Walking on Jura, Islay and Colonsay: 23 wild walks in the Southern Hebrides

By Peter Edwards

A guidebook to 23 walks and treks on the Isles of Jura, Islay and Colonsay as well as neighbouring Oronsay and Scarba. Exploring the beautiful scenery of the southern Hebrides, the routes are suitable for experienced walkers.

The 22 day walks range in length from 7 to 25km (4–16 miles) and can be linked to create your own itinerary. A challenging 5-day 89km (55 mile) trek along Jura’s remote west coast is also described.

• 1:50,000 OS maps included for each walk
• Detailed information on accommodation and public transport
• Notes on the islands' bothies and wild-camping recommendations
• Highlights include the round of the Paps of Jura

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cicerone Press
• Release date: May 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781783627547

Peter Edwards

Peter Edwards is an award-winning reporter for the Toronto Star and best-selling author of ten non-fiction titles.

Book preview

About the Author

Peter Edwards grew up in Sussex and nurtured a love of walking and mountain biking amid the ‘blunt, bow-headed, whale-backed’ hills of the South Downs. Peter is a fan of wild landscapes and remote places; he lives at Rhenigidale on the Isle of Harris with his wife, Fiona, and their Labradors, Dougal and Mara.

WALKING ON JURA, ISLAY AND COLONSAY

23 WILD WALKS IN THE SOUTHERN HEBRIDES

by Peter Edwards

JUNIPER HOUSE, MURLEY MOSS,

OXENHOLME ROAD, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA9 7RL

www.cicerone.co.uk

© Peter Edwards 2019

Third edition 2019

ISBN 9781783627547

Second edition 2014

ISBN 9781852847203

First edition 2010

ISBN 9781852846107

Printed by KHL Printing, Singapore

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

© Crown copyright 2019 OS PU100012932

All photographs are by the author unless otherwise stated.

Acknowledgements

While walking in the Southern Hebrides, I have greatly enjoyed the company of Rich Baldwin, Jon Beck, James Boulter, Brett Collins, Andy and Jen Dodd, Garry Glover, Andy Godfrey and Giulia Hetherington, Chris Hallworth, Susan Kemp, Nina Mesner, Felicity Parsons, Anne-Marie and David Parsons, Alex Rintoul, Dan Twyman, Malcolm Walker, Steve Wilkinson and Dougal Mòr, Mara, Sol, Hooper, Nell and Reuben. Thanks to Dave Hoult, Konrad Borkowski and Dorota Jelinska, Craig Rozga at Ruantallain Estate, Andrew and Claire Fletcher at Ardlussa and to Duncan Philips, skipper of the Farsain. Most of all I would like to thank the lovely Fiona Rintoul who introduced me to these wonderful islands and who has been my companion on many fine walks since 2001. This book is dedicated to her.

Updates to this Guide

While every effort is made by our authors to ensure the accuracy of guidebooks as they go to print, changes can occur during the lifetime of an edition. Any updates that we know of for this guide will be on the Cicerone website (www.cicerone.co.uk/979/updates), so please check before planning your trip. We also advise that you check information about such things as transport, accommodation and shops locally. Even rights of way can be altered over time. We are always grateful for information about any discrepancies between a guidebook and the facts on the ground, sent by email to [e-mail] or by post to Cicerone, Juniper House, Murley Moss, Oxenholme Road, Kendal, LA9 7RL.

Register your book: To sign up to receive free updates, special offers and GPX files where available, register your book at www.cicerone.co.uk.

Front cover: An Cladach bothy on the Sound of Islay (Walks 13 and 14)

