Friday 5 July

The skipper was up early, the only other thing aside from sailing to get him out of bed at 05:00 – general election results. For me the most noticeable thing was birdsong. It wasn’t raining and there are patches of blue sky. Over breakfast we ran the engine to produce hot water for the first mate’s shower and charge the batteries a bit. We might move on a bit later today but first we plan a walk to find the stones.

The Cairnbaan Stones are on a hill above the village and canal. This rock art was carved by the inhabitants of Kilmartin Glen in the Neolithic or Bronze Age. The rings, cups, lines and deep gutters are quite clear to see on the faces of the bare rocks in two different spots. They are part of a large collection scattered across the Argyll countryside. Why they were carved has been lost as has any meaning they might once have held but they are fascinating to examine and pick out the hand carved lines from the natural cracks in the rocks.

It stayed dry for the well sign posted walk up through the woods starting right by the hotel. After viewing both set of stones we returned to the canal by the wider rough lane way to the road and thence back to the canal reaching Temptress an hour or so after departing. Then the heavens opened again. Once it eased we headed off stopping above lock 4 on the outskirts of Ardrishaig for lunch. In a first for this cruise we ate in the sun in the cockpit though the rain threatened with a few spots towards the end of our meal.

We couldn’t go down til the boats coming up had passed. Having time to spare the bikes were offloaded and we cycled along the towpath to the canal basin. It was good to see salt water again. Across the road from the basin is the newish Egg Shed which hosts a small collection of canal and Ardrishaig artefacts. Interesting but we left feeling it could have been so much more.

There were a few things related to the development of the canal but rather dry in their presentation even for interested adults. The tale of the tiny XE submarines that used the canal as a shortcut between their Clyde base and the Atlantic during WWII plus the fact that one of the submarine commanders became the canal manager after the war was the subject of a small but interesting display – more on the topic and more topics like this would make the place. And it was down to the staff member to explain why the name Egg Shed – surely a display of photos and artifacts relating to farmers bringing their eggs here for sorting prior to going to market should have been a priority given the name.

On the way back we called in at the two “corner shops”, that are next door to each other on the little parade in the village selling almost identical foodstuffs as far as we could see. We filled the rucksacks with beer, wine, a cauliflower, grated cheese (both ingredients for a future supper) and a chicken pie for supper then returned up the steep path to the canal towpath above. Enroute having chatted to the lock keeper, we made the decision not to move on until tomorrow. It would be too late to go right through, the basin was busy and there was a pleasant view from our perch here above Ardrishaig, out across the loch. Instead we sat and enjoyed some warm sun in the cockpit until yet another shower forced us down below to cook our supper.