Day 46: Clachan to Ardnabreck, Argyll

Virtual Walk: Scotland 2021

19th February 20121: 104.31km walked today taking the total to 4713.31/8868km. 13% of 108 entries submitting 802.38km.

We visit the Slate Islands’ area today before heading south through Mid-Argyll towards Lochgilphead.

Route 15: Oban to Fort William

We cross over the 200-year-old Clachan Bridge which spans the narrow tidal channel of Clachan Sound. The Sound meets the Atlantic Ocean at both ends, so the bridge is often referred to as the ‘Bridge over the Atlantic’. It leads us onto the island of Seil, where we continue southward along the coast, past Balvicar Bay, to eventually reach the village of Ellenabeich located on the islands’ south coast. Ellenabeich means ‘island of the birch woods’ and is named after an island, Eilean a Beithich, which once sat off the coast here. As early as the 16th century, this island was quarried for slate to the point that it disappeared. Originally about 1 hectare in area, the island was quarried 76 metres below sea level, which left only the outer rim of the island visible. In 1881, during severe gales, a buttress supporting the sea wall gave way, so the island is no more; all that remains today is the outer rim of the island, which now forms the outer edge of the village harbour.

A small ferry takes us to Easdale, the smallest inhabited island in the Inner Hebrides. From the mid-17th century to the late 19th century, Easdale and the islands of Seil, Luing, and Belnahua, were the centre of the Scottish slate industry. They were collectively known as the Slate Islands and quarried Easdale slate. The island had as many as 7 working quarries, some of which extended 100 metres below sea level. The same storm of 1881, which caused Eilean a Beithich to disappear, flooded the quarries on Easdale, after which the industry declined and, in the 1950s, the final slate was cut.

Easdale now relies on tourism, and the Easdale Island Folk Museum is worth a visit. It is a unique island to walk around with its deep, still pools filling the abandoned quarries. The World Stone Skimming Championships are also held here each year at one of the quarries.

We return to Ellenabeich, then retrace our steps back onto the mainland. En route we visit a garden at An Cala, designed by Thomas Mawson in 1930 for Colonel Arthur Murray and his wife, actress Faith Celli. The garden contains waterfalls, ponds, and many plants, especially rhododendrons and azaleas, plus has fantastic views of the islands in the Atlantic.

We return to the mainland at the ‘Bridge over the Atlantic’ then turn right to head south along a single-track road to Ardmaddy. In the 15th century, an early tower house was built here by the McDougalls before the castle was passed into Campbell ownership in 1648. The current Ardmaddy Castle dates from 1737 and incorporates the basement of the previous tower house. The castle was sold in 1933 and, although the castle isn't open to the public, its gardens are worth a visit and include a walled garden, woodland walks, and a water garden.

We continue south and climb to Bealach na Gaoithe, the windy pass. On the way we pass the Wishing Tree, an old hawthorn tree which has fallen and been fenced in to protect it. a coin inserted into the tree’s bark entitles the person to a wish. In 2012/2013, a project was instigated to determine how long people had been adding coins to the tree. Coins were not removed from the tree, but holes were dug underneath it to search for coins which had fallen loose. The oldest of the coins found were dated1914, so it seems this tree has been a wishing tree for over 100 years.

We head south on the Degnish Peninsula and reach the coast of Loch Melfort, a sea loch, where we turn east to pass Kilchoan. The name Kilchoan is believed to come from “Cille Chòmhain” or “cell of St Comghan”, thought to have been an 8th-century Celtic monk who had a chapel or monastery dedicated to him when it was established here. The present owner of Kilchoan Estate, Nicolas Ibanez Scott, a Chilean with strong family links to Scotland, decided to build a new St Comghan’s chapel using traditional methods, complete with stained glass windows, which is open to all.

From here, we take the road which goes around the coast of Loch Melfort, passing Eilean Coltair, before we reach Melfort Village at the head of the loch. We then head south to reach Arduaine. There is yet another garden here, run by the National Trust for Scotland since 1992. The Arduaine garden was established in 1898 and, like the other gardens in the area, benefits from the warming effects of the Gulf Stream which allows plants, particularly rhododendrons and azaleas, from all corners of the world to flourish. The garden has a secret footpath which takes you to the coast for views across the islands of Eilean Gamhna, Luing and Mull.

