Over Kilbrannan Sound to Kintyre

Well within sight of Arran is the Kintyre Peninsula. The trusty ferry wafted Mary, me and our behemoth of a Volvo across Kilbrannon Sound from Lochranza (which delights in the ruins of Lochranza Castle) to the tiny port of Claonaig.

The whole area was very busy: we managed to arrive during a popular yachting event, which means that we had a difficult time finding a place to live. However, the Knap Hotel came through, and we settled in Tarbert for a few days, using it as a base to travel south to Campbeltown and north to Kilberry.

Tarbert Harbour is beautiful and is overlooked by a castle ("Tarbert Castle"), built by Robert the Bruce after he 'made good', became King, and wanted a trusty fort overlooking Loch Fyne and the Sound of Bute. In my own site, Knapdale People , I have devoted a page to Tarbert Castle and its history.

Arran: the King's Cave

If it had been up to me, I would have taken to my bed while in Arran, because I had picked up a dreadful cold whilst in Glasgow. My sister, however, is a nurse, and is firmly of the (correct) opinion that physical activity is GOOD, especially when one has a cold. So, we marched off to see The King's Cave.

The King was Robert the Bruce, and the Cave was one of the places in which he and his followers hid while on the run from Balliol and the English. The caves can be found on Arran's west coast, directly across from Kintyre. We walked from a car park, through the usual West Highland wilderness, which is festooned with gorgeous scenes of far off houses, sheep, hills, coastal plains, etc... down a very steep decline, to the rocky beach.

Along this beach are natural caves. One of them, the one that sheltered Robert the Bruce, is protected by a very attractive gate.

It is here that tradition claims that the Bruce had his famed encounter with a spider. It seems that Bruce was dejected (he had lost a series of battles, and had been on the run for a long time, and here he was camping out in a cold damp cave), and on the verge of giving up trying to gain the Crown of Scotland. But then he saw a spider spinning a web on the cave wall, only to have it collapse from the wet slippery stone. But. The spider did not give up. It tried and tried yet again, until finally, the web held. It was this determined spider that inspired Bruce to continue his efforts against the English, until he finally led the Scots to victory at Bannockburn. And it is a foolhardy person who says "tradition" has no basis in Fact!