Monday, August 17, 2009

Exploring Southern Bute

[Maryanne]CONGRATULATIONS! This is our post #300 and you are still here - amazing!

[Kyle]As it was a Monday, we decided we’d only do one thing today. The night before the barman at St. Blane’s hotel loaned us a trail map of Bute. We decided we would walk the southern 4 ½ mile loop of the West Island Way, which is a trail that starts in Kilchattan and eventually runs the full length of the island.


Maryanne waiting at the Kissing gate for the toll & Kyle battling through the ferns

Ruins of St Blane's Chapel & Footprint sitting in Kilchattan Bay

The weather was gorgeous and summery for our walk. By about ten minutes after landing the dinghy and starting off, I had reduced my outfit to a t-shirt and running shorts, stuffing the rest of it into our pack. The trail started as a continuation of the road just south of the town and followed the coast around to the Ruannan-eun point lighthouse and the adjacent Glencallum Bay that we’d sailed passed on the way in the day before. (We found out Ruannan-eun is Gaelic for place of the birds or some such thing.) The trail then began climbing up the cliffs, giving us ever expanding views of the Clyde and the jagged peaks of Arran in the background. Once we were high enough, we went through a pass and were rewarded with views of a huge glen surrounding Loch na Lieghe far below. The trail descended into the glen on the other side of a small ridge from the loch. I wanted to get a photo of the loch so, against Maryanne’s feeble advice (she knew I wouldn’t listen), I fought my way up the ridge through chest-high ferns and gorse (Gorse is a horrible prickly bush) to get one. In the end, there turned out to be a better view just a little further on that didn’t require any bushwhacking. Yeah, it was easier, but where was the adventure?

On the other side of the glen, the trail passed by the ruins of the 14th century St. Blane’s chapel, with its lawns manicured by goats and its pretty views of the Firth of Clyde. From there, the trail crosses sheep fields and eventually makes its way nearly to the top of Suide Hill, the highest point on the southern side of the island. Nearly to the top? I don’t think so. Maryanne found a nice place to rest while I climbed the rest of the way to the survey marker at the top. Wow! From up there, I had a great clear view of Bute, Arran, Kilchattan Bay, the Firth of Clyde, the whole shebang. I even got a 360 degree picture of it all, too. Very cool.

The trail then made a pretty steep plunge down a long muddy slope right into the back of the town, which made us really glad we didn’t do the loop the other way. We got within a few hundred yards of being spit back out on the street when the trail turned into nothing but nettles, those horrible plants covered with thousands of irritant tipped needles. I had made it all this way in shorts with nothing more than a few minor scratches and now my legs felt like somebody was running a blowtorch over them. Damn! Maryanne thought it was hilarious, me wincing in pain as I tried to keep up with her, all smug in her jeans. Fortunately, the major pain dies off in a few minutes. A wee dram of Scottish pain killer from St. Blane’s helps, too. Even now, though, several hours later, I still feel like I spilled a hot kettle on myself. I’m sure I’ll be fine by the time Maryanne stops giggling.


Bute's Kilchattan Harbour

Glencallum Bay

Entering the Valley Pass - between Tòrr Mòr to the right and St Blane's Hill to the left

Great Scenery - Looking South in southern Bute with Lough na Leighe off to the left

5 comments:

Mommy Dearest said...

Has she stopped giggling yet? You have experience with these things, Kyle. Of course it reminds me of the poison ivy on the stream bank and the towel you draped over the poison ivy, then dried off with. Oooh, not good at all.

It's absolutely gorgeous there. I'm jealous!

Mum said...

Well I can see why Kyle likes scotland so much they obviously dont have any razor blades do you want me to send you some

Karen said...

The congratulations (and thanks!) on this posting milestone go to you two! The wonderful photos, descriptions and stories about your travels continue to be just as anticipated and entertaining as your first 100!

Ireland, with all the charming names of her quaint towns and cities, certainly deserves the 'Emerald Isle' nickname. And Scotland is just as beautiful and enchanting, except for the weather.... what's up with that?! I realize the countries are much farther north than we are here in Virginia, but don't the weather gods know it's summer for Pete's sake?! ;-)

Well, at least you have plenty of good whiskey to take the edge off the rough air, seas - and nettles! ;-)

As always, looking forward to reading about your next adventure.

Happy Sails!

P.S. It just occurred to me you might not recognize the reference I've used when closing my comments because you're probably too young (or too British! ;-) ) But it's paraphrasing a line in the famous song of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, 'Happy Trails' - "Happy trails to you until we meet again!" And if you don't know who they are, I'll stop while I'm ahead so you can go check them out and listen to the song! ;-)

Mommy Dearest said...

Congratulations on your 300th post, too. I forgot to send out a high-five, good excuse-for-a-distillery-tour Woo Hoo to you on that.

Happy Cat said...

Happy belated 300th posting! That was a special day! It was our anniversary that day as well as your anniversary post.
Sorry we missed you in Belfast. We had a great time visiting the Tall Ships. It helped that we had seen them before because there were millions (hundreds of thousands, anyway) of people there. We actually took a bus tour to the Giant's Causeway on the Saturday to escape! We looked across to Rathlin Island. Never dreamt you had been there. And now you're in my home country of Scotland. Enjoy!

PS Only two real days of rain in Ireland!! I have gorgeous photos on our cruise - taken in brilliant sunshine!