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In March this year I spent several days on the Torridon hills, and often looked down on the Isles of Loch Maree, and I decided to return in the summer to fulfil a long held ambition to spend some time camping on them. It was mid-July when I met up with three friends at Slattadale and we were soon afloat and heading for the exceedingly rough and heavily wooded islands. We had not thought that finding a spot big enough for the tents would prove to be a problem but we were wrong, but eventually we found a small unnamed island that was bisected by a channel that could be stepped over, and managed to place one tent on one side and two tents on the other. This channel was to prove valuable as we got all the wind that was available and were not bothered by midges, and we could launch from either side of the island.

Isle Maree is the only island that has been inhabited and has a famous tree into which metal coins have been hammered, and is surrounded by dead branches green with copper. Perhaps of more interest is the ruins of an old church and graveyard. Isle Maree differs from the other islands as it has deciduous trees while the others are mainly Scots pine. Eilean Subhainn is the largest island and has signs that deer sometimes swim over to it, but all the other islands have never, ever, had any sort of cultivation or grazing and are the only remaining pristine remnant of the Great Caledonian Forest. To say that the islands are craggy and rough is a gross understatement, as it took over an hour to clamber round the island we camped on and it was only 100 by 200 metres!

We found that even the 1:25000 map didn't give enough detail, and we were frequently lost as we paddled among the islands, but the bulk of Slioch was a convenient landmark. Some of the inlets which were totally yellow with waterlillies were enchantingly beautiful, but many rocks just below the surface quickly brought you back to reality.

When we set up camp we quickly had a fire going and the abundant supply of firewood meant that we never had to fetch it more than a few yards, and the long evenings were spent yarning by the fireside or listening to the guitar of my friend Ewan Hannah. Being on an island for a few days certainly slows you down and gives you time to tune in to the rhythms of an ancient world. Try it sometime.