Scottish anchorages

Achnacroish is just a wee hamlet, there is nothing really to see or do, just the primary school, some not very attractive houses and a rather beaten up pier and ferry terminal. However, it is all surprisingly Hebridean so close to Oban and the bird song is lovely. Take a walk to the Heritage Museum which is in a calm and quite attractive modern building (ph 01631 760030) on the ‘main’ road opposite the turning for Balnagown. It is only about a mile from the anchorage if you take the path along the coast to Balnagown. There are a lot of interesting old photographs and artefacts and a restored cottage, post blackhouse because it has a fireplace and is divided into two rooms. In the same building as the museum is the Lismore café, the only place on the island for a cup of tea (leaf not bag too). It sells delicious home baked cakes, snacks of various sorts and even has a licence – it does not do regular evening meals, and nor does anywhere else on the island (Ph 01631 760020). The deck does not have much of an outlook but sitting outside on a nice day is very pleasant, particularly watching the sweaty cyclists toiling along the road below.

A little further along the road you come to Clachan with a delightful and extraordinarily interesting church. At first glance it looks like an ordinary Scottish Kirk but look closer and you will see all sorts of stuff which reveals its more illustrious past, incredibly for such a small place as a cathedral which began life in the 13th Century. The present structure arose in the 18th Century from a state of some ruination and is based on the original cathedral choir, although it has been much altered since then (the gallery and the timber roof are late Victorian). Confusingly the inside is now back to front with the pulpit at the west end. The stained glass windows are good. The few remains of the older cathedral are as spectacular as they are surprising – the doors in the north and south walls, the arch in the west wall, the three arched sedilia and piscina in the south wall. The graveyard is charming, full of wild flowers, a good place to sit and think. The immediately adjacent old manse is a lovely 18th and 19th Century building, as is the 18th Century Bachuil House 100 yards towards Port Ramsay.

There is no official anchorage at Castle Coeffin but you can walk there from Achnacroish, or Port Ramsay as well as from Port na Moralachd where it is described. And nor is there a recognised anchorage at Tirefour broch, but it is not difficult to anchor just off it, at least for a visit if not for the night (but again you can walk it from the Achnacroish anchorage, 3kms up the east coast). It is by no means the most complete broch in Scotland but apart from the broch at Vaul on Tiree, it is the only one of any note in this area, and the walls are still up to 3m high, so you can get some idea of what these strange iron age structures looked like.