We left Dunvegan at 10:00, arrived at the coral beaches at 11:55, left the coral beaches at 13:12 and returned at 14:43. 16.0 km, 3hr 26min paddling time, av. speed 4.7km/hr, max speed 11.1 km/hr.
Conditions on the day:
Forecast and tide tables:
References:
Common sense:
GPS
track.
We set off from NG244497. There is a Grey seal colony at NG240495 but as you can see from our GPS track we never went near them. However, two tourist seal boats from the Dunvegan jetty came tearing out and intercepted us off the east of Gairbh Eilein (round the corner from the seal colony). One went behind us to cut us off from the seal colony while the other came roaring up to us and the bearded boatman warned us not to go near the seals as we might frighten them. Moi, frighten a seal? Apparently seals are very scared of kayaks but not of boats with big outboards. The funny thing is, seals were leaping out of the water before the arrival of these two boats but were nowhere to be seen afterwards. I thought they were going to charge us just for looking! Anyway, we saw plenty of Common seals round Lampay. Wha daur meddle wi' McLeod's seals?
10:13
Approaching Uiginish Point.
10:15
Gairbh Eilean. The cliff ledges were a mass of colour with bluebells, red
campion and sea campion.
10:40What's
round the corner?
10:41
The Fiadhairt peninsula. A cormorant launched itself off the top of the cliffs
and landed with a splash just in front of Jennifer.
10:44
Getting in close, below Dun Fiadhairt.
10:47
Approaching the point at Dun Fiadhairt. It was a wee bit choppy round the
corner, so there are no further photos for the next 4 kilometres, until we
reached the shelter of Lampay.
11:50
Approaching the Coral Beach in the shelter of Lampay.
12:01
Coral Beach, Claigan.
12:05
Coral Beach, Claigan
12:06Looking
south, into Loch Dunvegan from the Coral Beach.
The
"Coral" sand is made up of the bleached skeletons of the red algae, Lithothamnium
calcareum. This grows in relatively deep water and is coloured red to absorb
the blue light which is only able to penetrate to that depth. Lithothamnium is a
calcareous alga and its "skeleton" forms 95% of its weight. It is
mainly composed of calcium and carbonated magnesium carbonates. Most of
the sand on the beach is composed of its skeletons. When it is dry, the upper
beach beach is dazzlingly white. Before it was discovered by the tourists,
it was possible to find golf ball sized aggregates. You can still find these on
the island of Lampay which is just offshore.
12:30
Local herring gull, on the lookout for an easy lunch. A sign of frequent
visitors.
13:13
The point of Isay.
13:22
The West side of Lampay looking towards Beinn Bhreac, Waternish. There is a
common seal colony here.
13:44
Heading up Loch Dunvegan, later the wind got up to Force 5 and photography
stopped for three kilometres. We saw eider duck, shelduck, common guillemots,
black guillemots and divers.
14:22
In the shelter of Dun Fiadhairt again.
14:24
Loch Dunvegan
14:38
Crossing from the channel between Gairbh Eilein and the Fiadhairt peninsula to
our launch site.
14:41Dunvegan
Castle.
Scottish Mountain Photo Gallery Main Menu
Site editor: Douglas Wilcox (D.E.Wilcox@clinmed.gla.ac.uk
)
Page created 20/06/04
Page last updated 20/06/04
