Raasay, Day 3

It poured all night, but in the morning the sun appeared, and the forecast was for a weather window. I set off with a friendly north-westerly wind to help me along. The coastline of Raasay is lovely here- Torridonian sandstone cut into interesting shapes. To my right was the Trotternish peninsula of Skye, which is also full of interesting geology.



Conscious of the weather forecast I hurried along. As I crossed the Raasay narrows to Skye the wind was backing and strengthening. The final kilometre to the slipway was again a slow battle against a gale, with rain battering me in the face.

Raasay, Day 2

It was a fine night in the bothy. Three others turned up, having walked in with 2 bags of coal, a fiddle, a guitar and several penny whistles. We had a pleasant evening of bothy stories, and I was lulled to sleep by the music.
I was woken by a brilliant light through the window. The dawn was fantastic, but the rainbows were short lived, as everything faded after 10 minutes. A strong wind was driving white horses down the coast, and the weather broadcast gave gale warnings for all the adjacent sea areas. The wind direction was predicted to vary from south-west to south-east, leaving me no completely sheltered escape route. Continuing to Rona looked scary, so it was back to bed after a big plate of porridge.



The midday forecast was no better, so I decided to try and gain some ground down the west coast. If I could at least reach the road end, I would have a way out if the weather deteriorated again. There followed a 9 km trip of strong headwinds. It also involved 2 short portages to avoid long detours in exposed waters. A narrow channel between Fladday and Raasay funneled the wind and proved to be an inch by inch struggle. A couple of sideways gusts resulted in bracing strokes to avoid being blown over. Finally I reached a narrow causeway which connects the 2 islands, unfortunately just too early to float over it.

The Fladday portage

Slightly easier paddling brought me to Loch Arnish, just as the sun came out. Arnish was the home of Calum MacLeod, a postman who, in the 1960's, built a 2 mile road across the island, in the ultimately futile hope of saving the village from depopulation. He built it entirely by hand, and his work is commemorated in the tune "Calum's Road".

Close to Manish Point I found a lovely camp site in a sheltered bay. Lots of driftwood fuelled a fine fire. I sat on the beach until the fire died and the wine bottle had turned from ballast to buoyancy.

Raasay, Day 1

Raasay and Rona are islands I've wanted to visit for a long time. Raasay has a sad history, including all the worst aspects of Highland land ownership from the clearances up to the 1970's. It provided 120 pipers to play for Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden, a figure which is probably close to the current population.
It's also a fine destination for a short kayak trip. It is sheltered from the worst of the weather by Skye, and the tidal flows around are relatively weak.
After a comfortable night at Sligachan bunk house, I launched from the ferry slipway at Sconser. In true West Highland style, the ferry was running late, and I had to wait a bit for it to get away.
On a cold grey day I headed for the east coast, the Red Cuillin behind me.



A following wind made for easy progress up the coast. There are fine views here of Dun Caan, the highest point of Raasay. It looks remarkably like a submarine from most angles. This is rather ironic, as the area is a testing ground for the acoustic output of submarines. This creates a bit of a hazard if far out to sea, but also makes it one of the most reliable places in the world for mayday reception!



Moving north up the island the geology changes to the gneiss which makes the hard landscape of many of the outer isles. It can make for an inhospitable coastline, and the paddling was made harder by clapotis- reflected waves from the cliffs. It was with some relief that I finally turned a corner into the channel between Raasay and Rona. A short drift on calmer waters led to a quiet cove. From here it was a 5 minute walk to a fine bothy. After a 30km day I was pretty tired.