CONTENTS

Map key

Overview map

INTRODUCTION

Jura

Islay

Colonsay

History

Geology

Wildlife

Getting to the Southern Hebrides

Getting between the islands

The routes

Maps and route-finding

Safety and emergencies

What to take

Using this guide

JURA

Walk 1 The Gulf of Corryvreckan

Walk 2 Road End to Glengarrisdale

Walk 3 The west coast walk

Day 1 Ardlussa or Kinuachdrachd to Glengarrisdale

Day 2 Glengarrisdale to Shian Bay

Day 3 Shian Bay to Cruib Lodge

Day 4 Cruib Lodge to Glenbatrick Bay

Day 5 Glenbatrick Bay to Feolin Ferry

Day 5A Glenbatrick Bay to the A846 via Glen Batrick

Walk 4 North Jura coast and glens

Walk 5 Tarbert to Cruib Lodge bothy

Walk 6 Glengarrisdale to Cruib across Jura’s northern hills

Walk 7 Ardlussa to Corpach Bay and Am Miadar

Walk 8 The Paps of Jura

Walk 9 Evans’ Walk to Glenbatrick Bay and return

Walk 10 Glas Bheinn and Dubh Bheinn

SCARBA

Walk 11 Cruach Scarba

ISLAY

Walk 12 Rhuvaal and the north-west coast

Walk 13 An Cladach, McArthur’s Head and the Sound of Islay

Walk 14 An Cladach–Beinn Bheigier circuit

Walk 15 Beinn na Caillich and Beinn Bheigier from Ardtalla

Walk 16 The Oa peninsula

Walk 17 Sanaigmore to Kilchiaran

Walk 18 Ardnave Point

COLONSAY

Walk 19 Around Oronsay

Walk 20 South Colonsay coast

Walk 21 Lower Kilchattan to Kiloran Bay

Walk 22 North Colonsay coast

Walk 23 Scalasaig to Kiloran Bay along the Old Road

Appendix A Route summary table

Appendix B Walks on other islands

Appendix C Useful contacts

Appendix D Glossary

Appendix E Further reading

Cliffs at Meall Lamalum (Walk 21)

INTRODUCTION

Tucked away off the Kintyre peninsula, 80km (50 miles) or so west of Glasgow as the crow flies, the Southern Hebridean islands of Jura, Islay and Colonsay provide a sublime setting for some of the finest and most challenging walking to be found in Scotland, or indeed anywhere in the British Isles. For experienced walkers who love wild and expansive landscapes, these islands offer a wealth of superb walking.

There’s a real sense of remoteness to be found amid the scree-clad mountains, lonely glens and peat-dark lochans of the islands’ wild hinterlands and their magnificent coastal landscapes where rugged quartzite cliffs frame pristine white sandy bays with iridescent blue-green waters. As if this wasn’t enough, the hills and shores abound with remarkable geological features and teem with wildlife. When out walking you are as likely to encounter eagles, deer, wild goats, seals and otters as you are other people.

Remarkably, Jura, Islay and Colonsay are still overlooked by the majority of walkers and other visitors magnetically attracted northwards by the grandeur of the Highlands and the Isle of Skye. Though these islands lack the dramatic scale of Glen Coe, the Cairngorms or the Black Cuillin, they each possess a distinctive elemental beauty all their own.

The Paps of Jura seen from Oronsay

Jura

The austere, rugged beauty of Jura’s wild hinterlands can at times appear positively intimidating. Vast tracts of treeless moorland and lochan-speckled peat bog rise up towards the island’s mountainous, scree-strewn backbone, while there can be fewer lonelier regions than Jura’s uninhabited west coast. This empty expanse is the territory of red deer and raptors, and the island’s only settlements cling to the narrow fertile strip along the sheltered east coast.

At 30 miles long and 9 miles across at its widest point and with only around 200 inhabitants, Jura is one of the least populous areas of the British Isles, largely because of its lack of cultivable land. However, after spending time in Jura’s vast, uninhabited interior, the island’s tiny main settlement, Craighouse, can seem like a teeming metropolis with its hotel and bar, shop, restaurant and whisky distillery.

The island’s terrain is largely pathless, quite unforgiving and definitely not for the unfit or faint-hearted; but for those who are up to the challenges of this exceptional environment, Jura has some of the finest walking country and most remarkable, geologically rich landscapes to be found anywhere.

A good level of fitness, resourcefulness and self-reliance is required to tackle most of the walks included here, not least the three-to-five-day backpacking route along the west coast of Jura, which is the centrepiece of this book. This is arguably one of the finest wilderness backpacking routes in Scotland: it is a demanding and challenging route that should not be undertaken lightly, but there are plentiful compensations in the magnificent landscapes, incredible geological features and abundant wildlife. Furthermore, there are few places in the British Isles where the sense of remoteness from everyday life can be felt so keenly.

