got out to walk his dog. He struck up a conversation with us but his dialect was so broad that when he simply asked where we were headed for, we had great difficulty understanding him.  Most of the people we have come across seem to have been incomers from England or have had Glaswegian accents. I suspect Paul McCartney started a trend back in the ’70s when he came to the Mull of Kintyre.

The single track road was extremely quiet and I doubt if even half a dozen cars passed us on the ten miles we were on the road. I was alarmed to see a road works sign and another saying “Road Patching: Longs Delays”. We eventually came to the offending road-patching lorry operated by a single road-mender. He moved backwards and forwards until he was by a passing place so we could walk past safely.

There were some steep ascents and descents and as we approached Feochaig, in the words of McCartney’s song “Oh, mist rolling in from the sea”, it indeed did just that and all our views vanished as a cool cloak concealed the world.

We continued looking for a suitable sit-upon for our coffee but there was nothing to speak of until we passed behind “The Bastard” (a hill 188m) and there was a grassy bank at the side of the road which sufficed.

When planning the route, I had blithely decided we would simply follow the Kintyre Way to Southend. It was only last night, when I glanced at the Kintyre Way website, that I discovered that the only proper coastal section from Polliwilline Bay to Kilmashenacken is tidal and not passable at high tide. Consulting the tide tables I discovered that we would have been there right on high water. So I reluctantly took the sensible course of following the high water route. We missed about 1 ½ miles of coast. We did however decide to take a farm track, not part of the Kintyre Way, because it took us back to the coast at Dunaverty sooner than walking the road into Southend. We had a few cows to negotiate but they were harmless.

Dunaverty golf course was extremely busy but quite attractive with wild flowers in the rough between the tees.

We used the golf club footbridge to cross Conieglen Water and found our way to Dunaverty Bay where horse riders were enjoying the beach.

We walked along the beach and then ate our lunch at one of the picnic tables at the far end. We ended our walk by the bus stop about 400 yards further along the road. The bus was not due until 18.00 and it was only just gone 14.00 so we juggled with our phones until we got a signal to call up a taxi from Campbeltown which is barely 10 miles away via the direct route. Our taxi driver told us that there is a golf championship at Dunaverty tomorrow which probably explains why the course was so busy with people practising. Half an hour later we were back at the flat in Campbeltown.

I had one more thing to do in preparation for tomorrow. I put my bike in the back of the car and drove to Machrihanish. I parked the car and cycled back. Tomorrow we will be getting the bus to Southend but with a challenging walk ahead of us it seemed like a good idea to have the car ready and waiting for us at the end in case we are too late for the only bus.

Thursday 28th July 2022

Once again I was prepared to dig in for another day of tedious tarmac. But it turned out to be better than I had expected.

We got the early bus to Carradale at 7.10. We are morning people; there is a 9.30 bus but that would mean we would not arrive until 10.10 when the best part of the day is already over.

We were walking by 8.00 and followed the tarmac footpath almost parallel to the road until the village hall. After a short walk along the road where we were surprised by a red squirrel which ran across the road in front of us. We followed a path through the grounds of Carradale House until it joins with the Kintyre way which cuts across  to Bridgend missing  West Carradale completely. We joined the road to cross Carradale Water and then turned down the lane to Waterfoot. After a few yards a blue Kintyre way sign warns that the next part along the shore is slippery and tidal and conveniently displays two months’ worth of tide times.

We were only an hour after low water and so we did not anticipate any problems. I had not realised that we had a short section of real coast walking today. Since we left Tighnabrauch on the last day of our last session we have not “tasted” the sea shore for walking, we have been on tracks and roads sometimes next to the shore but more often than not a few hundred yards away.

The short section of shore walking was a pleasure. It was slippery and rugged but there are some beautiful rock forms and it was really good to reconnect with the raison d’être of our walk. We took a lot of photos and this blog is also our photo album so scroll on if you are getting bored. We took more photos in that half mile than we have taken in a full day for other days on this walk.

After about half a mile we left the shore and returned to the road. 

The road is a twin track road which actually felt a lot safer than the single track road we were on yesterday. Though cars come faster they have plenty of room to pass us safely at speed.

The road is really quite quiet and just when I was feeling mildly dispirited that we had twelve more miles of tarmac a beautiful fox popped out from the side of the road and walked across.  For urban dwellers foxes are a common sight and they are a nuisance with the bins. For rural folk such as us we rarely see foxes in the depths of the Yorkshire Dales. Even on our walk around Britain we have encountered reynard on but a handful of occasions.

The road we were on was wider than that of yesterday and much less wooded and so we had good views across to the sea and could look down onto the shore even though it was inaccessible for walking.

