Fire on Isle of Jura

[Skerryvore]

After a recent Jura circumnavigation our camp site at North (bay of pigs) overlooking the Corry & Scarpa was saddened by the vandalism of a big fire only feet away from the rocks on the beach! not to mention the two tent pitches it's ruined.
I mentioned this to Mike who was about to do the same & he sent me this picture he took, he has removed the stones and cleaned up as best he could hoping to stop further damage.
This damage surely would not have been done by kayakers ?
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skerryvore

[MikeB]

Just can't legislate for stupidity and/or ignorance I suppose. That said, it's great to find it being mentioned "here" with teh emphasis on it not being acceptable.

Mike

(Not the "mike" who cleared up - off to Oban and then over to O/H for a couple of weeks, and hoping not to find similar!)

[Sgian Dubh]

Hmm...I've cleaned up a few of these on the islands over summer. It has involved cutting out the dead ground & re-turfing it using cuts from nearby banking. Add to this the removal of half burned HDPE fish crates, buoys, tin cans, broken glass from beer bottles thrown at nearby rocks & turds wearing crowns of tissue paper behind rocks near pathways. The next inept fire/camp site I come across I may leave a few stones in a circle but bury a hand grenade just below the surface soil - or at least a 200g butane cartridge. :o)

I hope it isn't kayakers but every one of these sites has been loch-side or at often remote strategic points along shorelines that denote safe or easy landing for small craft, rather than an approach from land.

[Skerryvore]

Hi Mike it's not Mike it's another Mike ! Lot's about ?
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skerryvore

[tenboats1]

The open boating community has more than its fair share of fire idiots. Sorry to see that kayakers aren't any better.

I'm biting my tongue to avoid saying more..........

[Jim]

A couple of years ago a friend tasked with organising a stag do contacted one of the local charterers and they suggested dropping the party off there for the weekend. He organised something else in the end but it is clear that power boats land here as well as kayaks.

Could have been anyone.

I don't think the access code adverts are working, more people than ever now seem to think they can go and do whatever they want wherever they want and forget to take their common sense with them.

[Skerryvore]

Wise words Jim & totally agree, there were lots of power boats about & yachts etc so it "could have been anyone"
Sgian Dubh has given good advice on how to fix so if anyone's heading that way could be a worthwhile task.
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Skerryvore

[Redtear]

Hi,

Is this about a big fire, or a fire?

You can't condone fires this size but the fact is, when kids and louts see a fire they want it bigger. These people have no right to be given the privilige(in Scotland) to see our ruggedside, much less to enjoy it.

I like a campfire, I keep it small and maintained and care is taken where it is sited. Fires like mine are fine in my opinion and are surely the basis of human survival. I can't see how anyone can have a problem with that.

Minimilist camping is something us kayakers take seriously. I don't think kayakers would do this as we all share the same respect for the enviroment.

In perspective though, what does it take to make our kayaks? Our cars to get us to launch? The tins of gas we want to blow these ppl up with? Our simple and light-weight food we want to take with us? Can't be many kayakers shooting wild deer out there.

You could play the enviromentalist line right back to when we were amobeas, but the b*sr*rds who did this fire shouldn't have been there in the first place. Probably jet-skers :).

<<gordy>>

[Jim]

The problems are mainly the site chosen for the fire, and the lack of any sort of clear up.

I'll stick my hand up and admit to rarely clearing a fire away, but we always have them off of the grass/machair/bracken, down on the rocks or beach where the evidence will be claimed by the sea within a fortnight.

I think kids and louts should spend more time in the countryside learning to appreciate it, but perhaps they need some kind of supervision since common sense doesn't seem to be in very much evidence?

The fact is that it could have been anyone, and that includes kayakers - there is plenty of evidence to suggest we are not all low impact with our camping habits.