"Old Mother Earth has sprinkled, as from a pepper-pot, I know not how many islands, islets, rocks and reefs, a veritable archipelago, criss-crossed by sounds, channels, gulfs and creeks, a few easily navigable, some only with great care, and others not at all" wrote John McLintock in West Coast Cruising, Blackie and Son, London and Glasgow, 1938. Indeed true, there are so many small delightful islands around the west side of the Sound of Luing that it is difficult to prefer one to another.
The special thing about this anchorage on Lunga is the walk to the edge of the Grey Dogs Channel (Little Corryvreckan), and there to gaze at the tide race and wonder whether to give it a go, as I have seen a 30-foot yacht do, on the flood, admittedly when the sea was calm. At springs the water really does run seriously downhill, and even on a quiet day the whole place has a very unsettling look about it. In fact very few boats seem to attempt this passage, I certainly haven't and don't plan to. Nor did the tough Corinthian sailor R.T. McMullen in the late 19th century "After dinner, landed on the island for a stroll, and looked down from a height of 150 feet on the current raging in the narrow channel which divides this island from Scarba; but the scene was neither entertaining at the moment nor a pleasant subject of contemplation for anyone who, if under way, might possibly be forced through it in a calm" (Down Channel. R.T.McMullen, first published 1869, Grafton Books, London, 1986).
You can also get to the same point by walking from the Camas a'Mhor-Fhir anchorage, but it is more tedious. The view from the hill on the southwest tip of the island is particularly grand and panoramic and, of course, the wild flowers are fantastic. The anchorage itself is fine too, out of the tide, and you can watch the boats going up and down the Sound of Luing. A bit north of the anchorage there is quite a well-kept looking house, perhaps mostly unoccupied, I don't know. On the next island but one — Rubha Fiola — there was a well-established adventure school, now closed after the manager was jailed for sex offences.
