The length of Loch Fyne. Otter Ferry to Inveraray 26 July 2024

 

The Duke of Argyle’s pile at Inveraray

Susie’s cocktail on her big bus pass birthday - nearly as big as Argyle’s pile!

Today we have motored up to almost the very top of Loch Fyne.  It is a wonderful loch - very long, narrow, very deep in places, renowned for langoustines and oysters and all manner of seafood.  Very few boats and today very wet.

These two pictures represent very well the views we had most of the way up the loch today.
The upside was that the wind was behind us and it wasn’t cold.
  Happy days.

Early on, before we left Otter Ferry, we were treated (well, I was treated) to an astonishing 10,000+ foraging seabirds stretching up and down the loch - a real indication of how productive the loch must be. Gulls, Gannets, Eiders, waders, auks and more. 

It only took just under 2 hours to get to Inveraray, a small but really quite busy wee town.  It is the home of the Duke of Argyle who still lives in Inveraray Castle (it has featured in Downtown Abbey).  The castle is open to the public with the Argyles living on two upper floors.  Gordon tells me that the Duke of Argyle is the only individual person in the UK who is allowed to raise a private army - he’s full of useful information! But actually, upon further Google research, we discovered it is the Duke of Atholl, Perthshire who can do this.  Gordon thinks the Duke of Argyle should be allowed his own army!

A bronze cannon believed to have been cast in 1545 by Benevenuto Cellini for Francis I of France.  It was acquired by the Duke of Argyle in 1740 from a Spanish Armada ship that had wrecked in Tobermory Bay on the Isle of Mull.

We walked round the outside of the castle, then had coffee in the tearoom.  We think, just possibly, that the Duke’s son (a future Duke presumably) came and had tea and sandwiches in the tearoom on his own.  Of course this might have been our imaginations.

Inveraray has a very large jail for such a small place,
 perhaps the consequence of being located near the home of the D of A.

Next stop was the Loch Fyne Hotel - a quite up market joint, so that Susie could have a celebratory cocktail (a Cosmopolitan) on her birthday (the one that gives her free bus and train travel throughout Ireland (north and south)).  Worth celebrating!

Then back to the boat, the only visiting boat, to have home cooking for dinner.  Looking forward to it.

Lazaway at a mooring just off the pier at Inveraray.  On the right is “Vital Spark”, built in 1944, the last functioning Clyde puffer.

The boat bird list is 23 species.

Our route:
























































































































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