The Kintyre Way in pictures

The Kintyre Way in pictures

Day 1.1 On day one we travelled into the town of West Tarbert, a pretty place with plenty of character - there is something undeniably appealing about boats bobbing at dock in front of seafront buildings, wheeling birds and meandering locals and holiday-makers.

Day 1.2 We strolled to the very start of The Kintyre Way. The assembly point seemed to be on pavement immediately in front of some stone steps, which we had to take to start a climb to the ruins of Tarbert Castle.

Day 1.3 Suddenly, the trees opened up before us again and we came out into open space where the path took a turn to the right. We stood on it and looked out over an immense sheet of water and the land beyond it. We were able to do this because the hill we were on dropped away before us, with trees marching down it in ranks.

Day 1.4 As we walked along the shoreline at the village of At Skipness, we began to get fantastic views of Arran across the Bute/Kilbrannan Sound.

Day 1.5 Our apartment at Muasdale faced due west and treated us to a number of impressive sunsets.

Day 2.1 As if to underline its intentions, the trail took us heartily uphill straight away and also became immediately moist and sloshy. We climbed and soon broke clear of the treetops and into the open, where a soft wind began to tousle us.

Day 2.2 We were now three or four hundred feet up and moorland rolled away from us in the direction we had come from to merge into trees, more distant hills and eventually the spacious dazzle of Kilbrannan Sound.

Day 2.3 The walk began to take us around the edge of a loch of a beautiful shade of turquoise. It reminded me of photographs of the vast lakes I have seen in New Zealand and I had to commit it to celluloid. Its name is Loch Ciaran and I thought it was breathtaking.

Day 3.1 Day three was spent walking along the shingled beaches of Kintyre's west coast.

Day 3.2 The rain was still spitting down on us, but visibility out to sea was still open and satisfying with Gigha standing chest-deep in water, as it has for probably millions of years.

Day 3.3 After miles of following the surf we finally reached the headland of Tayinloan and the end of the day's march.

Day 4.1 With a man down due to blisters the three of us set off for another traverse of the peninsula under laden skies and a damp, persistent mist.

Day 4.2 The fog and mists stayed with us as we passed giant wind turbines and reached the coast at Watersfoot.

Day 4.3 We finished our day's walking on the east coast near the still waters of Cnoc nan Gabhar.

Day 5.1 We found the last two days of the route hard going and, as a result, took fewer photographs. Here we are leaving the tiny village of Saddell.

Day 5.2 Lussa Loch is not a natural body of water. It was formed during the 1950's as part of a reservoir scheme, was called a hydro-loch and flooded by the damming of the Lussa burn, making it the largest loch in Kintyre.

Day 5.3 Near Blackwater and journey's end.

Day 6.1 After an arrow-straight road between Campbeltown and Machrihanish village we finally began to climb, passing Ballygroggan farm.

Day 6.2 There were some challenging climbs on this last day. Standing on top of Cnoc Moy gave us all a sense of achievement.

Day 6.3 This most southerly tip of the Kintyre peninsula is wild and remote, after almost 22 long miles we were very glad to reach our destination at tiny Southend and the completion of the Kintyre Way.