Scotland Summer 2004 - Travelling through Kintyre


	After a quick detour to stock up with beer from the Arran Brewery it was time to leave Arran and I drove to Lochranza to catch the small ferry to Claonaig on the Kintyre peninsula. Unfortunately I just missed the ferry and had to wait for the next one an hour later, at least that gave me some time to read the newspaper. My first stop was soon after Claonaig at the oak woods around Allt a'Bhuic burn. An unfortunately quite overgrown path leads through the woods along the burn to a viewpoint at the shore. I quickly walked down to the shore and back to work up an appetite for lunch, unfortunately the midges then made my lunch a bit unpleasant. Soon I drove on, following the single track road south. At various places excellent views over to Arran make the drive quite pleasant and slow you down as you have to stop to enjoy the views.

My next stop was near Carradale at the Carradale Network Centre. From here I went on to the Deer Hill Walk. A well maintained path leads up to the summit of Cnoc-nan Ghabar, from where I had fantastic views over Kintyre, Kilbrannan Sound and over to the Isle of Arran. It even started to clear up a bit, the sun breaking through the clouds occasionally. The view was quite impressive and I stayed at the summit (230m) for a while just enjoying it before returning to my car at the visitor centre. The panorama below is also available as QuickTime VR panorama of the view from Cnoc-nan Ghabar (1.8MB download, fast connection recommended).

	After a quick look around Carradale (I had hoped for a pub overlooking the harbour, but didn't find one) I drove on towards Campbeltown. Just before arriving in Campbeltown the road climbs a bit to give an excellent view over Davaar Island protecting the entrance to Campbeltown Loch. I briefly stopped in Campbeltown for some quick shopping, then it was time to drive over to Homeston Farm where my sister was waiting for me. We had an excellent dinner before settling down in front of the fireplace and talking about what we had done during the last week.

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