The Changing Small Isles

Views of the Small Isles of Muck, Eigg, Rùm and Canna are ever-changing as you make the journey from east to west along the coast of Moidart and north Ardnamurchan and past its spectacular cliffs, dramatic rocky shores and beautiful white sand beaches. While the dramatic peaks of Rùm’s Cuillin Mountain range are ever present, the distinctive profile of Eigg and its highest hill, An Sgurr, is a prominent feature at first, but it gradually disappears from view to be replaced by the more diminutive profile of Muck as you reach the journey’s end…….

Image 1: Golden Eigg II - Sailean Dubh, Ardtoe, Ardnamurchan

​Introduction

Scotland has 40 National Scenic Areas which cover 13% of its land mass and they earn this designation because their outstanding scenery makes them the country’s finest Landscapes. One of these areas is Morar, Moidart and Ardnamurchan here on Scotland’s north-west coast. It is home to a coastline of spectacular cliffs, dramatic rocky shores and beautiful white sand beaches. Added to all of this are breath-taking views of the Small Isles of Muck, Eigg, Rùm and Canna, which sit a few miles west out in the Sound of Arisaig and just south of the Isle of Skye.
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As you travel from Moidart in the east, to Ardnamurchan in the west, your perspective of the Small Isles changes significantly, with both them and features on them coming into view and disappearing again after only a few miles. This everchanging view makes photographing both them and this coastline an absolute joy and now that the evening sun is in the north-west, my plan for the coming weeks is to photograph to do just that. My aim is to capture this spectacular coastline while it is bathed in warm sunlight at the end of our long summer days. In the meantime, however, I thought I would describe this somewhat special journey and share some of the images that I already have. 

Moidart

Image 2: Eigg Blues - Isle of Eigg from Rubh a' Chairn Mhoir, Glenuig, Moidart

​If you decide to avoid the Corran Ferry and take the “long-way round” to get to the Peninsulas, driving from Fort William, through Glenfinnan and on to Glenuig you catch the occasional glimpse of the Small Isles as you make your way down the shore of Loch Ailort. However, they really come in to view when you reach the bend in the road at Rubh a' Chairn Mhoir, just before you get to Glenuig (Image 2). From there you can see the full length of the Isle of Eigg, with the distinctive shape of An Sgurr rising at its southern end.  This feature is the result of one of the last eruptions of a volcano, the core of which now forms the Isle of Rùm. It is the highest hill on the island and its striking profile forms a landmark that is visible for many miles around.

Image 3: The First View of Eigg and Rùm on the Walk to Smirisary

​On reaching Glenuig, you can turn off the main road, drive past the Glenuig Inn and continue westward for about a mile and a half to reach the road end. From there, a short walk takes you to Smirisary, an isolated and roadless crofting village that sits between a rocky foreshore and a steep hillside about two miles to the west of Glenuig. As you walk the final half mile to the village, your view of the sea is obstructed by a small hill, but as you get to the top of it, the view dramatically opens up to reveal islands that you feel you can almost touch (Image 3).

Image 4: Summer Tranquillity II - The Small Isles of Eigg and Rùm viewed from Smirisary, Moidart

​I like to visit Smirisary in mid to late summer. It is a great place to capture Muck, Eigg and Rùm sitting in flat calm seas while they are silhouetted against the colourful skies that are a feature of the sunsets there at that time of year. From there, you get a closer view of the distinctive shape of An Sgurr and the dramatic peaks of the Rùm and its Cuillin mountain range, which sits behind Eigg and simply adds to the magic you are witnessing (Image 4). 

Image 5: Summer Tranquillity I - The Small Isle of Muck viewed from Smirisary, Moidart

​​Smirisary is also a great place from where to see Muck, the smallest of four main islands in the Small Isles because from so many other places, its low-lying form is often hidden from view or is obscured by the presence of Eigg and Rùm behind it. From here though, it can be seen sitting in splendid isolation on the western horizon (Image 5).

​​When you leave Smirisary and Glenuig behind and drive over to Kinlochmoidart, you loose sight of the islands as they become hidden by the hills that surround you. However, if you look behind you as you follow the road, you can catch a glimpse of the now familiar An Sgurr on Eigg as it sits a way out on the western horizon beyond the entrance to the North Channel of Loch Moidart (Image 6).

After that, you head well inland, losing the view of the islands again as the road takes you towards Acharacle, where you cross over the River Shiel and move from Moidart and into Ardnamurchan.

Image 6: Autumnal Channel - Loch Moidart, Ardmolich, Moidart

East Ardnamurchan

Image 7: Golden Eigg I - Sailean Dubh, Ardtoe, Ardnamurchan

If you want to get a view of the Small Isles on this part of your journey, you need to head out to the small but beautiful sandy beach at Ardtoe where a short walk out to the headland on its western side brings the southern end of Eigg and An Sgurr back into view. From there, you also get a glimpse of Rùm because the high peaks of the Rùm Cuillin are just visible above the land that shelters the beach from the open sea (Image 1 and Image 7). 

