Davaar Island – Over the Shingle to the Cave Painting
A few hours.
The route
Davaar Island guards the mouth of Campbeltown Loch, and for a few hours either side of low water you can walk out to it over the Dhorlin, a curving bar of shingle.
On the far side a row of sea caves hides a painting of the Crucifixion, made in secret by a local artist in 1887, and a Stevenson lighthouse looks across to Arran. It's a little adventure for anyone steady on rough ground, as long as the tide is watched.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The day
Davaar Island
Over the shingle to an island, along the cliffs to a hidden painting, and back across before the sea returns. Time it all by the tide.
About three hoursAbout 3 miles on foot
Davaar Island
An attraction
Park in the lay-by at the start of the causeway, on the road out along the south shore of the loch towards Kildalloig. Davaar is free to visit, but the tide decides everything. The Dhorlin, the shingle causeway, is safe to walk only from three hours before low tide to three hours after it. Check the tide times for Campbeltown before you go, and plan to be back on the mainland well inside that window. The month's safe walking times are posted at the Town Hall, the Burnett Building, the Campbeltown Picture House and Keeping it Local, and on Explore Campbeltown's Facebook page. You need daylight as well as the tide: allow at least two and a half hours of both together. If the sea cuts you off, stay on the island and ring 999 for the Coastguard; never try to wade back. The ground is shingle and rock all the way, so wear sturdy boots.
About 33 min on foot
The Crucifixion cave
A row of sea caves runs along the foot of the cliffs to the right of the landing. The seventh holds the painting of the Crucifixion that the local artist Archibald MacKinnon made in secret in 1887. The way along is over hefty boulders, so it needs steady feet and a reasonable level of fitness, and children need a hand. To the left of the landing, a short track leads to Davaar lighthouse, completed by David and Thomas Stevenson in 1854; the tower isn't open inside. On a clear day the views run to Arran and Ailsa Craig. Then cross back over the Dhorlin to the car, with time to spare before the tide turns.
If it rains
There's no shelter on the island beyond the caves, and wet boulders are slippery: on a wet or wild day walk only as far as the start of the causeway and leave the island for a dry one.
Photographs by Chris Gledhill, J Simpson and Michael Newton via Google