MULL OF KINTYRE TO ARDNAMURCHAN
Introduction
The varied region of Argyll spreads across an area covering many miles of the Scottish mainland coast and dozens of islands of the Inner Hebrides. From the Mull of Kintyre in the south to Ardnamurchan Point in the north the region boasts a broad variety of land and seascapes interlaced with narrow deep channels which often experience fierce tidal flows and stormy weather conditions. Off shore, the history of the larger islands of Islay, Jura, Mull, Coll and Tiree is inextricably linked to the surrounding seas. Between these islands the tidal flows in the narrow channels of the Sound of Islay and the Sound of Mull can reach five or six knots at spring tides. The Gulf of Corryvreckan between Jura and Scarba, with it’s famous whirlpool, is perhaps the ultimate example of the power of the seas around the Argyll coastline.
The regions geographical position, exposed to the prevailing south west winds lying north and east of the busy North Channel and the exit and entrance to the North Atlantic trade routes, has resulted in hundreds of shipwrecks over the centuries on it’s exposed rocky coasts. From the earliest times, when Viking raiders invaded the region and made many of the islands their home through the days of the Spanish Armada and the Jacobite rebellions vessels stranded and foundered throughout the region. The onset of the World Wars also brought additional sea traffic to the area with the Lynne of Lorne near the popular town of Oban becoming an important convoy mustering point for ships heading back and forth across the Atlantic.
To the south of the region the long peninsula of Kintyre, stretching some fifty miles from Tarbert in the north to the Mull of Kintyre in the south, provides a protective barrier to the waters of Firth of Clyde. However it’s exposed west coast and the rocky buttress of the Mull of Kintyre itself often became the final resting place of vessels struggling to make the passage through the narrow channel between Scotland and Northern Ireland in storms or poor visibility. Even in calm weather the lighthouse at the Mull, first lit in 1788, often looks down on mountainous seas as the currents of the Atlantic and North Channel crash together beneath the cliffs
Area Wreck Map
Wreck List
Agate – Agios Minas – Annie Melling – Apollo – Arnold – Aska – Aurania – Belfast – Benghazi – Ben Hann – BISCO 9 – HMS Breda – SS Breda – Byron Darnton – Cormoran – Criscilla – Earl Lennox – Erskine I – Falcon – Floristan – Generalconsul Elissejeff – George A. West – Glenhead – Gracehill – HMS Graph – Harald – Helena Faulbaums – Hispania – Ingrid – Islay III – Labrador – Lapwing – Leven – Macedonia – Madame Alice – Maine – Malve – Meldon – Moncousu – Mountaineer – Nevada II – New York – Norse – Ocean – Ospray II – Ostende – Otranto – Riant – Richard Crofts – Robert Limbrick – Rondo – Saint Conan – Saint Tudwal – Shuna (Islay) – Shuna (Mull) – Signal – Staffa – HMS Sturdy – Tapti – Teunika – Thalia – Thesis – Tobago – Udea – Veni – Wilmere