Image 8: Enlightened - Isle of Eigg viewed from Ardtoe, Ardnamurchan

​While at Ardtoe and if you don’t mind a walk over uneven and often boggy ground, you can make your way out to the end of Rubha Luinngeanach where you get a more open view of Eigg with Rùm behind it. It was at this spot where I witnessed what I think is the most spectacular sunset I have ever seen over the Small Isles (Image 8). I was out there on a rather cloudy July evening, so my hopes of getting a good image were not high. Suddenly the clouds beyond the skerry of Sgeir an Eidigh parted and allowed the most intense of crepuscular rays to shine down on the Isle of Eigg and silhouetted it against the golden backdrop that they had created. It is a moment that is forever etched on my memory.

Image 9: Through the Gap - Kentra Bay, Arivegaig, Ardnamurchan

​On leaving Ardtoe to head back towards Acharacle, you’ll find that a slight diversion down the road towards Arivegaig rewards you with a fine view out through the entrance of Kentra Bay to Eigg, where An Sgurr sits directly behind the gap between the land and the sea (Image 9). 

Image 10: Cold Last Moon I - Kentra Bay, Arivegaig, Ardnamurchan

The road to Arivegaig is also a spot where you can catch a full moon setting behind the Rùm Cuillin on a clear winter morning (Image 10). ​

​West Ardnamurchan

Image 11: Two Small Isles - Eigg & Rùm from the road to Kilchoan at Doire Daraich, Ardnamurchan

​The next part of the journey west takes you along the side of Loch Sunart and it is a good few miles before you see the Small Isles again because the road now takes you along the southern coast of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula. It is not until you pass Camas nan Geall and follow the road north around the side of Ben Hiant to reach Doire Daraich before they come back into view again (Image 11). 

Image 12: Dusk Calling - Kilmory, Ardnamurchan

Given how far west you have travelled to reach there, the perspective is now very different because Eigg now sits to the right of Rùm, while the drive down to Kilmory brings the Muck back into view as reach the phone box just before the village (Image 12).

Image 13: Overlooking the bay at Inverockle to Eigg and Rùm with Skye on the distant north-eastern horizon

It is this part of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula that I wish to explore more in the next few months as the coastline is so dramatic and the view as you follow the road back towards the east until you reach its end at Ockle is dominated Eigg and Rùm. At Ockle, you can leave your car and take an easy walk out to the bay at Inverockle where you get a splendid view of these to islands as well as the Isle of Skye, which to their east out on the northern horizon evening (Image 13).

​This small rocky bay offers many photographic opportunities, and I am looking forward to revisiting it to capture it’s many rocky inlets while they are bathed in the light of a late summer evening (Image 14).

Leaving Ockle and heading back towards the west takes you on a loop to the south, through Kilchoan and then back out to the northern coast again. Before making for Ardnamurchan Lighthouse, you can take the road to Portuairk or Sanna and, if you’re looking for another breath-taking view of the Small Isles, then I tend to think that Portuairk is your best bet. 

Image 14: Patience - Inverockle, Ockle, Ardnamurchan

Image 15: Pink Rùm & Muck - The Small Isles of Rùm and Muck viewed from Portuairk, Ardnamurchan

It is from the hills above Portuairk from where I think you get the most dramatic view of Rùm and the magnificent peaks of its Cuillin mountain range. It is simply majestic, sitting there beyond Sanna Bay and the significantly more diminutive Isle of Muck (Image 15). 

Image 16: Sanna Sundown I - Sanna Bay, Sanna, Ardnamurchan

​While there, it is well worth taking the walk from Portuairk to the beautiful white sand beach at Sanna because, as you climb over the hill that separates the two, another magnificent view of the Small Isles reveals itself (Image 16). It is from there that you can see all the Small Isles because the fourth and, up until now, elusive Isle of Canna reveals itself. If you stop there for a little whole and look north over the beach you can just make it out, sitting well out the west of the Isle of Rùm, which has Eigg to its east and Muck to its south.

Journey’s End

Image 17: Wave Symphony I - Ardnamurchan Lighthouse from Dubh Rubha Mor, Ardnamurchan

Our journey from east to west along this beautiful Moidart and Ardnamurchan coastline ends at Ardnamurchan Point. It is as far west as you can go on the British Mainland and is home to the iconic Ardnamurchan Lighthouse which so many visitors head for when they visit the West Highland Peninsulas.
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While you do get a clear view of the Small Isles from there, they do not readily sit in any photographic composition that features the lighthouse because the camera tends to point in a direction looking away from them or is at an angle where the islands are hidden by the lighthouse itself.

It takes a walk out on to the rocks of Dubh Rubha Mor at low tide before you can point the camera north, across the bay of Briaghlann, and capture both the lighthouse and the now familiar profile of Rùm and Muck behind it and it seems fitting that I end this journey with an image of the sun setting on this very scene (Image 17).