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Isle of Kerrera, Tea, Cake and Dragonflies

Isle of Kerrera, Tea, Cake and Dragonflies


Postby Border Reiver » Wed Sep 13, 2017 5:08 pm

Date walked: 06/09/2017

Time taken: 4.5 hours

Distance: 11.7 km

Ascent: 570m

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As we were staying near Oban, we thought that a little exploration of the island of Kerrera would fill in a few hours, so after seeing a weather forecast for very iffy weather we arrived at the ferry near Gallanach and spent 10 minutes trying to make our minds up whether to go for it or not. We had to park a bit along the road as the roadsides were jammed with parked cars and there was a queue of walkers waiting to be taken to Kerrera. The wee ferry boat can only carry 12 passengers at a time and was shuttling back and forward without pausing until the queue was gone.

Kerrera Ferry
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It was unbelievably busy, I've come across less walkers on a walk in the Yorkshire Dales. Most fellow walkers seemed to be foreign, quite a few spoke German.

Not long after leaving the ferry "port" we were overtaken by the Royal Mail delivery vehicle. It looked like it might be fun to drive.

Mail van.
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The road was reasonable, made of gravel and deteriorating tarmac, with a fair few potholes. A short distance further we came upon the first sign on the road side that was to be the theme for half the walk. Sadly, I didn't take a photo, but there was a sketch of Lionel Ritchie, with the text...Is it Tea You're Looking For? - by Lionel Rich Tea

We got the first of several light drizzle showers, none of them enough to wet us much and the road continued fairly level along near the coast until it climbed up past Upper Gylen and over the hill, before dropping down to Lower Gylen where Kerrera Tearoom and Bunkhouse is situated.

There were plenty of signs to inform hungry travellers of their destination
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The tearoom is in a nice setting and we had a cuppa and a piece of cake each sitting outside in the garden, with about another 15 to 20 walkers, with more arriving as we left.

Lower Gylen
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From there, the decent road ends and a grassy and often wet / boggy path continues down to the sea and Gylen Castle perched high on a cliff, overlooking the sea. On the way to the castle the path passes an "earth toilet" which is functional though stomach churning. One young woman had a brief look in and screamed before fleeing.

Gylen Castle
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We continued westwards , keeping near the sea, passing rock formations of pudding stone until it became swampy and we had to divert back inland to rejoin the main path / vehicle track, which was part dry and part boggy.

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The path follows the coast here, looing to Mull in the background.
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Further on, there's the remains of a volcanic dyke.
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Beyond the dyke, at Ardmore, a table was set out by the path, with home made soaps for sale and an honesty box for payments. The vehicle track the becomes a stony path which rises to the left of the cottage, up a small narrow glen and emerges at a very small weed-filled lochan where there were quite a lot of large dragonflies flitting around.

Weed filled lochan
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From the lochan, the path winds its way round the hill, gradually falling to where it meets a decent track again at Barnabuck. There were good views out towards Mull, where we could see showers passing over the hills.

Showers on Mull
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From there on the road twists and winds its way up the hill then levelling out for a while before it gradually descends back to the ferry terminal. From this stretch of road there's some good views across to Mull and North towards Lismore.
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The weather remained fine for the rest of our walk where we got a nice, but different view of Oban/

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Border Reiver
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Re: Isle of Kerrera, Tea, Cake and Dragonflies

Postby Alteknacker » Wed Sep 13, 2017 10:17 pm

I'd never heard of it, but it looks like a wonderful little gem. I especially love the idea of the tea shop - for some reason it reminds me of the one on the way to Blaven.
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Re: Isle of Kerrera, Tea, Cake and Dragonflies

Postby malky_c » Wed Sep 13, 2017 10:23 pm

Lovely :D . I like the look of Kerrera. Almost went there a couple of years back - will need to visit sometime soon. Interesting photo of a volcanic dyke. I saw something similar on a beach on the Sleat peninsula of Skye earlier this year:
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Re: Isle of Kerrera, Tea, Cake and Dragonflies

Postby Sunset tripper » Thu Sep 14, 2017 7:54 am

Nice one. I used to live in Oban and Kerrera is a great island to visit. I was last there about four years ago and it was really quiet. I cant remember what time of year it was but the tea room and toilet was shut.
Is the parrot sanctuary still there? That was very unexpected. :crazy:
Across from the southern end of Kerrera on the mainland at Gallanach is where the first transatlantic telephone cable started from. It used to be a great area for otters, probably still is. :D
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Re: Isle of Kerrera, Tea, Cake and Dragonflies

Postby Border Reiver » Thu Sep 14, 2017 8:08 am

Sunset tripper wrote:Nice one. I used to live in Oban and Kerrera is a great island to visit. I was last there about four years ago and it was really quiet. I cant remember what time of year it was but the tea room and toilet was shut.
Is the parrot sanctuary still there? That was very unexpected. :crazy:
Across from the southern end of Kerrera on the mainland at Gallanach is where the first transatlantic telephone cable started from. It used to be a great area for otters, probably still is. :D

We didn't see any otters, probably too many people around, but we did see the info plaque about the under sea cable. We saw nothing to tell us about a parrot sanctuary, but we had a late start and didn't hang around too long in case we missed the last ferry.
An unexpectedly lovely island worthy of further exploration off-track.
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Re: Isle of Kerrera, Tea, Cake and Dragonflies

Postby bog hopper » Thu Sep 14, 2017 4:04 pm

Nice write up , me and my good lady did exact same route a couple of years back , the tea room looks as good as I remember :)
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Re: Isle of Kerrera, Tea, Cake and Dragonflies

Postby Bothybob » Thu Sep 14, 2017 8:09 pm

Lovely island in all seasons, but unfortunately the parrot sanctuary appears to be closed on our last visit earlier this year
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