After the reasonable weather for my visit to the Isle of Gigha the day before, I unfortunately saw quite a lot of this during my visit to the Kintyre Peninsula: Rain. It rained quite a lot, sometimes quite heavy. But then, as my mother used to say: "You're not made of sugar" (and I remember talking with one of the wardens at Brodie Castle. She isn't the only one, his mother told him the same) I enjoyed the day anyway, in particular the moments where it didn't rain. I drove down the west coast with it's more rugged coastline first, when by pure chance I saw these seals. The rain had stopped for a moment and I was just taking a quick break when I spotted them. They let me get quite close to take my pictures, may be they sensed that I wasn't going to swim over to harm them. It's quite interesting to see how difficult it is for them to move on the rocks when they are such elegant swimmers in the water. From here I drove on to Campbeltown to grab a quick lunch, before continuing to Machrihanish.

No, I didn't make a detour to California. What you see on the left is a Scottish surfer. Three of them were braving the elements (and the cold) in a small bay near Machrihanish. In particular this guy with the red board had a couple of good runs, allowing me to take a few pictures. They were all wearing thick wetsuits, gloves etc, but I imagine it must have still been quite cold in the water.Machrihanish also is home to the longest beach in Argyll. I tried to capture it in the picture on the right, unfortunately the visibility was quite poor due to all the rain and the humidity in the air. But I think you get the picture. By now it was early afternoon and I decided to start making my way up north again. This time I went up along the east coast. First I had to get back to Campbeltown to catch the road to Carradale. On leaving Campbeltown you have a very nice view over Davaar Island, sheltering the loch with the harbour of Campbeltown.

Daavar Island can be reached via a tidal breakwater, something I'll probably do on a later visit. In a cave on the island a painting of the crucifixion was completed in secret in 1877. Unfortunately the rain set in again shortly after leaving this viewpoint, so I couldn't see very much of the coastline, let alone take many pictures.Near Claonaig the rain eased a little bit and I had a nice walk through the oak woods with the waterfall of the Allt a 'Bhuic burn. The walk goes all the way down to the water, on a clearer day with a nice view to Arran. From here it wasn't far to my last stop during my day in Kintyre: Skipness Castle. It was started in the 13th century and abandoned at the end of the 17th century. The entry is free and you can climb up the tower for a nice view over to the nearby ruins of St Brendan Chapel from the 13th century. As the rain had set in again I didn't walk over to it, but I'm told there are some interesting carved medieval tombstones to be seen. And with that my day on the Kintyre Peninsula ends. From here I made my way back to Glasgow (to go to New Lanark the next day), stopping at Loch Fyne again for a very nice dinner.