Caladh Harbour

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magicol

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We’re exploring the Clyde this month and I’m keen get into Caladh Harbour, weather permitting and if there is space. I’ve only been in once before and on someone else’s boat. I have studied the Clyde Cruising Club Sailing Directions but wondered if other forum members had further advice. It looks a bit tight to me but too beautiful to miss. Our boat is 10m in length and draws very nearly 2m depth.
Any advice?
 
magicol said:
We’re exploring the Clyde this month and I’m keen get into Caladh Harbour, weather permitting and if there is space. I’ve only been in once before and on someone else’s boat. I have studied the Clyde Cruising Club Sailing Directions but wondered if other forum members had further advice. It looks a bit tight to me but too beautiful to miss. Our boat is 10m in length and draws very nearly 2m depth.
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At that depth if you're staying you'll be a constrained to the deeper bit on the "island" side. Still, there is room for two boats there, or three if nobody's being a selfish git. If you prefer just to call in for an hour or two at highish tide, there is a lot more space. I draw 1.4m and normally slot in between the moorings.
 
No problems with draft and you could risk a shorter scope as it's usually very sheltered. It can be tight for space though. I'd maybe even try an anchor and line to the shore if I was worried about other boats.
 
My last visit to this stunning anchorage was about 4 years ago. My boat is 12.4m and draws 2.1m and we shared the anchorage with 2 mobos. There can be strange tidal eddies with differing affect upon keel configuration. I mention this because we were woken during the early hours by one of the mobo owners; our boats had become amorous and needed fending off. A situation that didn’t seem possible a few hours earlier.
 
Go for it, I don't anchor that often in the Clyde but Caladh is hard to beat, if there are more than half a dozen boats there there are plenty of alternatives nearby.
 
Thanks for all the helpful and practical advice. We will go for it if it and probably overnight if not too crowded. Of course, there are alternatives if we need to rethink the plan.
 
We were minding our own business in there, near the island, one moonless night when a fishing boat came through at some speed. Why they would choose to do that escapes me, but there you are.

Saw us at the last moment and took avoiding action.

There was a lot of crashing and splashing, followed by an expletively charged exchange between crew members. All topped off by a vast amount of revving and pushing and shoving as they extracted themselves from the mess they had got into.

We bounced about in the wake produced.

We did happen to have an anchor light showing, but I cannot remember what anchor we were using.

Forgot to mention that I witnessed this as I was taking a comfort break over the stern.
 
My daftest moment there was going in for a quick stop and staying for six hours. By which time my anchor was in less than two feet of water. Luckily the bottom shelves quite steeply and I have a cut-away forefoot, so I was able, just and no more, to get the bows above the anchor, pull it out, and back off fast. However, Plan B ("Send the crew in the dinghy to retrieve the anchor") was ready and very nearly needed.
 
In the 1960's you could land on the Island. Last year there was a notice which said no landing.
A pity as when I was there in the 1960's there was evidence that the Island had a ghost. Something that a friend of mine witnessed when he took his dog for walk on the Island. I would have liked to have seen if there was any signs that a ghost still exists there. It was said that various clansmen who were hung on the seafront at Tighnabruaich in the 18th century were buried there which may be connected with the ghost. Anyone heard the story?
 
Last time I was there around 17 years ago, we had the most amazing phosphoresence. Party lights in the toilet and the outboard ashore in the evening was magical.
 
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Land on the island and have a look about, it’s not a restricted place and it’s legsl for you to do so and illegal for you to be restricted without good reason. That reason should be posted with the prohibition notice e.g. agricultural work, vermineradication and such like. In fact, if the notice is still there, take a picture and send it to the Argyle and Bute Council focal point for right of access. They have a duty to address restrictions to access.

Having said all that, if it falls under Loch Lomond what’s it called, there might be a restriction in place for other reasons, especially if it is getting damaged and they are allowing the island to recover.

