© Gavin Shaw 2006
Early afternoon Tuesday 19 April 2005
The preceeding couple of days of my week on Jura had been incessantly wet. The rainwater had been flowing like a river over many sections of the road north of Craighouse, so when the weather brightened on the Tuesday I decided to avoid the usual approach to the Paps via Corran River and instead took the dry estate tracks from Feolin Ferry to the foot of Beinn a' Chaloais. This approach has the benefit of one of the finest view in Scotland - across the Sound of Islay to Caol Ila distillery, home of the peatiest of the peaty Islay Single Malts. After a brief lunch on top, and some photos, I made my way down the steep quartzite blocks to the col between Beinn a' Chaolais and Beinn an Oir. Carrying a heavy rucksack with a tripod and panoramic camera gear, the slippy quartzite blocks required 100% concentration. At the col I decided that I wasn't going to visit Beinn an Oir and still have time to wander down the Sgriob na Caillich, so I decided to leave the other two Paps for a later date and headed NW to have a look at the unusual glacial phenomenon before making my way back to Feolin.