Heading inland we pass the head of Loch Craignish, where we should be able to see Ardfern and its marina in the distance before we reach a tall standing stone, the Kintraw Standing Stone, and a burial mound, just after we pass the Kintraw Burn. This standing stone stands at nearly 4 metres tall and although it fell in 1979 it has since been re-erected into its original position. Originally it was thought to have been 5.25 metres tall and is dated to 1800 BC. The standing stone is said to have been erected to a Norse prince and is also known as the Danish King’s Grave.

Still following the road, after about 8 kilometres we reach the 16th-century Carnasserie Castle. This castle is now a roofless ruin but was where the first Protestant Bishop of the Isles, Master John Carsewell lived. He had been granted the lands by the Earl of Argyll in 1559 when he was Rector of Kilmartin, and he built Carnasserie Castle using the Earl’s wealth. He became the Bishop of the Isles in 1565, published the first book in Scottish Gaelic, a translation of John Knox’s Book of Common Order, before he died in 1572. The castle was captured, then partly blown up by Royalist forces in 1685 and never repaired. It is still possible to climb to the top of the tower where there are fantastic views across the Kilmartin Glen which we will be visiting next to see various ancient cairns and standing stones.

From Carnasserie Castle we take the Dalriada Heritage Trail, an 11-kilometre walk taking us through Kilmartin Glen and the Moine Mhor National Nature Reserve to Dunadd Fort and then on to the Crinan Canal.

Firstly, we reach Kilmartin Glen, one of Scotland’s richest archaeological landscapes with prehistoric carved stone surfaces and Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments. Near Kilmartin village, there are over 300 ancient monuments, including cairns, standing stones, stone circles and rock art. In Kilmartin village itself, we visit the Kilmartin House Museum, located in the old manse, which gives a background on all the archaeological sites nearby. We then visit Kilmartin Church which contains 3 carved Celtic crosses (they are in the church to protect them from the Scottish weather), and carved medieval grave slabs in its graveyard.

On the walk around the major Kilmartin sites, we will visit Glebe Cairn first. This is the northernmost of a line of 5 burial cairns which run north to south. All 5 are large round cairns dating to the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age periods, from about 5000 to 3500 years ago. The next cairn in the line is the Nether Largie North Cairn which is mostly a reconstruction from 1970 which allows visitors to look at the cist and its carvings of axe-heads at the centre of the cairn. The next 2 cairns are Nether Largie Mid and Nether Largie South, which is the oldest and contains a chambered tomb which can still be entered. Before reaching the fifth cairn, Ri Cruin, we visit the Nether Largie standing stones. There are 5 stones, 4 of them aligned in the same direction as the linear cemetery with the remaining stone in the centre.

In Temple Wood, there are 2 more stone circles, a northern one, of which not much remains apart from cobbles and a southern one which originally consisted of 22 stones, of which only 13 now remain with a much smaller inner ring surrounding a central cist.

Leaving Kilmartin we head down through woods near Poltalloch House which was built in the 1830s but is now ruined. It was formerly the seat of the Malcolms of Poltalloch who now live at Duntrune Castle which we will see later. We then head east passing the flat peatland of Moine Mhor (the Great Moss) nature reserve to reach the River Add. We follow this river before arriving at Dunadd Fort. This rocky little hill was the site of an ancient fort and headquarters of the ancient kingdom of Dalriada, the original kingdom of the Scots. At the summit is a carved footprint in the rock where it is said a Dalriada King was crowned, by placing his foot into the imprint. Legend has it that the Stone of Destiny was also used here in the crowning of the first Kings of Scotland.

Leaving Dunadd we go south, still following the Dalriada Heritage Trail, through woodland heading for the Crinan Canal at Loch a Bahrain (a feeder reservoir for the canal). When we reach the canal, we turn west to start walking along the canal towpath past the Dunardry Locks, a swing bridge, and the Crinan Basin at Bellanoch, before reaching Crinan itself.