Among the other walks on Jura included in this book is a round of the island’s trio of distinctive quartzite peaks. The Paps may not be Munros – at 785m Beinn an Oir is a Corbett – but a round of all three mountains involves some 1500m of ascent and is a hillwalking classic. A detailed route description helps walkers make the best of a tough day on testing terrain. A couple of out-and-back routes visit the north-west coast with options for camping or bothying, while a demanding circular route takes in some of the highlights of the north-west, again with the option to overnight. The traverse of Jura’s northern hills from Glengarrisdale to Cruib is a less-well-trodden minor epic – a rollercoaster route over unremittingly rough terrain. Several other day walks provide challenging routes, although on a slightly less heroic scale.

Islay

Islay is lower lying and more fertile than its rugged neighbour. It is also more populous and has more roads as well as other physical infrastructure. Islay also has many kilometres of varied and beautiful coastline and, unlike Jura, walks along some of the island’s deserted shores and remote clifftops are accessible by road. Most of the walks described here are fairly demanding. They include the rugged coastline and magnificent bays of the Atlantic coast, the dramatic cliffs of the Oa peninsula and a spectacular route along the Sound of Islay to Rhuvaal Lighthouse and the wild north-west coast.

Islay has an abundance of wildlife and is particularly famous for its spectacular birdlife, including the huge numbers of migratory geese that arrive each October. The landscape is awash with history; the coastline is ringed with Iron Age hill forts and garlanded with infamous shipwrecks, while the hinterland is dotted with the remains of settlements, both ancient and more recent – including the medieval seat of the Lords of the Isles at Finlaggan.

Islay also offers the tired walker all the comforts of civilisation in a beautiful setting. There are many good places to eat, including some excellent pubs; a range of great places to stay, including two beautifully situated campsites and an excellent youth hostel; and for those in need of muscle-relaxant there are nine fabulous whisky distilleries.

Colonsay

Colonsay is a small but perfectly formed gem of an island that distils much of the natural splendour of its neighbours into a relatively compact area. Much more than a facsimile of Jura and Islay in miniature, it is an island with a very distinct character of its own, epitomised by its innate tranquillity. The walks described here take in some remarkably varied terrain, from high cliffs to vast white sandy bays, amid some of the most sublime coastal landscapes found anywhere in the British Isles.

Scalasaig Harbour (Walk 23)

From any point on Colonsay, wild and beautiful landscapes are only a short walk away. A kilometre from the settlement of Lower Kilchattan, vast colonies of seabirds nest on the vertiginous cliffs of the west coast. Walks around the south coast, or around Colonsay’s tide-separated sister island of Oronsay, take in some wonderful beaches and dune-fringed shoreline, with fine views of Jura and Islay across the Firth of Lorn. A walk around the rugged north of the island is more of a challenge, but it visits beautiful landscapes full of interest, including the superlative sandy bays of Kiloran and Balnahard. Somewhat surprisingly, given Colonsay’s size, few other people are encountered once the island’s few kilometres of road are left behind. The island’s compact nature also means walks can be adapted to almost any length.

History

Prehistory

All traces of Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) settlement in Scotland were obliterated by the ice sheets during the Quaternary glaciation. However, the late John Mercer, a palaeontologist who lived on the island between the 1960s and 1980s, cast a great deal of light on the subsequent prehistory of Jura. Mercer’s archaeological investigations unearthed evidence of Mesolithic settlement from around 7000BC, with hunter-gatherers in seasonal occupation as early as 10,500BC on the fringes of the retreating ice sheet. Finds of tools, shell middens and structural remains dating from the Mesolithic period show that Islay was first occupied by nomadic hunter-gatherers as early as 8000BC, following the retreat of the ice cap at the end of the last glacial period. However, harsh winters probably limited settlement during this period to seasonal exploitation of the island’s natural resources. The earliest settlers arrived on Colonsay and Oronsay around 7000BC. The artefacts and animal remains recovered from excavations at several sites on Oronsay and at Staosnaig on Colonsay have provided much information about the early settlers’ way of life, and radiocarbon dating has established a timescale for early settlement.

