This Years Irish Do

Scottish Inland Waterways Association Please Reply to: Andy Carnduff, Secretary 29 Hawkcraig Road Aberdour Fife. KY3 0XB andy@acarnduff29.wanadoo.co.uk or tel: 01383 860306

4^th Feb 2009

The SIWA - Irish Weekend

12^th till 15^th June 2009 - In Scotland, on the Crinan Canal.

The Plan, which is always open to personal preferences, new suggestions and the forces of co-incidence is presently as follows. Your participation is invited, together with your friends and fellow boaters, but be warned that accommodation at Ardrishaig is limited, that our Scottish flotilla will also have limited capacity, and that we all hope to be able to travel from time to time on the same bus, so its size will also limit our total numbers. Please let me know your intentions and preferences as early as you can!

Friday 12^th Meet at the Grey Gull Inn in Ardrishaig, tel no: 01546 606017, where we will be staying for the weekend, and meet old and new friends in the evening. Some of us will have dinner there; most will stay in the Inn while the boaters will likely prefer to stay aboard.

Now, to get to Ardrishaig; if we can agree, foot travellers could meet up at Glasgow airport at half past five on the evening of 12^th June, all get onto a private coach right there and make the tourist drive to Ardrishaig sociably together. It takes about 2½ hours by road, so I would suggest we stop along the way for dinner, maybe at Loch Fyne Oysters, or any preferable suggestions? The private coach will cost about £30 return form Glasgow Airport.

Of course, some of us will be coming by boat, including myself if spared, and I shall be leaving Aberdour on the 8^th, as it is quite a way via the F&C canal and Kyles of Bute, with the tides not entirely favourable that week. The whole Scottish flotilla need to travel to Tarbert for the start on Saturday13th, and I would be especially keen to hear from any boaters who are thinking of participation. We will need to assemble a flotilla of, I guess, some 8 or 10 yachts or motor yachts, workboats or canal barges, to accommodate the couple of dozen Irish visitors and boatless friends on our transit. There are good indications coming from the Great Glen Association and from BW themselves!

Some will surely come by car or campervan on account of commitments or more extensive touring; or I can recommend the inter-city express coaches via Glasgow which fairly skelp along the lochsides with stops for passenger comfort at Dalmally and Inverary.

So, please check out your preferred method, and let me know if you will join a SIWA group on our own coach from Glasgow Airport, and the same on the Monday, homebound, or, as I hope, if you will bring your own boat to join the sail-through and host a visitor or two.

Saturday 13^th; 09.00hrs, Bus to Tarbert, Loch Fyne, board the SIWA flotilla and sail up the loch to Ardrishaig, enter the sealock, ascend 2 locks, and stop for lunch in Ardrishaig. In the pm, walk along the towpath to view the unique “Waster” which controls the water level in the critical pound above Lochgilphead, then re-board the boats and sail on up to Cairnbaan, mooring there overnight, but returning by bus to the Grey Gull Inn for dinner, sociability and accommodation.

If the weather is amenable, we might try a stroll up to see the ancient rock carvings at Cairnbaan, or merely stop in the hotel for refreshment.

After dinner in the Grey Gull, we will enjoy some sociability and catch up on the year’s activity. At present we have no music booked, but if some of our own group happened to bring along a clarsach or accordion, I’m sure a tune or two would not go amiss.

Sunday 14^th: 09.30hrs start, back by bus to the boats and cruise the summit pound, with detours to view the Dunardry reservoir and rolling bridge, and by bus, to the historic Dunadd site ( within sight of the canal) of the ancient capital of Dalriada, established by the Gaelic Scots from Ireland over a thousand years ago.

Travel on by boat to Crinan, from where the Atlantic Ocean opens, but we do not plan to go there! We may pause for a dram in the Crinan Hotel or stroll around the sealock and enjoy the spectacular scenery (if the weather is fair) over to Mull and Jura. Return by bus to the Grey Gull Inn, where Alex Howie of BW has offered to give us a chance to hear about the canal, its construction and its place in the development of the Western Isles economy, and join us for dinner.

Monday 15^th; Is departure day, by boat, bus, coach or plane. We hope some will retrace the short road to Tarbert and cross Loch Fyne by ferry to the Portabhadie, now a marina, but carved from the rock as an oil rig construction yard back in the 70’s, and over the hill road to Dunoon, by ferry to Gourock, and on homewards; while others may dally awhile to visit the ancient religious remains at Kilmartin, described as Scotland’s richest prehistoric landscape.

Some may choose to continue their journey by boat, heading out through the Dorus Mor to the Sound of Jura, turning North to join a Visit Scotland “Scottish Homecoming“ event: “The Crossing” is a transit of the whole of the Caledonian Canal to Inverness! Check it out on www.homecomingscotland2009.com . This BWS-supported event starts at the foot of Ben Nevis on Tuesday and involves a myriad of land- and water-based activity designed to attract back homesick Scots and the families and friends of former Scots emigrants to their ethnic roots in the Highlands. You all would be most welcome there, but that is not in SIWA’s brief!

That is the outline we hope to build upon and would welcome your suggestions for minimising or extending any or all of it. Please get in touch with me as soon as you can to let me have a guide to numbers for the coach and canal berthing space, and book yourself directly with the Grey Gull Inn (mentioning SIWA or Andy Carnduff) and for your travel.

Good Cruising in 2009.

BW's Response to price rise consultation

By now we are sure you have all received BW's response to our comments to their consultation.

No surprises there! As expected, if that was a consultation we are virgins. So we can all look forward to another nice price rise!