7th June - Gigha

After a couple of nights at Carradale I braved the road north, back to Tarbet and then back down the west coast road to Tayinloan to catch the ferry, with the bike, to the Isle of Gigha, population circa 150 (before the clearances 700).  The population has increased from less than 100 since the community buy-out in 2002 and it is the home of the McSporran family; Hamish famous for holding down 14 jobs at the same time.

It’s the little one on the left near the top

The metropolis of Tayinloan

 

Gigha’s new pier at Ardminish

Gigha

 

Rough Island & Queen’s Beach

The old pier was at the top of the island

There are lots of standing stones by the side of the road

The best thing on Gigha was Achamore Gardens, near the south end of the island, famous for azaleas and rhododendrons, planted by Colonel Sir James Horlick (descendant of the family which invented the drink) after buying the estate in 1944.

It’s not a big ferry

After getting back to Tayinloan I drove north to Kennacraig, similar to Tayinloan in that there is very little other than the Pier.  From there you cross to Islay.  The ferry was full that evening so I booked on the first crossing in the morning which meant an early start and spent the dark and stormy night in the car park, next to where there was re-surfacing being carried on, at night-time.  However there was so much rain the noise of the re-surfacing didn’t worry me.

The ferry from Kennacraig is a bit bigger than the one from Tayinloan.