Sailing the Kyles of Bute

The Kyles of Bute are some of the most protected and beautiful sailing waters in the Clyde. A narrow passage between Bute and the beautiful Cowal peninsula, the Kyles are divided into East and West by the Burnt Isles. It was an area we had been particularly looking forward to visiting.

After a night anchored in Rothesay Bay it was time to head into the area that we had heard so much about. According to our pilot book – the Imray and Clyde Cruising Club’s ‘Firth of Clyde’ – the streams through the Kyles are usually less than 1 knot with one arm of the flood tide travelling up the West Kyle and one arm of the flood up the East Kyle. They meet in the vicinity of a small church on the north shore of the East Kyle, 1 mile south of Colintraive, although this meeting point is more uncertain in stronger winds.

We had a north westerly wind so we were being somewhat overly optimistic when we said we wanted to sail up the East Kyle, however we gave it our best shot! Our pilot book had warned that due to the closeness of the hills on each side the Kyle can be very squally, something we were becoming very accustomed to whilst sailing Scotland, and as such we were reefed as a precautionary measure. The wind was flukey, fluctuating between 10 and 15 knots and obviously coming from the direction in which we wanted to go! Sailing as close as we could to the wind we were tacking our way up, with the tide running with us to help us along.

Unfortunately as we got further into the East Kyle, about an hour later, we lost the wind and had to resort to diesel power. But the benefit of this meant we did get to enjoy the beauty of this area without having to worry about sails!

We passed by the Calmac ferry which runs between Colintraive on the mainland and Rhubodach on the Isle of Bute before approaching the small channel which guides you through the Burnt Isles. The buoyage is determined by the dominant stream coming from the West Kyle, therefore as we were approaching from the East Kyle this meant keeping the red marker to starboard and the green to port.

The Burnt Isles consist of three small islands called Eilean Mòr, Eilean Fraoich and Eilean Buidhe. The narrow channel separates Eilean Buidhe from Eilean Mòr and Eilean Fraoich and is marked with two red markers and two green markers. The tide through here can accelerate to 5 knots at springs, however we had timed our arrival here to coincide with slack. It is also possible to pass south of the islands however there are shoals and drying rocks in the area to look out for and you need to keep a close eye on the depth. That said it does offer a couple of anchoring spots which did look pretty idyllic.

This area of the Kyles is stunning! Surrounded by rugged hills and woodland this was exactly what we had anticipated Scotland being like, and it certainly didn’t disappoint! And as we made our turn into the West Kyle the wind moved round and we were able to get the sails out again. With the sun shining down on us, flat calm water and light winds this was just dreamy!

But of course the sailing didn’t last as the wind disappeared. But for that brief 5 minutes it was all smooth sailing!

With a strong south easterly due in for a couple of days we opted to anchor at Black Farland Bay, in position 55°54.415N 5°12.921W. We were in just under 10 metres of water with 40 metres of chain out. Holding was great and we were very well protected from the wind. The only slight issue was our coverage here on our Smarty mobile network was pretty dire!