The island of Kerrera is approximately five miles long by
two miles wide, and offers fine views of Mull, Lismore, Jura, the Slate
Islands, and the Mainland (particularly the bustling town of Oban). There’s only one tiny piece of “road” by the
ferry jetty, with the rest of the island accessible by foot or bike. Assuming you take the ferry to reach the
island (the ferry is very inexpensive and the trip is only about five to ten
minutes in length), the most direct route to the cache site is by taking the
well-defined footpath that follows the coast to the left in a clockwise
manner. This path continues past the
cache site and circles back around to the ferry jetty, and a spur trail to the
northeast end of the island is also available.
For those of you with more time and energy than we had, you may want to
add in a climb up Carn Breugach, the island’s highest point at 620 feet.
Why Kerrera?!?! We chose this remote
location for a number of reasons. First
and foremost is the island’s relationship to our forebears of Clan
MacDougall. Kerrera was long part of
the ancestral MacDougall territories, and features Castle Gylen (photo herein),
a former MacDougall stronghold that was destroyed by the minions of Oliver
Cromwell during his brutal campaign that laid to ruin so many of Scotland’s and
Ireland’s castles and tower houses. The
cache is very near Gylen Castle, which was being renovated at the time of our
visit and still has quite a way to go.
The second reason was simply because the general area in and around Oban
was totally cacheless as of the time we visited. Finally, Kerrera is a wonderful place for folks like us that
enjoy getting away from life’s hustle and bustle, and who appreciate remote
areas where nature’s beauty is the dominant force. As a matter of fact, Mother Nature reminded us of her dominance
during our visit, as the day was very sunny and we ended up getting pretty
badly sunburned after failing to use sunscreen (no, we didn’t anticipate
getting a whole lot of sun in SCOTLAND!).
Kerrera really is a beautiful island, and the site of the castle up
against the coastline is particularly spectacular. After visiting the cache, we highly recommend stopping in at the
Kerrera Tea Garden in nearby Lower Gylen (lots of good refreshments and incredibly
tasty whole grain fruit scones!!!).
The cache contents as of placement reflect the name we’ve given to the cache. These include:
“Stanley Steamed Crab” travel bug
Plush bear with Maryland State quarter
Atlantic blue crab plush toy
“Dancing on the Sand” story book
Two Maryland magnets
One Maryland pin
“Lighthouses of the Chesapeake” Maryland shot glass
Collectible Maryland mini-spoon
Two Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks
staff patches
2001-2002 Maryland road map
Hope you enjoy the cache and your visit to Kerrera!