The Crinan Canal deemed ‘Britain’s most beautiful shortcut’, was completed in 1801 as a 14 kilometres long link between the Firth of Clyde and the Inner Hebrides, distance of so that boats would not have to go right around the dangerous Mull of Kintyre, a distance of nearly 200 kilometres. It links the village of Ardrishaig on the Firth of Clyde with Crinan on the west coast and although it was once busy with boats carrying freight it is now busy with yachts.

In Crinan we walk around the headland where we reach Crinan Harbour. Crinan was formerly known as Port Righ, the Kings Port, and only became known as Crinan after the arrival of the Crinan Canal, which was named after Crinan Ferry, a small settlement on the north side of Loch Crinan. There is a small, inhabited island just off the coast at Crinan called Eilean Da Mheinn. We can also see a castle across the loch called Duntrune Castle. It is one of the oldest inhabited houses in Scotland and used to be a Campbell stronghold. It was originally built in the 13th century before being added to in the 17th century. It was sold to the Malcolms of Poltalloch in 1792 and is now owned by Robin Neil Malcolm, the current clan chief of Clan Malcolm.

The castle is said to be haunted by a ghostly piper. The MacDonald’s had captured the castle and left a small group of men to garrison the castle. It was then retaken by the Campbells and all the MacDonalds were killed apart from the piper. When the main party of MacDonalds returned in their galley, the piper asked permission to play a tune on his pipes which he was permitted to do and, by making mistakes, he warned the MacDonalds of the danger lying in wait for them in the castle. When the Campbells saw the galley turn away, they cut off the piper’s hands and he bled to death. In 1888 when the castle was being repaired a handless skeleton was found so there might be some truth to the story.

We retrace our steps to the Crinan Canal Basin before taking a path which goes through Crinan Woods, a remnant of the ancient Atlantic oak woodlands. There is a great view from the ridge above before we return to the canal at one of the swing bridges. This time we stay on the south side of the canal as we head back east.

Before we reach the bridge at Islandadd we head up the road to Loch Barnluasgan where the Knapdale Scottish Beaver Trial started. In May 2009, the Scottish Wildlife Trust together with the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and Forestry and Land Scotland released the first wild beavers in Scotland in over 400 years. The trial was initiated to help the Scottish Government decide whether they should be allowed to stay, depending on the effect they had on the local environment, and how well they settled. At the end of the five-year trial, it was deemed a success and the beavers stayed. At Barnluasgan there is an information centre and, if we’re lucky, we might even catch a glimpse of one.

Although we are not doing it on this walk, if we kept going south, we would reach Loch Sween. On this loch is Castle Sween, the oldest standing castle in Scotland that can be dated with certainty. The castle and the loch took their name from Suibhe (Sven), ‘the Red’, who was a chieftain of Irish descent and an ancestor of the MacSweens. He built Castle Sween in the 12th century when Argyll was not in the Kingdom of Scotland. The MacSweens were replaced in the castle in 1262 when Scotland was trying to gain control of Argyll, and finally, in 1266 the Lordship of Argyll and the Isles was transferred to the King of Scots. In the late 14th century, the castle passed to MacDonald, Lord of the Isles, before James III of Scotland gave the castle to Colin Campbell, 1st Earl of Argyll. The castle was destroyed by Sir Alexander MacDonald in 1647 and is now in the keeping of Historic Environment Scotland.

Back to Loch Barnluasgan, we walk right around it before heading back to the Crinan Canal to head eastwards along the towpath. At the Cairnbaan Hotel, we turn off the towpath to Achnabreck to see the Achnabreac cup and ring markings, the most extensive prehistoric rock carvings in the UK. The cup and ring markings are over 5000 years old with many rings, including 9 rings which are almost one metre across. No one is sure of the purpose or meaning of the carvings.

We return to the towpath and continue towards Ardrishaig passing Lochgilphead for now, to reach the Ardrishaig Basin where the canal ends.