The Scottish Isles - September 2020

In September, after completing my 14 days of quarantine in Staveley I joined my old University friends for a trip around Scotland.  I drove north from Derbyshire and stayed half way up with my friends John and Gabrielle in Dumfries and Galloway in their beautiful cottage n the village of Borgue.  They have a wonderful old cottage that has been significantly updated that sits above the beach with terrific views out over the Solway Firth.

Steve, Stuart, Paul and John

The next morning I set off north to pick up my friends Stuart, at a motorway services, and John, at the railway station in Sterling.  John was the initiator of the trip.  He is on a mission to visit all inhabited islands in the United Kingdom of which there are around 240.  There are 98 in Scotland and he needs just 4 more to complete the set - the Isle of Ewe, Dry Island off Badachro, Soay off the Isle of Skye, and Eilean da Mheinn in Crinan Harbour.  We had plans to tackle all four in the next few days.

After collecting John from Stirling Station we continued north  - quite a way north - all the way to Aultbea in Ross and Cromarty.  Along the way Stuart, the historian, regaled us with tales of Jacobite rebellions, highland clearances and the like, while John told stories of his earlier walk around the coast of Britain and his adventures visiting the islands. Just before we arrived in Aultbea we passed Gruinard Island.  The military had used the island to do some chemical warfare testing and the island was polluted with anthrax.  It allegedly has been decontaminated.

Alastair and Paul on way out the Isle of Ewe

We had a meet up time in Aultbea of 4:00 pm to get a boat out to the Isle of Ewe.  We also were going to meet up with Paul the fourth member of our group.  We timed things just perfectly and arrived at the harbour right on 4:00.  We had about 5 minutes to wait and then we saw a small boat crossing from Ewe to pick us up.  It was Alastair Grant in his little outboard boat to take us back out to Ewe.  Alastair was a local young man who had left and then returned to Ewe where he runs a boat building operation.  He loaded into his boat that was indeed a little cramped and a little small for 5 people and we headed out through the choppy sea to Ewe. It was probably around a kilometer over the water.  He dropped us off on a sea weed encrusted beach and left us to wander around for a while.  We walked up an old farm track to some old stone buildings where there was the ruins of a mill and some other farm buildings.  It was mildly interesting and we probed around for a bit and then Stuart and I went off to find Alastair to get our ride back to the mainland.

The Beach on the Isle of Ewe

Alastair was in his boat yard building a clinker built boat.  We chatted for the while as the rain poured down and then we realized John and Paul were waiting out in the rain back at the beach - sorry about that.  We got in Alastair’s boat, this time a larger one, and set off to pick up the other two and go across back to the mainland.  By the time we got to shore I was decidedly damp and a little soggy.

Alastair's Boat Building Workshop

Alastair had told John that he would ferry us around for nothing but we felt we should give him something.   Things went a bit too far though and because of a mix up with who was giving him what we ended up giving him 60 pounds.  A little bit more than we expected.

The Gairloch Hotel

The beach at Gairloch

We drove south for a short ways and stayed the night in the Gairloch Hotel, an impressive old hotel that sits just above the beach in the town of Gairloch.   It was raining again in the evening when we walked up the road for dinner - again we got pretty damp.

Next morning it was an early morning Full Scottish Breakfast - always a good choice.  Three of us decided to take a drive up the coast while our 4th member, Paul, languished in bed.  We drove up the narrow coast road to Melvaig and the end of the paved road.  There was a spectacular rainbow on the way back.

Rainbow near Melvaig

Dry Island

The King of Islonia's Palace

After returning to the hotel and picking up Paul we moved further south to our next island, Dry Island a small island in the bay that sits off the town of Badachro.  Access to Dry Island was not obvious and when we couldn’t find any easy access we ignored a Private Path sign to walk down onto the beach where there was a floating bridge over the 100 yards water onto the island.  We did not have permission to visit the private island and we were met by the owner who grilled us as to why we hadn’t called ahead for access.  He finally mellowed and ended up inviting us to join him for a cup of tea.  We went into his cottage and he regaled us with stories of his life on the island.  Three generations of his family have lived on the island.  He is a fisherman who supplements his income with a couple of holiday cottages on the sunny side of the island.  He has also declared independence from Scotland and created the Independent nation of Islonia of which he is king, and his wife queen.  He honored our visit by declaring us citizens of Islonia and giving us all passports.  A most interesting visit with a real character.

The Skye Bridge from Kyleakin

From Badachro we headed off to our next destination, the Isle of Skye.  It was quite a drive and we made a stop on the way in Plocton where we enjoyed tea and scones.  After refreshments we drove on to the Kyle of Lochalsh, then over the new and most impressive bridge onto Skye.  We stayed the night in the town at the island end of the Skye Bridge, Kyleakin.  Kyleakin has the Bright Water Visitor Center which commemorates the local wildlife, particularly the otters, and the writer Gavin Maxwell who memorialized them in his book (and later film) the Ring of Bright Water.

The boat to Soay

On board for Soay

Next morning we had the obligatory Full Scottish Breakfast, and then set off for the small fishing village of Elgol.  John had reserved a boat in Elgol to take us out to the island of Soay.  The boat was waiting at the dock and we boarded her for the short trip out to Soay.  We stopped offshore and one of the boatmen rowed us two at a time to the island. 

Being rowed onto Soay

The beach on Soay

Soay was purchased by Gavin Maxwell in 1946 where he tried to establish a shark oil business. Alas the operation was unsuccessful and folded three years later. There are still a couple of full time residents on the island but we didn’t see them.  We walked along the beach past the Old School House and the cottage of Tex Geddes who was supposedly Gavin Maxwell’s harpoon man in his shark fishing days.

Eilean Donan

We were done with Soay by 11:00 or so and we headed off back to the mainland and headed south.  We stopped at the castle on Eilean Donan for the classic photo opportunity and to reassure John that it was not inhabited year round (it wasn’t).  We drove on for a few more hours to Appin where we stopped for our customary tea and scones.  Feeling refreshed we pressed on for the last island of the trip, Eilean Da Mheinn in Crinan Harbour.  This island was about 300 yards off Crinan and the water was perfectly calm so we decided to use Paul’s inflatable boat to make the crossing.  It was a bit of a palaver getting the boat inflated and the outboard mounted but we eventually got it done and Paul ferried us across onto the island one at a time.  

Eilean Da Mheinn

The Inflatable to Eilean Da Mheinn

The island was not very big and had a single residence on its other side which we did not see.  We simply gathered on the beach and celebrated or getting out there and then returned to the mainland.  Of course, we then had the whole business of deflating and repacking the boat - a lot of work.

Crinan from Eilean Da Mheinn

We made a quick stop to look at the sea lock into the Crinan Canal.  There were a lot of fine sailboats moored there and one old steam vessel, the Glasgow Puffer.

That evening we stayed in the Lochgair Hotel, a big down-at-heel place by the side of the main road.  The room was frigid cold but the duvet was wonderful.

I devoured my final Full Scottish in the morning and then we set off for England.  Paul us left first for his home in Dollar, we dropped Stuart at a service station near Sterling and then I took John all the way back down to Chesterfield where he caught a train to his home in Birmingham. A most enjoyable trip. John is doing the Irish islands next year and I look forward to joining him for a few of them.

There are more photographs here.