Muck, Eigg and Mallaig

What a crossing! 

A text book example of keeping a constant eye on transits on an open crossing. A sea kayak is a puny craft on the scale of things, with the most puny method of propulsion of any sea going craft too. Paddlers really can’t afford to go out of their way and have to fight extra distance, wind or tide, or all three, to reach their destination. 

The 12km crossing from Ardnamurchan Point to Port Mòr on Muck was a dream, big big sky, full of sun and huge towering cumulus. A so much sunnier and drier day than had been forecast. A gentle enough wind to have both sails up and be flying along without the stress of a following sea, so easy steering and no pressure on our dodgy rudder blade. 

Right on springs as we are now there’s 3.5m of water moving away and moving back again on every tide, flowing around the maze of islands and convoluted coastline, creating a swirl of currents that are all but unpredictable. 

The ebbing tide tried to drift us SW, then about halfway across, an hour or so ahead of the Tidal Atlas predictions the flood tide tried drifting us NE, quite strongly too. We were aiming off to the west about 10deg to stay on our intended course. The current dropped away as we closed in on Port Mòr on Muck and we were soon tied up to a handy floating jetty. 

Starving, we found a comfy spot for some lunch then wandered up into the village proper. We were tempted to stay but needed mobile reception or wifi for a forecast. 

The Coastguard broadcast the Inshore Waters Forecast on VHF three hourly but it is so brief and lacking detail that we hardly take any notice of it. 

Most of the time we have mobile reception so we use our favourite weather app, Windy.  It shows four different models for any chosen spot. 

The picture below shows a spot between Eigg and the mainland at Arisaig. The detail shown extends for five days. It is the first time we’ve used Windy on a trip and so far we can’t really fault the five day outlook for accuracy. 

Being in no hurry as the replacement rudder blade won’t arrive in Mallaig before Friday and having found wifi and beer from Skye in the Port Mòr cafe we booked a night in the Bunkhouse. 

The thought of a shower, a washing machine and time to explore the island was far too tempting. 

The proprietor of the cafe spent his free time making willow baskets - he’d had a lifetime of making and using natural twines and was a mine of information about which plants had good strong fibres and how to prepare them.

With just about all our clothing on the line drying in the late afternoon sun we walked over to the northern tip of the island for some spectacular clear views in the low early evening light. In the far distance the hills of Barra and South Uist were just visible on the horizon, closer Canna, Rhum, Eigg and Skye stood spectacularly out of the now calm sea. 

The next day the wind was up with a vengeance, the waters of our crossing yesterday were a mass of white horses and heavy showers crossed the island regularly. 

The visibility was fairly clear most of the time so it was tempting to head for the highest point of Muck, Beinn Airien at 137m. We followed the cliff tops around the south coast from Port Mòr scattering the ever present sheep ahead of us. It was wild and windy but a break in the showers meant we stayed dry, until the modest summit of Beinn Airien when the rain came in almost horizontally. We both tried sheltering behind the trig point then headed down and waited out the downpour in the lee of a small cliff. 

As forecast the wind abated in the afternoon, so it was an easy crossing to Galmisdale on Eigg. 

It was immediately apparent landing at Galmisdale that Eigg was quite different to Muck. A mob of people crowded around the entrance to the building housing the cafe/bar and shop, chatting and drinking. We had spotted tents just nearby so asked about camping, the reply was a casual “sure, anywhere you like, the toilets are just in there and there’s a shower too”. 

The next three days on Eigg were fantastic. The heavy showers and low cloud cleared up enough for us to reach the summit of An Sgùrr the spectacular and distinctive rocky peak that makes Eigg so identifiable from any direction. It was still very windy and we were doubting whether we’d make the summit.  Our fears were confirmed by a fella on his way down who had been blown over on a saddle before the summit ridge and had retreated. On we climbed to see for ourselves, stopping in the lee of the ridge to don full waterproofs before emerging onto the ridge and into the full force of the wind. It must have abated as it wasn’t that bad, the odd gust threatened to throw us off balance but there was a good path and in just a few minutes we were standing around the concrete trig point on the summit. 

The mainland was blanketed in low cloud but Muck and the rest of Eigg were fairly clear, a view that was well worth the climb. 

Back down in Galmisdale we discovered the cafe/ bar had two Laig Brewery beers on tap!

Sitting enjoying a beer and haggis crisps we googled the brewery only to discover it was a few kilometres away on the northern side of the island at, surprise surprise, Laig Bay! 

The island community bought Eigg in the mid 90’s from the private owners after many years of unpleasantness. Since then it seems to have thrived, with hydro, solar and wind taking over from diesel generators, and the cafe/bar, shop, markets and other ventures for locals and tourists providing income and employment for 100 residents. More importantly it provided certainty of tenure for the farmers and crofters, some of whom of course have lived there for generations. For those reading in Tasmania, Eigg had a Cygnet feel about it.

The friction between differing groups of people on Eigg is not a new phenomenon but the more contemporary issues are harmless compared with the clan rivalry of the 1500’s. 

One of the walks took us to Massacre Cave. As one story goes the MacDonald clan on Eigg had sent some Macleod men back to their homelands for being too amorous towards their women. Other stories involve rape and castration. The Macleods sailed to Eigg to exact revenge but the Macdonalds saw them coming and hid in the long deep cave in the cliffs on the south coast. For days the Macleods searched the island fruitlessly until one mistake by the Macdonalds revealed their hiding place. The Macleods lit a fire at the narrow cave entrance and asphyxiated all those hiding inside. Most accounts list the death toll in the hundreds, some up to four hundred. It was the whole population of Eigg. 

The cave itself is unusual, the entrance is small enough to require hands and knees then it opens out into a cavern 80m long but no more than 3m wide or high. 

Another more usual shaped sea cave nearby, Cathedral Cave was used for church services following the formation of the Free Church in 1843. The then newly formed church was not allowed to use Church of Scotland properties for services so they were held wherever there was space. 

The strong South Westerlies that have dominated the weather for days veered Westerly and dropped. It was Friday, so time to get to Mallaig to check whether the new rudder blade had arrived at the Post Office. An easy but long crossing, both sails up went up as soon as we left the boat ramp at Galmisdale to come down as the harbour walls at Mallaig loomed over us. 

Mallaig is a great little place, centred around its tight little harbour and bustling with shipping and tourists. A new floating pontoon catered for the yachties and there seemed to be a Cal Mac ferry arriving and departing every half an hour. Being an active fishing port the wharfs were stacked with fish crates, nets and trawling gear. The fishing boats, streaked with rust, battered and dirty from days at sea exude a determined businesslike, brutalist beauty. 

The two shipyards are right in town, they were busy with sound of grinding and hammering, overall clad workers  rolled new paint on old hulls. All within metres of brightly clad tourists wielding ice creams and fish and chips. 

Unfortunately no rudder at the Post Office so headed out of the harbour and found another fantastic campsite at the entrance to Loch Nevis. It hadn’t arrived the next day, a Saturday, either. Frustrating not to be paddling on but with a day free before the next post arrives on Monday we’ve time to paddle further up Loch Nevis and climb some mountains.