Today has been spent exploring some lighthouses in Argyll. With lighthouses being on the coast I’m not so used to being surrounded by trees on my lighthouse adventures, but in Argyll it’s a completely different ball game – the trees are everywhere.
It’s because of these trees that back in 2012 when I did my original lighthouse tour I missed out on seeing Caladh Beacon, just to the north of Tighnabruaich. I remember scouring the coastline there and just not being able to see it. As a result it had remained unvisited, by me at least, ever since. Today was the day I was finally going to see it and so I set off this morning with Bob for the ferry from Gourock to Hunter’s Quay. On the way we passed Cloch lighthouse, which I quickly grabbed a few pictures of as we drove past.
Once on the other side it was a matter of driving tree lined roads until we reached Tighnabruaich, which actually looks quite a big place with some rather expensive-looking houses. We found a space to park and began our walk to the lighthouse. It follows a clearly marked track (or road really) which follows the coast around the Kyles of Bute.
The path went up and down a little with the occasional waterfall running to the side of and underneath the path. Occasionally it was possible to spot the lighthouse between the trees, but very rarely. It was only once you are almost at the little point on which the lighthouse sits that it really comes into view.
As we approached we noticed a gate with “private” on it and it was clear that it wouldn’t be possible to go that way. We could see a car behind the gate and so suspected someone must be about – the perils of visiting at peak holiday time. I sent a quick message to my ever-trustworthy pal John to ask what he did when he visited previously and he said he’d skirted around the rocks to avoid the garden. Bob decided to send his drone up to check out the lie of the land and it showed that there was at least another car there and a house just behind the tower. While the drone was up he got some great shots.
Just after he’d taken the drone down a couple of locals appeared with their dogs. Bob asked them about access to the lighthouse and they said that it was private. They also said that a man who works for the owners of the house was working up on the road and to ask him if he could sort something out. We never saw the man they referred to and I left feeling a little disappointed. Bob reminded me that I’d got as close to that one as I had to Dubh Artach (although Caladh Beacon was a shorter tower so it looked further away). We decided we’ll see if we can sort out quick access by boat at some point.
Back from the walk we set off in the direction of Loch Fyne to see what kind of view it was possible to get of Sgeir an Eirionnaich. Finding the car park I had mentioned in my book was easy enough and the shoreline here certainly offered a better view of it than I’d had before. It was still fairly distant though and this is another that needs a chartered boat trip to get a better view.
After our viewing of Ravenrock Point from the boat on Saturday, a bit of closer inspection was required, especially as it is so close to the road. Just to the south of Ardentinny we spotted it within the trees and found a lay-by a very short distance away. The structure looked very much as I had expected with the column with lights and radar on top and then a small hut on the landward side which was connected to the light structure only by a series of cables.
This sparked a bit of a debate, which I’d already been having in my head anyway, about whether or not it met my lighthouse criteria. I’ll have to think about this one, but it was a nice little tower to visit anyway. It was possible to get down onto the rocks in front of it too with a much clearer path down there than we had experienced at Cnap Point at the weekend!
The ferry back from Hunter’s Quay was certainly busy, probably due to the A83 being closed due to a land slip after all this rain, but we managed to get on and off with enough time to cram in a couple more little lighthouses. Port Glasgow beckoned. It’s been a while since I’ve been there, but they are always a joy to see with their checkered towers. My nearly three-year-old calls them the ‘oyster catcher lighthouses’ due to their colour!
The rain had well and truly set in by this point, but it didn’t matter as there were lighthouses to be seen. 🙂
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