Having had a very early start I was feeling the need for coffee by 10.30. Fortunately at 10.40 we came to the village of Saddel. Here there is a car park and a solitary bench which we claimed for our leisurely coffee break. Saddel is the home of Saddel Abbey which though largely destroyed still has some carved gravestones. The carvings are protected in a covered display building which is open to the public.

We moved on and there is not much to say about the road walking except that a couple of hours later at 12.30 we arrived at Peninver where there is a beach and some benches and so I felt the need for lunch.

After lunch we had about 4 ½ miles to go to Campbeltown. The main feature of interest is the Island of Davaar which sits in the mouth of Campbeltown Loch and at low tide there is a sand bar connecting it to the mainland.

As we passed it was definitely an island. In 1966 the MV Quesada went down four miles off the island after an engine failure in a gale.  A local boat went to its rescue and nine lives were saved but eight others were lost. A memorial now stands near the ferry terminal in Campbeltown. The two men who made the rescue were recognised for their outstanding seamanship and bravery.

We came into Campbeltown at about 14.30. Campbeltown is a reasonably busy little town and certainly the biggest place on the Mull of Kintyre. It has a ferry terminal for boats to Ardrossan and seems to be important for shipping out timber. Of course Paul McCartney famously lived here after the break-up of the Beatles and made the the Mull of Kintyre famous along with the Campbeltown Pipe Band who accompanied him on the famous disc.

Wednesday 27th July 2022

I had no great expectations for today’s walk  and it did not disappoint.

We left our car at Carradale from where we had a pre-arranged taxi to take us back to Claonaig where we finished yesterday afternoon. It was the same taxi driver as yesterday; he had lived in Essex for many years and knew the Essex coast well and so we chatted about the various problems of getting around the Essex coastline. He had worked in a managerial role at the Bata Shoe Factory in Tilbury which was where we had got the ferry to cross the Thames to Gravesend.

It was a beautiful, still, clear morning. From our starting point by the Old Chapel at Claonaig we could see right down the the coast to our destination at Carradale which was picked out by a shaft of morning sunshine.

Now we just had to knuckle down for an eleven mile road walk. The road is a very quiet unclassified (C) road with passing places. For walking that meant we did not need to worry about heavy traffic but did need to worry about the single vehicles as they approached. Drivers on empty roads tend to drive between 30mph and 40mph and seem to get out of the habit of slowing down except when they use a passing place to squeeze past another vehicle. Pedestrians, by contrast, are so insignificantly narrow that they see no need to wait for us to reach a passing place but just come on by at their normal speed. Where we can, we always step onto the verge but that is not always possible. Some drivers do not have a clear idea of the width of their vehicles.

The walk itself was pleasant enough. The road was generally tree-lined on both sides and so we had limited views to the sea even though it was not far away. Above the trees we looked across to the mountains of Arran and, being several miles away, our progress past them seemed unfathomably slow.

There were no turnings off the road except for the occasional farm or house entrance. There were two or three access roads for the new electricity supply line being built for the new wind farm on Kintyre.

I scanned the map for likely stopping places where we could settle in and have coffee but there were none until Grogport nine miles into our walk. It was worth the wait because there was a picnic table there and, being right on the shore, we had excellent views over the sea to Arran. We aired our feet and had a leisurely stop. The sky had clouded over a little and so we were not in the full glare of the sun; it was just very pleasant sitting there.

After coffee we had a couple more miles of tarmac until the we rejoined the Kintyre Way. Where we joined the Kintyre Way there was a beautifully kept picnic area but it lacked the views we had enjoyed at Grogport.

We now had an enjoyable three and a half miles through the forest above Carradale. The path was easy to follow and it was a real pleasure to have some uneven ground beneath our feet.

Being forestry land, our views were generally restricted by the densely planted trees. We were particularly dismayed by the rampant growth of rhododendrons which were invading every free space. Impressive as they are when in flower, they are horribly invasive and, of course, not indigenous. I can only hope that when, one day, they clear fell the timber that they will also rout out and destroy all the rhododendrons but that would be a Herculean task.

The path brought us down to the village of Carradale. We walked back to the harbour car park where we had left the car; arriving before 14.00 so we had only taken 5 ½ hrs. I think we have probably got over Covid now.

There was no easy way of extending today’s walk and so we had a leisurely, late lunch stop overlooking the harbour and then headed back to Campbeltown.

Tuesday 26th July 2022

On our last walk we reached the ferry at Portavadie. Today we were starting to walk from Tarbert where the ferry from Portavadie comes in. You have to be fairly specific with the name”Tarbert” and “Tarbet”; it is Gaelic for an isthmus or narrowing and there are many of them throughout the Highlands and Islands.

We had intended to be walking a couple of weeks ago but unfortunately during our fortnight off walking, Jill went to London as Emily had invited her to the tennis at Wimbledon; she didn’t get to the tennis but did get Covid 3 days after coming home. Despite our best efforts I caught it from Jill and so we were unfit to walk for a while.

