Island 249 - Eilean Buidhe, Craobh Haven, Argyll

Eilean Buidhe has formed part of the eastern side of the harbour at Craobh Haven since 1983 when a stone causeway was built out to it.  It is more wooded than the 2 islands on the other side of the harbour.  There is a house on the island and 3 self-catering log built lodges known as Loch Shuna Lodges.  The owner of the house and the lodges is Mr Falcon Scott, grandson of Captain Robert Falcon Scott of Antarctica.

The causeway is wider than the ones out to Fraoch Eilean and Eilean an Duin and it is wide enough to drive along.  The island is about 300 metres long by 200 metres wide.

 Craobh Haven from Eilean Buidhe



Eilean Buidhe from the end of the breakwater at the western end of the island

Eilean Buidhe from Craobh Haven

Island 248 - Eilean an Duin, Craobh Haven, Argyll

Eilean an Duin has been joined to the mainland at Craobh Haven since 1983 via the smaller island of Fraoch Eilean by a stone causeway.  Its name in Gaelic means "island of the fort" and an iron age fort is still marked at the highest point on the island, which is 23 metres above sea level.  The northern part of it was destroyed when they built the causeways.  The north side of the island looks like it has been quarried, presumably for stone to build the causeways.  The island is about 300 metres long by 150 metres wide.

Eilean an Duin is covered in scrubby trees - mainly silver birch, rowan and alder - bracken, brambles and wild flowers such as rosebay willowherb, scabious and heather.  There is one clear path running along the length of the island right to end of the breakwater, which has been built out to the east of the island.

Craobh Haven Harbour from Eilean an Duin

Remains of the Fort at Eilean an Duin

 Fraoch Eilean from Eilean an Duin

Island 247 - Fraoch Eilean, Craobh Haven, Argyll

Craobh Haven village and harbour were built in 1983.  The harbour was constructed by linking  2 islands (Fraoch Eilean and Eilean an Duin) on the west side and one (Eilean Buidhe) on the east side with the mainland by stone causeways.

It wasn't clear from the OS map how accessible the islands on the west side would be but I followed a track past all the houses, which turned into a narrow muddy (even after a dry summer) footpath through a small wood and eventually out onto the first causeway leading to Fraoch Eilean.  The path was well trodden and dog waste bins are provided at the landward end, so I presume it is a popular local path.

Causeway to Fraoch Eilean

 Fraoch Eilean

 Craobh Haven from Fraoch Eilean

 These rocks on the western side of Fraoch Eilean look like they have been worn smooth by a passing glacier at some point in the past

Island 246 - Eilean Traighte, Ardfern, Argyll

Eilean Traighte has recently become the new home of the Craignish Boat Club.  It was formerly a tidal island.  The island is located a mile to the north west of the village of Ardfern.  It is about 150 metres long by 50 metres wide.

I think there has been a causeway to it for some time but it has recently been improved, so that it is now always above high tide level.  The gate by the road was securely locked but there was no notice saying that you couldn't walk across to it, so I did.  There was no one around when I visited on a Monday afternoon in mid September 2014.

The island has several full grown trees - mainly sycamore, ash, alder, silver birch and rowan.  There are also bracken, brambles and wild flowers such as foxgloves, rosebay willowherb, scabious and sea mayweed.

The centre of the island was cleared to make way for the boat club's sheds and racks and a small slipway was built on the east side of the island.  There is a private car park on the mainland.



Causeway to Eilean Traighte



Slipway



Eilean Traighte from the Causeway



New boatsheds on Eilean Traighte - all securely locked

Island 245 - Danna, Tayvallich, Argyll

Danna is located down a very long (12 miles) dead end single track road with passing places on the west coast of Argyll.  It is located at the southern end of the Tayvallich peninsula, which separates Loch Sween from the Sound of Jura.   The nearest village is Tayvallich, which is a delightful place with a sheltered harbour and a lovely café with a view over the harbour.  

Danna is roughly rectangular in shape and is about 2 miles from north to south and 1.5 miles from east to west.  The highest point on the island is 52 metres above sea level.   The public road ends just beyond the manmade stone causeway, which I understand floods only a few times a year when there are exceptionally high spring tides.  The causeway is only about 40 metres long and before it was built I would imagine that the island would have been accessible on foot at low tide.  There is a handy parking place at the end of the road.  The road becomes a rough track and you cannot drive any further.  There is a gate with a notice telling you this.  It says “walkers only”, which I took as an invitation to visit.  

