Following on from the last post, when I passed through the Gulf of the Corryvreckan, I thought I’d take a look at a few of the images I took when we boarded a rib to enter the whirlpool over ten tears ago, it felt a very different place! It’s critical to time any visit to see the full extent of the waters between the north of Jura and Scarba and there aren’t that many occasions in the year when the whirlpool can be seen at its best. We arrived before dawn for this visit and caught the tides just right for a spectacular sight.
The geology of the area is the key to the production of such dangerous waters and I came across a really good graphical animation that explains how the waters are funnelled through the sound and then pushed up by an underwater pinnacle to create the whirlpool. There are many myths and legends associated with the whirlpool that bring a romance to it and the one that brings a wry smile concerns the maiden whom was not quite as ‘pure’ as she had purported to be!
It’s a curious mix as you pass through the whirlpool. At times you are riding a roller coaster being thrown from one bank of water to another. Then all is eerily quiet as you pass through seemingly calm but very menacing water.
The two trips to the Gulf of the Corryvreckan could not really have been more different. The previous post gave no hint of how wild the waters could be and it took a stretch of the imagination to realise that we were infact in the sound of the worlds third largest whirlpool. The trip I did with my brothers over ten years ago was a different matter as we were tossed around as we entered the whirlpool and the sound felt an angry and inhospitable place.
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