Today we have a short walk of about 11½ miles, partly to let us in gently after Covid and partly because logistically it just works better that way. From the quay, we climbed up to Tarbert Castle along the Kintyre Way which we would be following for the entirety of today’s walk.

The path is a firm, grit path and leads away from the castle and winds its way through the forestry plantation. The Kintyre Way is way is marked with blue posts which are easy to spot – except where branches have grown across them. We came up to an impressively large ”beehive” cairn. It seems it is the Millennium Cairn but I suspect there may have been a cairn before the 2000 millennium because, even on my rather old version, the OS map shows a cairn .

Shortly after the cairn, the Kintyre Way joins a gravel track and I feared that the rest of the walk would be along such gravel forestry tracks. The track was at least wide enough to walk side by side and, with no traffic noise, we indulged in some conversation, something of a rarity on our long walk. We were musing on the many questions raised by our visit yesterday to the large panel of prehistoric rock art at Achnabreck, not far from Lochgilphead. If anyone is interested you can find some photos and a brief discussion of rock art here.

The route opened out and we looked across open moorland on the west side whilst the east side was still blanketed in monoculture forest.

I am an unashamed seeker after views and find forest walking rather tedious. Yes, there are birds and wild flowers and occasional deer but the views are generally lacking and I feel confined by dense trees.

As the open moorland was coming to an end, the Kintyre Way turns off along a grassy track through forestry land.

The path generally was firm and reasonably wide. What was more significant was that the path had been recently maintained; there had been a quad bike with a grass cutter along within the last day or so as the grass cuttings at the side were still green. This is a first for us on Scotland’s footpaths. The path was easy to see and to follow.

There were one or two boggy patches. We were ready for a break and would have liked to get off the path and sit on one of the old stumps where clear felling had taken place a few years back but there was a boggy ditch along each side of the path. Eventually we came to a forestry sign board on a dry, grassy area beside the path and we sat, each leaning against one of the two posts, and had our coffee.

From here, the Kintyre Way passed through a gate onto an estate track with signs warning of active shooting and also warned dog owners to keep their dogs on leads because there were fox snares set. I thought that the practice of snaring animals had been made illegal in the UK but it seems that is not the case.

The track follows the Skipness river down to Skipness and the sea. It is a pleasant walk and we actually passed a couple of walkers going in the opposite direction. The river passes through a gorge as it descends

In Skipness there was a convenient bench by the bus stop opposite the post office and so we stopped there for lunch. The sun was shining and there was gentle breeze. It was ideal.

After lunch we had a couple of miles to go to reach the Claonaig Ferry Terminal, from where we had planned to get a bus back to Tarbert. We have been here before because, when I cycled from Land’s End to John o’ Groats in 2009, Jill had joined me at Ardrossan where we took the ferry to Arran and cycled to Lochranza and then took the ferry to Claonaig on our way to Oban. This time, having arrived just before 2pm, we would have a 2½ hour wait for the bus. So we rang the number pasted on the bus shelter for the local taxi and agreed a pick up from the road junction in Claonaig, a quarter of a mile up the road. Fifteen minutes later we were  on our way back to Tarbert. Our taxi driver was a retired businessman from Essex who had relocated to the Mull of Kintyre  a couple of years ago. Having built his dream house in the hills, he was now dismayed as Scottish Power had clear-felled the trees behind his house to install a big wind farm and had created a gravel roadway through the hills around his house to install the power cables for the wind farm. I expect he will get over it. Indeed there are various access points up and down Kintyre where construction vehicles can access the various pylons or towers as they call them.

The largest panel of prehistoric rock art in Britain is at Achnabreck, just a short distance from Lochgilphead. Jill has long been fascinated by rock art and the questions posed by it so we took the opportunity to visit Achnabreck on our way to the start of this walk.
The first rock art was discovered on Old Berwick Hill in Northumberland in 1822. Since then thousands of other sites have been recorded and it is widely accepted that the marks were made in the Neolithic period over 4000 to 5000 years ago continuing for at least 1000 years into the early Bronze Age. This was a period of transition from hunter-gatherers to more settled agricultural communities.
In some parts of the world, art on rocks gives a pictorial record of human activity such as hunting or rituals but British rock art is almost entirely of abstract symbols or motifs comprising cups, cup and ring/s, grooves and arcs. Similar motifs can be found in many other parts of the world. Nobody knows what the motifs mean but those found on rocks in the landscape, rather than those on monuments such as graves or standing stones (eg Long Meg in Cumbria), were almost certainly used to “sign the land”. The marked slabs of usually sedimentary rock are found on higher, less fertile ground, often at the best viewpoints, on ridges overlooking river valleys and plains. These flat rocks are open to the sky but cannot be seen from lower ground and may well have been surrounded by forest in the past. Pastoral nomads may have used these rocks to find their way through the landscape.
Richard Bradley found that complex motifs are often at the higher levels leading to monuments in a carefully constructed sequence or at the “entrance” in the natural terrain leading to significant places. The simple motifs tend to be found lower down on the margins of more fertile land.

