A lifetime of Islands: Island 176 - Davaar, Kintyre, Scotland.

Davaar is a tidal island located at the mouth of Campbeltown Loch, a couple of miles east of the town of Campbeltown at the southern end of the Kintyre Peninsula in Scotland. The shingle causeway, which is called the Doirlinn, is accessible for about 2.5 hours either side of low tide. The island is owned by the Kildalloig Estate.

Davaar was known as the island of Sanct Barre, 1449 -1508. The modern name is possibly derived from double-pointed (Da-Bharr) Island or it may be named after St Barre.

Davaar Lighthouse at the north end of the island was designed by David and Thomas Stevenson in 1854. It was automated in 1983.

The Lookout, Island Cottage and Otter Cottage are all available to rent as self-catering holiday accommodation.

The walk across the shingle Doirlinn is fairly easy going. There is a clear grassy track on the island leading to the lighthouse and associated cottages. There is a path up to the summit of the island but when I visited in early September it was very overgrown and towards the summit it becomes indistinct. There are no trees on the island. The higher slopes of the hill are covered in heather while lower down it is long grass, bracken and wildflowers like scabious, harebells and birdsfoot trefoil.

The wall painting of Jesus's Crucifixion in one of the island's caves was done in 1887 by local Art school teacher Archibald (or possibly Alexander) MacKinnon in secret after he had a dream telling him where to paint it. MacKinnon left Campbeltown shortly after the painting was discovered due to the scandal he had caused but he did return in 1902 and 1934 to carry out some restoration work on the painting. Since then the painting has been restored again in the 50s and in the 70s by art teachers from Campbeltown Grammar School. It was damaged in 2006 when someone painted an image of Che Guevara over it but has since been restored.

To get to the cave painting you need to turn south east as soon as you arrive on the island. The path is grassy at first but then you have to walk across the beach, which consists of boulders of varying sizes. The cave painting is in the 5th cave along (or the 7th depending on which source you believe - I have to say that I lost count of the number of caves I looked in before I got to the right one). I walk quite fast but it still took me nearly 20 minutes to get to the cave. When you get to the right cave there is a painted sign. It is very dark inside, so a torch would have been useful. However it was light enough to see the painting.

It was a 5 mile round trip by the time I had walked to and from the island, walked to the cave and lighthouse and back and climbed to the highest point on the island, which is 110 metres above sea level.

On the evening I visited 7 other people crossed over to the island. 2 of them only stayed a few minutes, 2 ladies followed me to the cave but gave up before we reached it and I had a long chat to an older American couple, who holiday in Kintyre every year because they love it so much. I met 3 people by the houses near the lighthouse and a couple of people were fishing off the beach near the lighthouse. I liked Davaar very much. It has a variety of terrains and is easily accessible but not overcrowded.