The Road to Crinan Ferry

Our trip to Crinan Ferry was actually the second night of a weekend camping trip, so we started off on Saturday from Firkin Point on Loch Lomond. I spend a lot of time at Loch Lomond and there's lots to write about it, so I will talk about that in another post.

It was the end of my second year of uni and I wanted to have a camping trip to celebrate and unwind after exams, and I fancied somewhere to camp on the beach. I had googled a few places that were recommended on the West Coast but all of the ones that struck me happened to be on the isles and we were looking to keep costs down.

So essentially we winged it. I think once you get into the countryside of Scotland you can't really go wrong and end up somewhere horrific, so I liked the idea of driving around until we found a spot that suited us. So, from Loch Lomond, we followed the A82 until the point where the road splits into two directions, straight on for the coast (A83) or you keeping going towards the West Highlands.

We had a very quick pit stop in Inverary which is a place I have been to before with the kayak club on our annual surf kayaking trip to Machrihanish. I have stopped off there four times, but because its been on the way to Mach, I have never properly explored, but it looks really pretty and there is a really nice chip shop that we always go to! We saw a lovely rainbow, which is why we pulled over.

This photo does it no justice

A bonny wee lass is oor Alice.

They did this every time I turned the engine on!

We continued driving for a bit, and we tried to be young and adventurous, so I didn't actually keep track of what way we ended up going to get to Crinan Ferry. We were driving about for quite a while and I was getting tired and if I'm honest almost about to give up. We had doubled back on ourself and went back past a sign for Dunadd Hill Fort  which we hoped might be a lead for somewhere, and turned down there. Me and Reubs later hiked up the fort in the morning.

We pulled into a car park and asked a nice but scary looking (silly us) fisherman if he knew anywhere to wild camp, and he told us about Crinan Ferry and how to get there.

Mr Scary Looking Fisherman, we were so wrong about you, because this was a wonderful place and we thank you so much for telling us about it.

Fields on the way

Feast your eyes

View from the top of Dunadd Hill Fort

A wee selfie from the top

He told us that once we got there, there would be a tree with a swing by the car park. So we parked up, headed down to the beach.

We set up camp and me and Reuben went to get firewood to make a proper campfire. When we pitched up there were signs saying no camping allowed without permission, but we weren't certain if the land was owned by anyone. Whilst me and Reuben were away the owner(?!) came and spoke to Alice and John and we ended up getting permission to stay there as long as we took care of it. I don't know how official it was that he owned the land, but I am 110% for looking after the country and nature, so it was fine. 

So pleased with ourselves.

Where the fairies live

We got our firewood from a wooded place that was on the way to the camping spot, and we were lucky because there just seemed to be random massive piles of dry firewood set out. In the same area was a beautiful pond that was surrounded by so many tiny and beautiful green and purple flowers and it was truly magical.

The weather was actually pretty good that night as well so it meant that we were able to properly enjoy the camp fire. The sky was so clear because we were so far away from any cities and the stars were incredible, and we even saw a couple of shooting stars which was completely magical.

I will definitely be back to explore more of the Western coast of Scotland, there are loads of places on the way to Mach that look incredible that I would like to visit. I think hearsay is probabally a great way to learn about a place and find out the secrets from the locals, otherwise we would have just drive by and never been to Crinan Ferry. If you want to have a chilled weekend of camping and relaxing by the sea I would really recommend going here, as it was remote and peaceful.