November 2006 - Canoeist Magazine

Guide
38
Kirkibost and Kilmarie, which was home to the
Mackinnon chiefs, Abhainn Cille Mhaire discharging
through a sheltered estuary. A graveyard, cemetery and
the remains of a dun are located around the woods.
Wild raspberries, small but full of flavour, grow along
the shoreline. Castle Keep produces hand forged
swords, knives and dirks and Duncan House is where
Garth Duncan produces traditional knives and Celtic
jewellery in gold, silver and platinum.
There is another tomb near the remains of Dùn
Liath and, before Dùn Grugaig, the Spar Cave which
has many stalactites.
Columns forming on the Glasnakille coast.
Beyond Rubha na h-Easgainne and Eilean na h-
Airde is Port an Luig Mhòir with a notable cave.
Prince Charles’s Cave is where the Pretender hid on
5th July 1746 before leaving for Mallaig, his final
departure from the island with which he is so closely
associated.
Suidhe Biorach with Sgurr Alasdair rising behind.
CANOEIST November 2006
Cliffs beyond Suidhe Biorach. Note the cow.
Rounding Suidhe Biorach brings into view the
spread of the Black Cuillins, their frost shattered peaks
separated by corries and cliffs to their 990m rock
crown. They are best seen by the general public from
Elgol at the end of the single track B8083. In the past,
infertile couples came not for the view but to drink
the water of a near by well and invoke the well’s
guardian spirit to make them fertile. Operating from
the jetty is the Bella Jane, said to offer Scotland’s only 5
star boat trip, to Loch Coruisk.
Weak flows into Loch Scavaig begin an hour and
twenty minutes after Dover high water and flow out
from four hours forty minutes before Dover high
water. More important are the sudden and violent
gusts off 895m Gars-bleinn which drive clouds of spray
and a considerable sea, especially near the head of the
loch, but are quickly past, leaving calm conditions.
The compass is also unreliable in this area but it should
not be hard to identify Camas Fhionnairigh with the
Abhainn Camas Fhionnairigh flowing into it, Loch
nan Leacd and Loch na Cuilce with the Scavaig River
flowing into it from glaciated Loch Coruisk, perhaps
the most evocative place in Europe. The climb from
The best view in Britain. The Black Cuillins rise in a swe