 

The island, which is part of the Ulva, Danna and the McCormaig Isles Site of Special Scientific Interest, is divided into large fields and is grazed by sheep and there is an area of coniferous woodland in the middle of it.  The grazing didn’t look the best quality but there is plenty of it, along with a lot of bracken. There are also a few native trees – ash and birch mainly – and wildflowers such as scabious, thistles and wild strawberries.  There were also plenty of blackberries when I visited in mid September 2014. There are 3 houses/farms marked on the map.  I walked to beyond the first one you come to – New Danna but did not walk right down to the south coast, although it looks from the map that there might be 2 tidal islands that could be visited – Eilean nan Uan and Eilean a Chapuill.
 

After visiting Danna I made a short detour to Keills on the opposite side of the inlet Loch na Cille to visit the chapel there.  The chapel itself is unremarkable but inside there is a large collection of beautifully carved ancient tombstones – well worth a visit, although there is only enough parking for about 4 or 5 cars.

 

Causeway at low tide looking north towards the mainland

Unnamed house at Port nan Gallan on the north west coast

Eventually rusty old farm implements become art!

Middle of Danna showing the coniferous plantation and the house at Mid Danna

Track on Danna looking north towards the mainland and Loch na Cille

Keills Chapel looking towards Danna

 Ruined house near Port nan Gallan

 Farm buildings at New Danna

 This is far as you can drive

Island 244 - Ardwall Isle, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland

Ardwall Isle is a roundish tidal island half a mile north of Barlocco Isle and is another Island of Fleet, along with Barlocco Isle and the Murray Isles, which are half a mile to the north west of Ardwall and which are not accessible on foot except possibly at times of extremely low spring tides.  Ardwall Island is approximately 700 metres from north east to south west and 400 metres from north west to south east.  The highest point on the island is 34 metres above sea level.

Unlike neighbouring Barlocco Isle, the access to Ardwall is across muddy sand.  You have to open a gate to access the parking area opposite the island at Knockbrex and when I visited there were cattle grazing, whose favourite game seemed to be to stand in the middle of the road and refuse to move!  I parked my car under the curious gaze of the cows but they kept their distance, so I left the car and set off for Ardwall.  The sand turned out to be firmer than it looked and I took the absence of warning notices about soft mud or quicksand as a good sign.  The sand nearest the rocks at the island end turned out to be thick mud but away from the rocks it was fine to walk on.  The beach is composed of an orange tinged sand with crushed blue and mauve mussel shells and cockles and limpets.

It is about 400 metres to the island and there was a clear path leading up onto the island from the beach at the eastern end.  I don't know who owns or manages the island but some areas had obviously been mowed quite recently and some of the undergrowth had been cut back.  There is a ruined building towards the southern end of the island, which had an apple tree and a eucalyptus in its former garden.  I tried one of the apples - it was horrible!  To the south of the ruin is a house which was shut up but looked to be habitable.

The island is covered in grass, gorse, white and red fuchsia bushes, red campion, thistles, ragwort, nettles, bracken, brambles (more blackberries to eat), yarrow and thrift.  The undergrowth is impenetrable away from the paths, which got quite narrow towards the house.   There were a few full grown trees - some ash and a line of pine trees, possibly planted as a shelter belt.

The remains of a chapel are marked on the Ordnance Survey map at the north east end of the island but I couldn't see it.  The site was excavated in 1964-5 and from the photographs I have seen I think the remains were covered up again.  A cemetery was established on Ardwall in the 5th or 6th century and a stone chapel in the Irish style was built c700 on the site of an earlier wooden building.  A hall house was built on the same site c1250-1350 and then a tower c1780-1800.

As I was about to leave the island I looked across the sand and realised that my car was surrounded by 4 or 5 black cows.  When I got back to it I found they were busy licking all the windows and doors!  I have no idea what the attraction was but I managed to shoo them away.  As I did so I noticed that one of them wasn't a cow but a very large bull.  However he seemed quite placid.  The cows then got their revenge on me for interrupting their ritual by blocking the only track back to the road.  The bull then proceeded to get amorous with several of his ladies for 15 minutes right in front of me, although it all looked a bit half-hearted to me!  I tried driving right up to them and hooting gently but they just looked at me and refused to move.  In the end I reversed back and waited for them to move on, taking the opportunity to wash the slobber from all my car's windows!  In my experience cows don't stay in one place for all that long.  About 20 minutes later there was just enough space for me to drive through and I left.

The ruin with eucalyptus and apple tree

The house

The middle of the island
 

Path up onto the island at the north eastern end.

