Favourite Walks - 2

This is a wonderful shorter walk a lot closer to home.  It can be a circular walk but I recommend doing it as a walk to the chapel and back by the same route. 

Map of Fearnoch Chapel. The parking layby is almost at Allt Glachavoil

The walk starts from a layby almost equidistant between Colintraive and Loch Riddon Bothy.  If you park here and walk to the south (Colintraive) end of the layby, cross the road and follow a narrow track slightly uphill.

The start of the Walk

The track continues upwards and then levels out before coming to a grove of scrubby willows and birches.  It is quite hard to see the track here but if you look slightly right and further away you will see it skirting the bottom of a steep rise.  Continue along and up over the rise.  Now you are high enough, views of Loch Riddon begin to open up on the right.  Continue on to a tremendous viewpoint on the bluff of the hill with panoramic views from Colintraive and the Colintraive to Rhubodach ferry, past the Burnt Islands, the West Kyle of Bute, Caladh and into Loch Riddon.  It really is magnificent!

View down the West Kyle with the Mull of Kintyre in the far distance

Look down to the left and, if the bracken has not grown too high, you can make out the outline of the remains of the former Fearnoch Chapel.  Take to the path again and wind down the side of the hill to get a closer look at the chapel. The ruined walls stand to a height of about 1m and in the upper part are of loose drystone rubble, possibly indicating an agricultural re-use of the building, associated with adjacent turf field-dykes. The lower parts of the walls are of older construction and the plan of the building, with its entrance towards the SW end of the SE wall, supports its traditional identification as an early chapel.

The chapel stands in an enclosure measuring about 15m from NE to SW by 10m within a turf-and-stone boundary-wall having an entrance at the S angle.

The Remains of Fearnoch Chapel

Having explored these ruins there is one more treat in store – if you continue down the hill for another hundred meters or so you will come to the former baptismal pool.  Often covered in pond weed it is quite easy to miss it altogether!

Baptismal Pool - Tobar a’ Bhaistidh

Now you have to decide whether to retrace yours steps or make your way down and left to swing round to the south before turning west to make your way back to the layby in a circle.  The path is not clear!