BLUEMOMENT

Heading for the Clyde from Donegal next week - weather permitting. Hoping to meet some friends in C'town (not Andy Stewart). Now I've holidayed in Largs, Cumbrae and Aran as a youngster (40 years ago). But is it worth the trip all the way up to the Kyles from there - or do I go back round the Mull and do Islay, Gigha and Jura again which I suppose I know quite well? And if I stay in the Clyde, what unusual and different places should I visit..

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Splash out, do both by coming out the top through the Crinan then back home down the outside?

That's a possibility tho I've Done the Crinan before (delivery trip on a friends boat).
Looking for out-of-the-way places to stop inside the Clyde..
Don't know it that well apart from paddle steamers to Rothesay in the '60s

Tricky call. Personally, I'd prefer to avoid the canal cos of the £90 (or whatever it is these days) and the possibility of minor damage. Also, if it's a week, you couldn't do justice to both. Also also, you might need to set aside an extra couple of days for re-rounding the Mull if the weather's dodgy. So it looks like the Clyde, Kilbrannan Sound and Loch Fyne...

Most people don't like it, but I really rate Campbeltown, despite its unfortunate name. Take a look at the oldest extant purpose built picture in Scotland. The town also hosts the Aqualibrium, the world's first combined library and swimming pool.

Depending on wind direction I'd think about anchoring up at Saddell Bay for a look at the old abbey. South Carradale Bay is also a good anchorage with shelter, clockwise, from SW to E. Port Crannaich provides shelter from E to NW, but you'll probably have to go alongside a fishing boat and they have funny hours. You can check at the pub (and pay your harbour dues there).



Loch Ranza is in a great position, but give the pub a miss - an unusually unfriendly bunch of miserable gits imho. Why the cooncil is spending £158,000 on pontoons there is beyond me. Defies belief.

NNW of Loch Ranza, there's a nice bay to anchor at, Skipness Bay, complete with old castle and historic ruined chapel. After that, no end of decent places in Loch Fyne and towards Inch Marnock.

Oh, and you've got Sanda Island and the Byron Darnton Tavern, and Rathlin and McCuaig's Bar, on the way back!

Enjoy.

Shard wrote:... avoid the canal cos of the ... possibility of minor damage.

wish you hadn't mentioned that ....

Shard wrote:... Loch Ranza ... Why the cooncil is spending £158,000 on pontoons there is beyond me. Defies belief.

makes embarkation so much easier efter sampling the whisky in ra distillery (whae in thur richt mind wid buy the stuff in a blue bottle?)!

wish you hadn't mentioned that ....

Loch Ranza (whae in thur richt mind wid buy the stuff in a blue bottle?)![/quote]

I did, but only once!

Shard wrote:Take a look at the oldest extant purpose built picture in Scotland.

Should, of course, have said "picture house".

Para, is there something you'd like to tell us about the canal?

We will hopfully be going in the opposite direction next week, Clyde to N.Ireland and then up the outside and back through the Crinan, lets hope the weather allows, may do the circuit in the opposite direction if necessary. The great thing is that if its not so good there are always plenty of places to get a good sail in the shelter of the upper Clyde lochs. If you are heading up Loch Fyne I would recommend Loch Gair as a good anchorage with great holding in mud. I sat out a windy night in there last year and it was so sheltered that I decided there was no need to deflate the dinghy the following morning - until it was too late and I ran into a full on F6-7 outside the entrance. Dinghy periodically airborne and in danger of parting its painter due to its twisting aerobatic performance. There followed an amusing 20 minutes trying to pick up one of the moorings at Otter Ferry single handed to enable the damn thing to be tamed. Good grub at the hotel on the main road at Loch Gair too. Hope you have a good week (and me too!).

Assuming that you will be piloting your fine shup through the canal, I feel it safe to say that the possibility of damage is slight really.
The problem in the canal comes when you hand the wheel and responsibility to those less competent than yourself. I did in fact do this last August and believed that in handing ma fine vessel tae a transatlantic mariner - a man wi yer ain experience and therefore assumed competence - the fine vessel Claymore wid nae suffer or come tae harm.
Jest hoo wrang a man can be, whit a bang and how ye can actually T-Bone the biggest boat, helmed by the biggest bruiser oan the west coast...why it just beggars belief - but happen it did....did I no tell ye the full story?

Shard wrote: Why the cooncil is spending £158,000 on pontoons there is beyond me. Defies belief.

They'd be far better spending the money on decent facilities - i.e. making the pub actually worth a visit.

Personally I have come around the Mull a couple of times when I've been bloody glad to get into Campbeltown.
There is a fine shop on the way up the hill from the pontoon - on the left where the finest bacon barms and scotch pies may be purchased.
There is also a good hotel whose name escapes me where a bath is most reasonable and the meals are good value.
How Shard - who has spent time in Ardrossan and so should know better, can possibly give the place a bad write-up, absolutely defeats me