Ardwall Island from Knockbrex

 Murray Isles from Ardwall

 Mainland from Ardwall
- this is the main point of access onto the island

 Ardwall from Knockbrex

Island 243 - Barlocco Isle, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland

Barlocco Isle

This exotic sounding island doesn't live up to its name.  It is one of the Islands of Fleet and can be accessed at low tide across a narrow 300 metre long rocky platform from the mainland a few miles to the south of Gatehouse of Fleet.  It is about 400 metres long from north to south and 250 metres wide from east to west.  The highest point on the island is only just over 10 metres above sea level.

I visited in mid September 2014.  There was a track marked on the map leading from the road down to the beach.  I found where it started and there was a convenient parking spot for my car.  It was then a pleasant 10 minute walk down to the beach. 

When I crossed it a couple of hours before low tide only a thin strip of the rocky platform was above the water level.  It is a minor scramble but once again I had reason to thank the barnacles which have colonised the rocks and which give us humans a great non-slippery surface on which to walk.

There were a few very faint paths on the island and the remains of an old stone wall, so I presume that the island was once used for grazing animals.  The island is covered in exposed rocks, rough grass, thrift, sea lavender, thistles and blackberries - I ate more than enough of them to count as one of my 5 a day.  There are no trees, just a few bushes.

This disused building is located on the edge of the beach on the mainland opposite Barlocco Isle.  I have no idea of its former purpose.

Not the world's most interesting island!

The remains of a dry stone wall and some brambles laden with delicious blackberries

More dry stone walls
 

The rocky causeway - looking towards Barlocco Isle

 

Barlocco Isle from the mainland

 

Barlocco Isle from the nearest parking spot

Barlocco Isle

Island 242 - Isle of Whithorn, Dumfries and Galloway

The Isle of Whithorn is the name given to the village that lies 3 miles to the south east of Whithorn in Dumfries and Galloway and at the southern tip of the Machars Peninsula.  However it is also the name of the former tidal island adjacent to the village.  Both the village and the island are delightful, peaceful places off the beaten track.

Having driven 500 miles in one day to get there, with only a couple of brief stops for geocaches along the way, I was glad to stretch my legs and to have some time to stand and stare in this tranquil place.

The Isle of Whithorn is an important place in the history of Christianity in Scotland.  St Ninian, who was British but went away to Europe to study, returned to convert the southern Picts 50 years before St Columba arrived on Iona.  The current chapel, which is in ruins, was built in 1300 on the site of an earlier narrower one.  It is situated inside a perimeter wall, which probably enclosed a house for a priest and a burial ground.  The chapel was in ruins by the 1860s but was repaired and partly rebuilt in 1898.

After St Ninian's death the Isle of Whithorn became a place of pilgrimage. Pilgrims from as far away as Spain, France, Wales, Ireland and Scandinavia landed in the safe harbour on the island, gave thanks for their safe arrival in the chapel on the island and then walked 3.5 miles inland to visit St Ninian's shrine at Whithorn.  The exact details about St Ninian's life are a bit sketchy and lost in the mists of time.  He does of course have a whole island named after him in the Shetland Isles, although he probably never went there.

I have not been able to find a definitive date for when the causeway to the island was built.  Some sources say the 1790s while others say the 1820s.  The causeway is clearly shown on an Ordnance Survey map of 1849.  A row of houses was built on the causeway, so it is difficult to tell where the island used to start.  Round the back of the houses at the wonderfully named Stinking Port (presumably the stink was created by rotting seaweed?) it is easier to see.

The island is covered in grass and wild flowers such as thrift, sea campion, thistles, thrift, sea mayweed and yarrow.  There is a network of paths criss-crossing it, some better trodden than others, and several memorial benches.

There are also 2 memorials to the crew of the Solway Harvester, a scallop dredger from Kirkcudbright, which sank off the Isle of Man on 11th January 2000 with the loss of all 7 crew members.  Her crew members came from the Isle of Whithorn area.

The name Whithorn means "white house" and refers to St Ninian's stone church - Candida Casa in Latin.

Witness Cairn 

It was inaugurated in 1997 to commemorate St Ninian's arrival in Scotland.  People are welcome to add their own stone, as a symbol of an act of witness completed or which you pledge that you will do. It is situated inside the remains of the village's old lifeboat station, which closed in 1919.

Solway Harvester Memorial Bench made of Galloway granite, with St Ninian's Chapel in the background

I don't why this area had been mowed or what the lines are for?

Memorial to the crew of the Solway Harvester up near the tower

I'm not sure of the origins of this tower.

St Ninian's Chapel

Round the back of the houses it is easier to see the join between the island and the mainland.

This is the causeway from the front

Whithorn Priory

Isle of Whithorn

Tower and Solway Harvester Memorial

 St Ninian's Chapel