There is a very readable article about England’s Rock Art, for which the same principles and questions apply, at

Click to access ERA_Brochure.pdf

It remains the case that we know remarkably little about the purpose and significance of rock art and will probably never know precisely what the symbols mean.
There is now far greater interest in trying to understand this enigmatic art form and, more importantly, of recording and protecting sites from damage by animals, acid rain, quarrying or even simply the growth of lichen and mosses on the rocks.

These are some of the photos we took at Achnabreck.

Friday 24th June 2022

Having done an extra four miles yesterday, today’s walk was reduced to just over ten miles and so we had a slightly later breakfast at 7.30. Then Jill got it into her head that there was a loop of about eight miles that we could add on leaving us with less than three miles to do tomorrow so we would head for home a lot earlier than planned. The crux of today’s walk would be getting to a bus stop for the only reasonable bus back at around 16.00. The late bus at 19.25 would be too late for the meal we had arranged at the B&B.

Having had a slightly later breakfast and having to drive to Auchenbreck meant we did not start walking until 8.40.

Today we would be following the Cowal Way as far as Kames. This a walk we did in 2019, though in the other direction. We had about three miles of A road walking to start off with. Walking along single track A roads with passing places is a bit challenging because cars are not very good at slowing down for pedestrians  and the drivers tend to hog the crown of the road pushing us to the very edge which often has a significant drop where vehicles have run off the edge of the tarmac. It leaves a dangerous drop for unwary walkers’ ankles.

We passed some rather sweet cattle.

Then we turned onto the minor road for Ormidale alongside Loch Ruel. This is a No Through road and was virtually car free.

Where the road runs out we turned onto the path section of the Cowal Way.

The path squeezes between the loch side and the significant cliffs above. For a couple of miles the route is very tortuous, going up and down the cliff with the aid of wooden steps sometimes with ropes to hang on to. The path has become quite overgrown with rhododendrons and we felt they were constituting much more of a hindrance now than even three years ago. Some work needs to be done very soon if the path is to remain useable.

Soon we came to a dirt track and then as we approached Tighnabruaich this became tarmac. In Tighnabruaich there are two coffee shops next door to each other. We went into the first one and sat down but they seemed to be a bit preoccupied with other customers and we were hoping for a quick drink and to buy some rolls to take for our lunch as eating those would be quicker than our cheese and biscuits. We knew we couldn’t afford to sit and wait for long so we decided to move on but were tempted by the next one who instantly asked what we would like and so we had coffee and cinnamon pastries whilst they made us up rolls to take away for lunch later.

We left the café at about 13.00 and we had nine miles to go to get the bus stop by 16.06 and so we had to walk at a minimum of 3mph for three hours to get the bus. In theory that was do-able but it left no time for stops. Jill can be very determined on such occasions. (She is on other occasions as well, I can assure you). We set off down the side of the Kyles of Bute; the sun was shining  and we were walking into a gentle head wind. It was beautiful and a bit of a pity we were in such a hurry. There was a café at Carry but we already had lunch with us. At Ardlamont Ferry, the path turns west and then passes Ardlamont House and also Cedar House which has a most impressive portico with a dovecote.

As we walked, we re-worked our plan. We decided that I should press on as fast as possible to ensure I definitely caught the bus at 16.06 from Millhouse. I could then get the car. Jill would continue from Millhouse to Portavadie even if she arrived before the bus. I would then drive to Portavadie to collect Jill; she would drive me to Millhouse and I would then walk to Portavadie. It was a lot more straightforward than it sounded and it meant there was no need to return tomorrow at all and we would get back to our B&B for the pre-arranged evening meal having completed this section a day early.

I am pleased to say that the best-laid plan on this occasion worked perfectly.

I pressed on and was at Millhouse fifteen minutes before the bus. Jill arrived only five minutes behind me and so we had time for Jill to have some coffee and regroup. She set off once more and a few minutes later I caught the bus. I was the only passenger and the driver dropped me within inches of the car.  Half an hour later I was at Portvadie where Jill had been waiting for twenty minutes. She drove me to Millhouse and about forty minutes later I rejoined her at Portavadie. The walk from Millhouse to Portavadie is nothing special just tarmac except for the last half a mile past the handful of houses and past the marina and hotel.

Next time we will be getting the ferry from Portavadie to start walking round the Mull of Kintyre and it will be getting a lot more remote.