Scottish anchorages

No, you can't get by with your iphone and Google maps, well not quite yet. You have to have one or other or both of the two sailing directions on board:

Clyde Cruising Club Sailing Directions and Anchorages, published by Clyde Cruising Club Publications Ltd. These are based on the original Clyde Cruising Club Directions which go back decades, they are regularly updated, and are published in very handy ring binders these days. The ones relevant to this area are: Kintyre to Ardnamurchan (2007), and Ardnamurchan to Cape Wrath (2006). You can download the amendments from the Clyde Cruising Club website.

Martin Lawrence Sailing Directions (the Yachtsman's Pilot). Martin Lawrence started publishing these in the late 1980s, really as a one man band. They have always overlapped quite considerably with the Clyde Cruising Club Sailing Directions, but it is still worth having both. For this area you need: Clyde to Colonsay, the Isle of Mull and adjacent coasts, and Skye and Northwest Scotland.

In fact from 2012 these two sets of publications will merge, good news really as they were so similar - the first will be the Firth of Clyde including Solway Firth and North Channel.

Some may wonder why these two sets of sailing directions don't already contain the sort of information this website provides, or indeed that can be found in some of the glossy books describing the anchorages around the English coast. In my no doubt biased view this is all for the best. To get to the anchorages you need a water resistant easy to fold out book wedged under a winch handle in the cockpit telling you how succinctly to get there and not cluttered up with the sort of stuff on this website - which comes once you are safely anchored, kettle on the boil or drink in hand, thinking about having a look around ashore.