West Scotland guidebooks, south of "north west highlands"

[Beady]

Forgive the newbie ignorance, please. I have the Pesda Press Skye and NW Highlands book, find it very helpful, but can't see that they do anything south of Ardnamurchan.
So, can anyone recommend similar guidebooks, routes & info further down, please? (Preferably book, or easily-printable internet.) Oban, Clyde, Argyll & Bute, Dumfries & Galloway, etc etc etc? (I have Paddle Scotland, but not much sea in it.) I can't believe that no guides exist, but I can't blinkin' find 'em.
Thanks.

[Chris Bolton]

The "Scottish Sea Kayak Trail" guide book starts from Gigha and follows the coast North: it goes well North of Oban but the first half is relevant. Unfortunately it's out of print and Pesda have no plans to reprint.

[Mark Graham]

Try Scottish Sea Kayaking, 50 Great Sea Kayak Voyages by Doug Cooper and George Reed. It's not limited to South of Ardnamurchan as it covers most of Scotland but does have quite a few suggestions in that area.

[robhorton]

If there's not a Pesda Press book for where you want to go, the Imray Pilots are probably the next best thing. They're really aimed at yachts and there's quite a lot of information about anchoring etc you won't care about but the tidal info etc is all good.

[Beady]

Thanks. I'd seen the 50 Great Voyages book, but again seems predominately geared towards the north west - and I think it's out of print, only a very few, very expensive 2nd hand copies around.
Pilots will do for base info, but wanted something to browse for ideas, maps, words and pretty pictures! I do like the Pesda guides which I have.
Please, Pesda, or someone, do a guidebook! It's not like Oban, and areas south, aren't pretty popular...

[on the rocks]

Some good news
https://www.pesdapress.com/index.php/pr ... btwn4MR05I

[MikeB]

Not all the links in this will necessarily be up-to-date, and of course it's more than just the area south of Ardnamurchan. http://www.ukseakayakguidebook.co.uk/se ... otland.htm

One of our well known and respected contributors has been working on a book from Mallaig to Gretna, although he noted a while back that 5 major surgical and medical incidents since 2009, and subsequent ingestion of strong painkillers has rather blunted his creative writing but all the coastline has been paddled and all the photos have been taken. Hopefully this work will complete one day, given the superb quality of the gentleman's photography and writing ability.

[Chris Bolton]

Not all the links in this will necessarily be up-to-date

Indeed not, but the more up to date version is:

https://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/sea/trips/scotland/

Until we get more the Sea site updated, there are two versions accessible by different routes through the menu. I would like to explain what the different routes are... but it's complicated! If you look at the Sea menu at the top of the page, it has "UK Sea Kayak Guidebook" (goes to the original) and below that "Almanac" and "Trips" (go to the updates). But it can be a bit unpredictable depending on whether you started from a Forum page or the Home page.

[Beady]

Mike B - oh, I do hope it gets finished. Can the UKRG SK community not pitch in? It's surely a worthwhile project.

[Douglas Wilcox]

A whole series of battles of major orthopaedic surgery and many years suffering the effects of an undiagnosed progressive medical condition caused my early retirement. I thought I would finally get the SW book finished when I started blood letting treatment (to reduce excess iron) for haemochromatosis, 3 years ago. I began to feel better and started writing again. Then along came covid-19 and the blood letting clinic closed. I last had blood letting two years ago and my health has deteriorated badly since then as my iron levels have risen.

I hope to start writing again as soon as my iron levels fall after the clinic reopens. People like me are collateral damage caused by covid swamping the NHS.

As Mike has kindly said, the entire SW coast has been paddled and all photographs taken. In the meantime you can find a lot of trip information on my blog www.seakayakphoto.com .

Once I am better I will start posting here, on my blog and on FB again.

Douglas.

[Beady]

Oh, best wishes Doug. My sympathies. I hope that it gets better for you and all others struggling at and through these wretched times.
Thanks for the link.