Other walks and ways: Kintyre Way, Day Three

Walking Scotlands coast.....

Day 3 and the weather still good. After breakfast we travelled in the minibus to today’s start point near Balachroy where we set off walking south on the pebbly beach towards Rhunahaorine Point. After 2 miles of difficult walking at the sea edge on pebbles (and in consideration of the long walk ahead) we move inland to the edge of the field on the banking above the beach where the underfoot condition were much easier. The views north, south and across to Gigha were lovely. On nearing Rhunahaorine we moved from sea edge into the adjoining  field to avoid the seabird nesting site on the point, walking passed the WW2 lookout post to the lovely beach at the caravan site. From here we walked at the sea edge to the Ferry Jetty then followed the KW directions through Tayinloan village back to the sea shore for a short distance before returning inland to the A83 which we crossed near Killean. The KW from here follows what is a FC and service road through the forests to Deucheran Wind Farm and continues through emerging onto the B842 near Brackley. The first half of this 10 mile stretch is steadily uphill to the wind farm before a long gradual descent down to Brackley On emerging onto the road at Brackley the KW follows the road south to a car park near Kirnashie Hill where it takes a left turn back into forest for a very pleasant 3 mile walk into Carradale.

Start time 1000 – Finish time 1730 – Breaks 1 Hour

Summary; A testing days walk due to the distance, hot weather, and hard underfoot conditions on the stretch between the A83 and B842. Clearly way marked along all the route. As testing as any day on the West Highland Way.

Highs; A good mixture of scenery.
Walking from sight of Gigha on the west side of the Mull to the sight of Arran on east side of the Mull.

Lows; None, a good days walking.