It’s not often I use a pun in the titles of these posts, but it was too good an opportunity to miss today. It really has been a beautiful day and a good portion of our lighthouse antics took place on the Isle of Bute.
I have been aware of Rubh’an Eun lighthouse on the southern point of Bute for a long time and knew it involved a walk. It wasn’t one I was desperate to get to, but with it being a “proper” little lighthouse of a style I am rather partial to it did hold a fair amount of appeal. I’d heard from my friend John that the path to the lighthouse was a little narrow in places, that he’d seen a cow pat and then almost fallen into a gully. It all sounded a little dramatic and so Bob and I decided to invite him along for round two in the hope that it would make for a more enjoyable and less frightening day!
We had an early start this morning to make sure we could get across to Bute before the ferries got busy. The sun was shining and the sea was so calm that we all wished we were going out on a smaller boat hopping from one island to another. The journey to Kilchattan Bay, the starting point for the walk, was picturesque and when we arrived we began to realise that this wasn’t another one of our remote walks during which we would see no one else.
Maybe it was the weather, but the walk was stunning and it was great to take in the surrounding views especially over towards Little Cumbrae. The walk makes up part of the West Island Way and is really varied with easy grassy sections, parts where you need to navigate around or over rocks, some slightly overgrown foliage and muddy stretches especially after the recent period of heavy rain.
For most of the walk John had been up front, but as we rounded a corner he hung back and let me go first in order to let me see the lighthouse without others in the way. That first view you get of the lighthouse is beautiful – or it certainly was today anyway. The tower must have undergone a fairly recent makeover as it was nicely painted with the only remnants of its previous rust colour appearing near the very bottom of the tower. John said it was a vast improvement on his first visit when it looked in a poor state and the door was open.
There were two people near the lighthouse as we approached, but thankfully they wandered off as we approached leaving us with plenty of time to explore before we were disturbed again. It really is a wonderful landscape and one which can only really be described to a certain degree by pictures so here are a few angles – including one from Bob’s drone which buzzed around while we explored.
I won’t be forgetting this visit in a hurry and I’d be more than happy to go back again in future. It well and truly gets my seal of approval and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a good walk on a nice path with a hint of being in the middle of nowhere, but not too remote.
Leaving behind this impressive island we made for Ravenrock Point for the second day in a row. We wanted John to see the structure here and give his opinion on whether it was worthy of lighthouse status. I was pleased to have gone back as yesterday I’d been so focussed on the lighthouse that I’d not noticed the nice little cove and beach area just to the north of it. I’ve included a picture of the cove here, but one of the lighthouse can be found in yesterday’s post.
Having seen Toward lighthouse from various angles and numerous times over the past week it was time to finally pay it a visit. Bob hadn’t been to this one before which was even more reason to go. I really like this tower and I enjoyed seeing it the first time on my 2012 lighthouse tour. It was very interesting to be back there today, eight years later, with the extra knowledge and experience I have gained. I am still fond of it and imagine it is a great little place to live.
I paid more attention to the foghorn and its church-like building today than I ever had before. There’s not much to the actual horn itself so the building seems quite oversized – unless, of course, it was used for something else. As we wandered around on the rocks Bob spotted the old jetty that would have been used for servicing the lighthouse.
Heading north from Toward we had some time to kill before the fish and chip shop in Dunoon opened so we stopped in a small lay-by off of the main road to see the Perch beacon, which we had spotted from the boat last weekend. Bob had intended to send the drone out to get some closer images of the beacon, but the local oystercatchers kicked up a fuss and so that effort was abandoned. A little further up the road we glanced at the beacon on The Gantocks.
Arriving back just in time for fish and chips from Anselmo’s – which quite deservedly has great reviews – we made our way to the seafront and ended the day enjoying our dinner from a bench with views across the water to Cloch lighthouse. It’s days like this that you feel very lucky to be able to experience these places and to do so alongside family and friends makes it extra special. 🙂
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