CAMPBELTOWN LOCH I NEED A WHISKY
Welcome to Bairdstravel`s picture diary of their Easter weekend away in the Kintyre area of Scotland .Kintyre is a peninsula in western Scotland, in the south-west of Argyll and Bute. The region stretches approximately 30 miles (48 km), from the Mull of Kintyre (immortalised in the song of the same name by Paul McCartney) in the south, to East Loch Tarbert in the north. The region immediately north of the peninsula is known as Knapdale.
Ist stop Rest and be Thankful
Inveraray enjoys a picturesque setting on the shores of Loch Fyne, where it meets Loch Shira. It was built on the site of an earlier fishing village in the mid 1700s by the 3rd Duke of Argyll, chief of the powerful Clan Campbell. He demolished the original village to give his rebuilt castle more space, and rehoused the population in a new village that is one of the most attractive in Scotland.
Lochgilphead
The Kintyre Peninsula
Geographically, the Kintyre peninsula is long and narrow, at no point more than 11 miles (18 km) from west coast to east coast. The central spine of the peninsula is mostly hilly moorland. The coastal areas and hinterland, however, are rich and fertile. As such, Kintyre has long been a prized area for settlers, from the early Scots who migrated from Ulster to western Scotland and the Vikings or Norsemen who conquered and settled the area just before the start of the second millennium.
The principal town of the area is Campbeltown (about 9 km by road from the Mull), which has been a royal burgh since the mid-18th century.
The Atlantic coast of Kintyre. The road climbs quickly to one of the best vantage points in Scotland, with quite stunnig views out to the Islands of Islay and Jura.
The paps of Jura in the distance
CAMPBELTOWN
First night in Campbeltown
Woke up Sunday morning and decide to head to the Mull of Kintyre
Off to see the famous Mull of Kintyre
Exhaust falls of motor on the one track road to the Mull.
OH S--T and nae signal on my phone. As traffic builds up in the middle of no where we get help from a mechanic who was heading back from the Mull. We tie the exhaust to the bottom of the car and head back to Campbeltown .
In Campbeltown we phone the AA . After two hours a garage in Lochgilphead comes to our help. The driver was brilliant fun.
He had great knowledge of the Kintrye and stopped now and then
to show us different places of interest.
Sally gets lift of Stag garage
All on board
The Atlantic coast
Motor mended and we are back on the road again . Next stop Tarbert
Tarbert has a long history both as a harbour and as a strategic point guarding access to Kintyre and the Inner Hebrides. The name Tarbert is the anglicised form of the Gaelic word tairbeart. It is composed of tar "across" and a form of the verb beir "carry" and literally translates as "across-carrying". This refers to the narrowest strip of land between two bodies of water over which goods or entire boats can be carried. In past times cargoes were discharged from vessels berthed in one loch, hauled over the isthmus to the other loch, loaded onto vessels berthed there and shipped onward, allowing seafarers to avoid the sail around the Mull of Kintyre.
A FEW BEERS SUNDAY NIGHT
Great place to stay in Tarbert
Next we take a cruise on Loch Fyne over to Portavadie.
Monday afternoon we head home another adventure with Bairdstours of Scotland
homeward bound
Arrocher with a view of Ben Arthur
Dinner Monday night in Arrocher
Please take time to look at our other pages from our Easter break 2009