Dun Skeig: 360 degrees of blue skies

[denfinella]

Hands were rubbed together with glee as another sunny day dawned over Kintyre. The plan was to go for a full clockwise driving tour of the peninsular with a few walks thrown in along the way.

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Jumping out of the car in Clachan and heading up the hill was lovely in the sun. Branching left onto the track gave lovely views north over West Loch Tarbert.

The gate leading to the path up Dun Skeig unhelpfully sat in the middle of a boggy patch, but once past this the going improved and the path was easy to follow up the gentlest side of the hill.

You choose between a few sheep tracks for the final steep ascent to the top... and it's worth it! Amazing views in every direction...

Towards the Paps of Jura:

Islay:

South down the Kintyre peninsula, with vitrified fort in the immediate foreground:

Even the spiky shapes of Arran peeking out over the Kintyre hills:

Last but not least, West Loch Tarbert:

The summit itself has plenty of interest too, with a well-preserved iron-age fort, another grassy fort, trig-point, numerous cairns and a lot of sheep...

Tempting to spend a lot of time here, but as always we had lots more to pack into the day, so we headed back down to the track at the muddy gate and turned left. The track narrowed as it descended, becoming one of those irritating path-stream hybrids as it headed down a depression inside woodland. This wasn't for long though, and the path soon emerged into fields - signs divert you around a new house here (pictured). The views from the house can't be bad...

The route very briefly joins a road before heading along the shore southwards, back on a track. The track became very muddy indeed, although with nice views through gaps in the trees out to sea. At one point my partner jumped across a puddle onto an area of thinly vegetated brown ground... this turned out to be a knee-deep bog swamp! Fortunately the sea was close by to wash it off. We spent a while here looking in rock pools and also keeping an eye open for otters. None seen.

This part of the walk was longer than expected, eventually heading away from the shoreline. Take care to head right at a fork between gateposts later on - this is easily the more overgrown of the two tracks, but leads back to the start through fields of cows and alongside a bubbling brook. By chance I took a picture in exactly the same place as the photo on Stage 6 of the walkhighlands description - compare and contrast to see what a few years does to a track...

A few photos from the drive up the A83 before the walk:

St Columba's Footprints, Southend

St Columba's Well, Southend

Keil Caves, Southend

Jura from Muasdale beach

Looking north from Muasdale

Muasdale

Jura from Muasdale beach

Previous day: Island Davaar: http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=47843
Afternoon: Cnoc nan Gabhar: http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=48012

[snowgoose]

Great pictures . Stunning scenery. And the weather - what a contrast to your day on Gigha.