Several short sunny days on a sojourn to the Solway .

At the end of April and beginning of May, I enjoyed a fantastic holiday on Fleet Bay in the Solway Firth. Each day dawned sunny...

...and the calm days were spent exploring the Islands of Fleet.
Thee Murray's Isles have a large cormorant colony which is surrounded by a gull colony. I was saddened to see a noisy party in 4 SOT/recreational kayaks paddle close under the rocks. The cormorants all

Common sense prevails in Wigtown Bay.

This wonderful, wild seascape in Wigtown Bay has been under threat of industrialisation by the installation of 90 giant windmills. All would be situated within the confines of the bay, with the nearest being only 4.5km from the shore. Fortunately, for those that do not put natural beauty above greed for energy, the BBC Scottish News today announced that the Scottish Government turned down the

Sea kayaking round Burrow Head.

A 32km day paddle from Port William round Burrow Head to Garlieston, Solway Firth,  January 2011.
Approaching Burrow Head near slack water.
TidesWell off Burrow Head: The east going flood starts -0600 HW Liverpool (-0545 HW Dover). The west going ebb starts at HW Liverpool (+0015 HW Dover) The spring rate is about 3 knots. 
Close in to Burrow Head:Strong counter eddies become established in the

Home to roost in Garlieston.

We had enjoyed our sojourn in the Isle Whithorn so much that, by the time we left, the whitewashed houses had a pink glow from a sun that was already sinking in the west.
On leaving the harbour we turned our backs to the sun and turned east...
...into the broad expanse of Wigtown Bay.
We made for Cruggleton Point...
...which is topped by the remains of Cruggleton Castle.
By now the sun was

Navigational aids: #7 The luncheon beacon.

Leaving Burrow Head, we paddled past the rather grandly named...
...Isles of Burrow.
Eventually (and remember we were still quite without luncheon) we noticed a white beacon above the line of apparently unbroken rock. Jim was new to the south west but immediately understood its meaning. This was a luncheon beacon!
Through a gap in the rocks, we slipped into Isle of Whithorn harbour.
We landed

The Devil's bridge of Burrow Head.

Due to lost time on the shuttle, we had started a little later than planned. We still needed to meet the tidal window at Burrow Head and so we skipped first luncheon,  carrying on towards the Head.

Close to the head, a strong counter eddy forms in the last 2 hours of both the flood and the ebb, particularly so at springs. This means that "slack water" close under the rocks occurs when the main

Touching the past on the way to Burrow Head.

At Bloody Neuk, about 4km short of Burrow Head, we came across the wreck of the SV Chile, which came to grief here in WW1.

Although she was a sailing vessel, she had steam powered winches...
to work her rigging.
There is nothing quite like touching the wreck of a once great ship...
...as mental preparation for rounding a distant headland, with a notorious tide race.

Less fond of basking sharks than otters.

We paddled down the Machars peninsula and across Monreith Bay. Phil's silhouette was ringed by the bright water of  Luce Bay.
Crazy drystone dykes marched across the Galloway hillsides and raised beaches. I have already mentioned that Port William was planned by Sir William Maxwell. One of his descendants, Gavin Maxwell, fisherman, turned naturalist, then author, was brought up in Elrig, just

We were so far south that there was almost a whiff of civilisation in the air.

At the end of January we drove far to the south, into the recesses of Galloway's remote Machars peninsula.

The winter sun struggled into the sky above the distant Burrow Head, a mysterious headland, which is isolated by the swirling tides that scour the Irish Sea.

We convened at the little harbour of Port William. Our arrival did not go unnoticed, the local sea kayaker braved the minus 5 degree