Walk: Skipness River with an infusion of garlic

📌 Skipness, Argyll & Bute
★★★

🛠️ Route may now be impassable – reports welcome

A quick wander along Skipness River provides an enjoyable outing in this remote corner of Kintyre if you’ve time to spare, for example, before catching the ferry from nearby Claonaig to Lochranza on the Isle of Arran. Upstream from Skipness Castle‘s car park is a small but picturesque gorge carved by the tumbling burn; the air is filled with the smell of wild garlic in spring and early summer, with colourful foxgloves and rhododendrons lining the paths. A bit of a maze of routes leads up towards a small iron age fort with great views across to Arran (best in the afternoon) with a choice of ways back through.

📷 Chronological photo guide

🌍 Location

📌 Start / finish at B8001 road end, east end of Skipness village

🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NR 903579

🛰️ GPS coordinates: 55.769119,-5.343894

🚌 Infrequent bus stops at car park

🚗 Skipness Castle car park

📝 Key info

▶ 1 km / <1 mi | ▲ 60 m | ⌛ 45 min

Features: 💧 Skipness River; 🏰 Dùnan Breac iron age fort

⬤ Moderate | Forest paths, overgrown at times.

➡️ Figure-of-8 route (anticlockwise then clockwise): start – path junction at 🧭 NR 901581 – straight ahead to Dùnan Breac – continue to return to earlier path junction – cross river and follow far bank downstream – start

Download file for GPS

🥾 On our last visit

Wildlife: Bumblebees out enjoying the sunshine; a few midges.

Weather: Warm, sunny intervals.

June 2012