CRUISING THE KINGDOM OF THE ISLES

Joanna Martin and her husband Mark sail across the Irish Sea to the legendary sea kingdom and to draw the wonderful wildlife there

- Joanna Martin

 The magic and mystery of the western isles of Scotland capture my imagination and draw me back every summer. This once great sea kingdom ruled by the Norse and Gaels is a landscape of breathtaking beauty and a haven for wildlife, which inspires my art. We left Strangford Lough in our Moody 33 Bonaventure II at 0400 on 10 July, pushing against the last of the flood tide to get to the mouth of the ‘Narrows’. Catching the tide, and with favourable conditions, we kept going until we reached Glenarm Marina, 54 miles away, a convenient stop-off for passage-making to the Hebrides. There was a fiery sunset that night, hopefully an omen of good weather.

Departing at 0500 the next morning, the early morning light lit up the Glens of Antrim on our port side, looking like a patchwork quilt of greens. The Mull of Kintyre in contrast looked dark and forbidding. The strong current through the North Channel helped us reach Gigha in seven hours, mostly motor-sailing in a light southerly. On the way we saw porpoises, gannets, Manx shearwaters, razorbills and guillemots.

We had now reached the west coast of Scotland and the area which was the Kingdom of the Isles. Stretching from the Outer Hebrides to the Isle of Man (see map), this area was controlled from the 9th Century by the Norse before Somerled, a Lord of Argyll, took control in the mid-12th Century. Somerled and the next four generations of his family styled themselves as Righ (king) with the later four generations known as the Lords of the Isles. At their height they were the most powerful landowners after the kings of England and Scotland, and their kingdom was almost completely independent. They ruled and protected their land by sea with fleets of galleys and had a parliament at Finlaggan, on the island of Eilean Mor in Loch Finlaggan on the Isle of Islay, where they would pass their own laws and acts.