Loch Coruisk

The weathersnike had done very well procuring good weather, so we decided to go on the boat from Elgol over to Loch Coruisk, at the base of the Cuillins. You can only get there by walking or by boat.

On the map below you can see Elgol. To get to Loch Coruisk you go across Loch Scavaig and into the little harbour behind the island at the base of the Cuillins. There's a jetty there and you can walk over to the loch. We walked right around it.

The day was absolutely perfect and dead flat calm! This view is from Elgol towards where we were going.

We went on the Misty Isles - a beautiful wooden boat that has been taking people to Loch Coruisk for decades (http://mistyisleboattrips.co.uk/the-area/loch-coruisk/)

This is the other side of Bla Bheinn, from Loch Scavaig

You go past a seal colony on the way

The gabbro rock reaches down to the sea in big smooth lumps, like beached whales

Approaching the harbour

First glimpse of the loch

Walter Scott wrote a poem about Loch Coruisk (although I don't think it can have been sunny the day he went).

(From The Lord of the Isles)

For rarely human eye has known

A scene so stern as that dread lake,    

With its dark ledge of barren stone.

Seems that primeval earthquake’s sway        

Hath rent a strange and shattered way    

Through the rude bosom of the hill,

And that each naked precipice,

Sable ravine, and dark abyss,    

Tells of the outrage still.        

The wildest glen, but this, can show

Some touch of nature’s genial glow;

On high Benmore green mosses grow,

And heath-bells bud in deep Glencroe,    

And copse on Cruchan-Ben;        

But here,—above, around, below,    

On mountain or in glen,

Nor tree nor shrub nor plant nor flower,

Nor aught of vegetative power,    

The weary eye may ken;        

For all is rocks at random thrown,

Black waves, bare crags, and banks of stone,    

As if were here denied

The summer sun, the spring’s sweet dew,

That clothe with many a varied hue            

The bleakest mountain-side.

It is certainly a fascinating place. Surrounded by the high, black mountains it was very hot (and with naught of vegetative power to sit under, a little challenging for me at times!). It was very quiet and muffled by the mountains. A kelpie is supposed to live in the loch and I wouldn't be surprised if that were so. As Scott says, the valley is strewn with random bits of rock that have fallen off the crags into all sorts of positions, like they've been scattered.

We walked around and got very hot doing so. John discovered a solution. Cold but effective. I wet my hat.

Rumour has it that the 'Skye Boat Song' melody (Cuchag nan Craobh) was written down by a woman who heard it when she was rowed across this loch...

It really was ridiculously hot

This is the river that connects the fresh water loch to the salt water loch..shortest river in Europe apparently. It's very beautiful -but it is short!

The loch was like a mirror on the way back to Elgol. We saw three porpoises on the way home and the most spooky jellyfish. The water was so clear you could see them metres down - but they were at all levels - a very high intensity of jellies!

Rum again....

An amazing day!