There are no recorded traces of Neolithic settlement on Jura, Colonsay and Oronsay, whereas settlement sites and burial cairns have been found on Islay and Mull. As the climate improved around the sixth millennium BC and hunter-gatherers began settling in agriculture-based communities, the fertile land of Islay attracted these early farmers: there is widespread evidence of Neolithic (4000–2000BC) occupation throughout the island, including chambered burial cairns and settlement sites. Stone axes found at Balnahard on Colonsay and flint arrowheads recovered on Oronsay are evidence of inhabitation during the period. The sole identified Neolithic site on Jura is the chambered cairn at Poll a’ Cheo.

Evidence of Bronze Age (c2500–600BC) settlement is more plentiful and includes a number of cairn and cist burial sites, cup-marked rocks, standing stones and hut circles on Jura, and hut circles, field systems, burial cairns, cists and standing stones on Colonsay and Oronsay. Forts and duns (smaller fortified structures) on Jura and Islay may date from the Iron Age (c600BC–AD400).

Dál Riata and the arrival of Christianity

From the early part of the third century an Irish tribe – Scotti of Dál Riata, led by Cairbre Riata – began the colonisation of the Kintyre peninsula and the Inner Hebrides, including Jura, Islay, Colonsay and Oronsay. Cairbre Riata’s descendants, Fergus, Loarn and Angus, continued the process of conquering and colonising, and the decisive invasion of Argyll took place late in the fifth century. Angus took possession of Islay and Jura. His descendants came to be known as Cenél nÓengusa and were one of three kin groups that formed the kingdom of Dál Riata in what is present-day Argyll.

In AD563 St Columba and his followers arrived in the Inner Hebrides from Ireland. Columba is said to have landed on Oronsay before voyaging on to Iona where he established what would become the important ecclesiastical centre of Iona Abbey. The Celtic Christian missionaries set about converting the populations of the islands and the mainland. St Columba’s uncle, St Ernan, has been linked to Jura, which is thought to be the location of the lost Christian community of Hinba.

Tobar Oran, an early Christian statue now in the grounds of Colonsay House (Walks 20, 21 and 22)

Vikings and the Kingdom of Man and the Isles

In AD794 Iona suffered the first of many Viking raids, which gradually forced the monastery into decline. Initially, the Scandinavians came as raiders, plundering monasteries and terrorising the indigenous populations; later, they came as traders and settlers. In common with the other islands of the Hebrides, Jura, Islay, Colonsay and Oronsay soon came under the Norse sphere of influence. The Norse settlers intermarried with the indigenous population and became known as the Gael-Gall.

The Norsemen ruled the islands from the Isle of Man until Somerled – a powerful figure of mixed Gaelic-Norse ancestry – divided the Norse Kingdom of Man and the Isles by defeating Godred’s forces in a sea battle off the west coast of Islay in 1156. Somerled consolidated his power with campaigns in Ireland and against the King of Scotland. He was succeeded by his son Ranald, who named himself King of the Isles and Lord of Argyll. Ranald’s son Donald inherited the kingdom of Islay and founded the Clan Donald.

MacDonalds and Campbells

Somerled’s descendants, Clan Donald – known as the Lords of the Isles – extended their sphere of influence to the entire west coast and parts of northern Scotland. After defeat in battle to the Scots, Clan Donald ceded rule of the isles to the Scottish Crown in 1266. However, after supporting Robert the Bruce in the Scottish Wars of Independence early in the 14th century, the MacDonalds, under Angus Òg, a descendant of Somerled, had their forfeited lands restored. Under Angus’s son John, the MacDonalds re-established themselves as the Lords of the Isles and ruled their domain from Finlaggan on Islay for more than 150 years.

In 1462 John MacDonald II signed a secret treaty with Edward IV of England against the Scottish Crown, hoping to become King of Scotland in return for his allegiance. Instead, his duplicity eventually led James IV to seize all his land, estates and titles in 1493. Jura and Islay were then bestowed on a branch of the House of Campbell at the Treaty of Camas an Staca in 1506. There followed a period when rival clans – principally the MacDonalds, Campbells