It was not an auspicious start.
It rained as we drove to Wemyss Bay.
It rained as we waited in the ferry queue.
It rained as we headed for an invisible Bute.
It rained as we drove to Kilchattan Bay.
It rained as we sat in the car considering whether to call the whole thing off.
It stopped raining as we got out of the car and stayed dry all day, with sunshine. Maybe there’s something in Christopher’s suspicion of a “pact with the devil”…. So Douglas, George, Jim (Welsh), Phil and Roddy set off to tackle the Kilchattan Circular walk, heading out of the village to join the coastal path, and a pretty rough, cliff hugging path it was too.
Our first excitement was the discovery of a cave, and with news in the past week of the oldest known cave art fresh in the mind, we thought it worth examining for traces of ancient Bute-man art work.
Sadly green spray paint spelling out the name ‘Mick’ and the initials of a well known Irish para-military organisation was unlikely to trouble the archaeological history of the island.
One exceedingly dangerous traverse (nothing wrong with a bit of exaggeration) had been made safer, at no doubt considerable expense, by the installation of a rope handrail. Possibly unnecessarily, as most of the party stuck to a perfectly serviceable lower path.
The most southerly point of our route took us to Rubh’ an Eun lighthouse, where we took a break and watched Phil devour his McCaskie’s bridie, as Roddy regaled us with tales of his lighthouse keeper ancestry.
This video is an experiment! No, it really isn’t four men wandering about looking lost. We were looking at the geology and flora – honest!
Another couple were following the same route, but after losing sight of them on the path ahead, we realised they had gone for a swim in Glencallum Bay.
A committee meeting was convened to see if we would like to follow suit. A narrow majority of five decided against this course of action, so with a cheery wave and muttered ‘idiots’, we crossed the bay and set about the climb to head inland.
One of the attractions of this walk was the varied terrain and landscape that we covered, not to mention views in every direction, and as we scaled the heights above the bay, we came across Loch na Leighe.
“That’s a classic caldera” announced our resident geologist, and it appears we had stumbled across the dormant remains of Bute’s answer to Vesuvius.
That’s the great thing about a Probus walk, you just never know what you’re going to come across…..
As we headed inland along easy walking grassy tracks, we considered a detour to visit St. Blane’s chapel, but didn’t like the look of its approach hill so just viewed it from a distance. It had fallen down anyway.
And as it happened there was, somewhat unexpectedly, plenty of pretty steep uphill walking to come.
All in all, this was one of our tougher walks, but also one of the most enjoyable (“the best walk so far” proclaimed our President), and as usual the conversation flowed on all manner of topics. We even threw in our tuppence-worth on that election thing from the previous day.
The walk was rounded off with a late snack lunch in the Kilchattan Bay café, somewhat surprisingly, surrounded by Titanic memorabilia. And, yes, we know the reason why……
The next meeting will be held in the Willowbank Hotel on Wednesday 31st July at 10:00am when Norrie Wilson will speak on Lost Glasgow. Hopefully he will help us find it.
Men over the age of 50 who are retired, or nearing retirement, can attend three meetings as a guest before deciding whether to become a Club member. Please use our Contact Form if you wish to attend as a guest, or to enquire about joining.