That’s me anchored in Caladh in my Avatar. On that day we gathered mussels and cooked them up with oven chips for a lovely, if gritty, moulles frites. No one died or vomited.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
Having said all that, if it falls under Loch Lomond what’s it called, there might be a restriction in place for other reasons, especially if it is getting damaged and they are allowing the island to recover.
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National park? No, I've just checked, and it's well outside. However, I have just discovered that the NP covers the west side of Loch Long all the way down to the Holy Loch. I never knew that.

Downloadable-map-of-Loch-Lomond-and-the-Trossachs-National-Park.jpg
 
As I understood it, the Island was a private cemetery used by the family that formerly owned the estate, there were certainly marked graves there, though whether that is an excuse to introduce landing restrictions, I do not know?
 
Quandary said:
As I understood it, the Island was a private cemetery used by the family that formerly owned the estate, there were certainly marked graves there, though whether that is an excuse to introduce landing restrictions, I do not know?
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That's pretty much the story I heard with the addition that it was specifically used as a cemetery for their children. Probably not the brightest idea I've had when I regaled that story to my 6 year old who apart from being shocked now refers to it as the island of the dead children.
 
mainsail1 said:
In the 1960's you could land on the Island. Last year there was a notice which said no landing.
A pity as when I was there in the 1960's there was evidence that the Island had a ghost. Something that a friend of mine witnessed when he took his dog for walk on the Island. I would have liked to have seen if there was any signs that a ghost still exists there. It was said that various clansmen who were hung on the seafront at Tighnabruaich in the 18th century were buried there which may be connected with the ghost. Anyone heard the story?
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Well that's a new story to me. As Tighnabruaich wasn't developed until the late 1860's I would be very surprised that any 'Clansmen' were to be found in the area, let alone hung on the seafront.

You might be getting confused with the conflict between the Campbell's of Inveraray and the the Lamonts of, well, Ardlamont. The Lamonts were chased out of the area and some were put to the sword in Toward on the banks of Loch Striven.

As for the island, Eilean Dubh itself, I'm sure it is still owned by the Coates family and one of their family branches use it as a burial ground. If I remember correctly there has been a burial this century, and the sign does intimate that the island is private. I don't know how much weight this carries.

The boathouse opposite, by the way, housed the boat that carried the bodies across to the island.

Donald

Note: Kames is a much older settlement, but was only a collection of cottages for fisherman until the opening of the gunpowder mill.
 
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Aja said:
The boathouse opposite, by the way, housed the boat that carried the bodies across to the island.
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I believe that a lot of the infrastructure at Caladh dates from the Second World War, when it was a midget submarine training based - linked, presumably, with the Kyles Hydro Hotel (HMS Varbel) in Port Bannatyne. However, the quay seems to be late nineteenth or early twentieth century - build, apparently, with the help of a couple of well known Clyde characters:

"Hold you on, and I'll tell you that," said Para Handy. "We were lyin'
wan winter night at Tighnabruaich wi' a cargo o' stones for a place they
call Glen Caladh, that wass buildin' at the time, and we wanted a bit o'
rope for something in parteecular--I think it wass a bit of a net ..."

- From "Piracy in the Kyles"​

The big house on the shore was for sale recently. I day dreamed about buying it, until I saw that they wanted £3.5m ...
 
Yes, Caladh Castle was used by the RN as their base for teaching pilotage/navigation to RNVR etc during the war. There was also a decoy at Buttock Point in Bute of a tank holding inflammable material (possibly diesel) that was set on fire I believe remotely from Colintraive shore to keep the bombers away from Rothesay. port Bannatyne was the base for the midget submarines but Rothesay was a base for the northern submarine flotilla.

RN had to blow up Caladh Castle at the end of the war as it was deemed unsafe. My Mum joined in swimming races with the WRENS who were based at Caladh Castle which was held in the bay in front of where the castle stood.

Donald

To OP - Caladh means 'harbour' in the Gaelic.
 
Bit of drift, but..
while in the area, and in the company of historians here, what is the meaning or story behind the "Maids of Bute"?
These stones on the hill south of Buttock point painted white and yellow, that watch as boats glide on past to and from the Burnt Isles?
 
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