Scotland: Winter Kayaking on Loch Etive
Despite the challenges, I love winter kayaking. Yes, it’s cold and the faff of wearing a drysuit and all the layers underneath it adds considerable time to launching and landing, not to mention the problem of cold hands and the cold wind blowing in your face. But there’s something so beautifully atmospheric about the colder months, and those rare days when the water is still, and so I do always paddle through the winter, always looking for those weather windows to get out on a multi day trip.
And so it happens that I headed up to Scotland in mid January for such an adventure. I’d been wanting to take one of P&H Sea Kayaks‘ Volan kayaks out for ages, so I called them up and arranged to fetch a demo model of the Volan 158 on my way up the M6. I’ve had my eye on one for a while as a partner to my Cetus, as a smaller, plucky little sibling for day and weekend trips.
P&H were keen for the Volan to get some screen time, and I was keen to get out on the water with this incredibly premium, super light weight kayak and see how she’d handle carrying all my camping and filming gear.
I’d visited Loch Etive once before, and fallen in love with it. It was back in the summer of 2024, and it’s actually the first video I ever shot, just a basic one that I filmed with a couple of GoPros to share with my family. Ever since then, I’ve been looking for a weather window to head back up, but had had no luck in managing to make it work. It’s a long way to drive (around eight hours), and when you’re dealing with relatively short weather windows, this can be difficult to organise with time off work.
So this time around I found accommodation nearby and headed up for two weeks, working from the place I was staying, knowing that there’d be a few good days of weather coming up due to the movement of a high pressure system over the UK. And sure enough, it came: three days of fine weather from a Friday to the Sunday. I booked the Friday off work and got all my gear sorted out.
In the days leading up to it, I’d pop down to the shore, around three minutes’ drive from where I was staying, to paddle in the Volan during my lunch breaks. What a kayak! Kayak manufacturers tend to make most of their kayaks in small, medium and large sizes, often with the small intended for women. But while I can fit in a lot of the small kayaks, I tend to be on the cusp of the weight limit (hey, I’m in my mid 40s, I’m not skinny anymore), and this is an issue when you add in all the gear you tend to haul on trips, so I’ve generally always owned medium sized kayaks.
And while they feel fine and can take lots of stuff, I’ve always felt that I lack just a bit of finesse in handling them because they’re just ever so slightly too big for me. The Volan, on the other hand, comes in four sizes. I’m right on the weight limit for the smallest, but the second smallest, which is the 158, is an absolutely perfect fit. This is, by far, the best fitting kayak I’ve paddled; it’s like it was made for me, so responsive to every move I make. They always say that you don’t just sit in a kayak, you wear it, and that’s why it’s so refreshing to find a boat that fits so well.
Despite its convenient short length, it can take a fair bit of cargo too; not quite as much as my Cetus, but certainly enough for this trip.
In the lead up to the weekend, I approached a local resident, Donny Wilcox, something of a local celebrity in the boating world, as he has an entertaining Youtube channel where he has many videos of boating adventures around western Scotland in his small rib boats. Donny lives in Taynuilt, and I’ve been watching his channel for a few years, so I invited him to come along on the trip (he’s the brother of a well known Scottish sea kayaker, which is how I was able to make contact with him), as he knows the loch better than anyone, and could also assist with filming, as it’s very difficult to get footage of myself when I am out on the water. I guess Donny realised I am something of a kindred spirit, and agreed to join me.
We met at Kelly’s Pier in Taynuilt, preparing our respective craft for the trip while also both filming. We hit it off immediately, and while I am generally a happy solo adventurer, I could tell we were going to have a really great time together, and I was keen to learn more about the loch from him. And sure enough, once we were underway, Donny was keen to point out various places as we went along, recommending places to stop to get good drone footage and telling me where to keep an eye out for furry and feathered residents of the loch.
Things didn’t quite go according to plan the first day, as we had to abandon our initial plan to head to Aird Trilleachan to camp, as the wind was being funnelled across the loch, creating very cold and tiring conditions. Having stopped at Rubha Bharr for lunch, we decided to simply stay there for the night. It’s a popular camping spot, but unsurprisingly there was nobody else there as it was mid January and freezing. We got pitched up, made a campfire down on the sand below the high tide line, and settled in for what turned out to be a really enjoyable, albeit cold evening of storytelling, laughter, and whiskey. before retiring to our tents for a rather rainy night.
The next day was the one I’d been most looking forward to, with the forecast promising calm conditions, and it certainly delivered. I paddled all day on flat, mirrorlike water, heading up to Aird Trilleachan and soaking up the dramatic scenery of the upper loch and its steep, mountainous sides. The head of the loch is a truly special place, with incredible views and a silence that felt almost deafening. We lingered there for a while, one of the real highlights of the trip.
With northerly winds forecast for the evening, we decided to stay camped at Rubha Bharr rather than risk a breezier night at Aird Trilleachan, and returned to our campsite in the late afternoon after an exceptionally fine day on the water. Along the way we spotted seals, otters and sea eagles, and as we settled in front of another campfire, we were both left with a deep sense of contentment and quiet happiness.
Packing up on the final morning was bittersweet. We’d both been enjoying the trip so much, making our own films telling our own stories, and with the mostly fantastic weather, we’d been able to experience the very best of what winter adventures on the water can offer. I’ve never collaborated with another person while shooting like this, and over the course of the following week, we actually worked closely as we each edited our respective footage, sharing some shots and reviewing one another’s work as it progressed. In the end, we’ve each ended up with our own story, and I’m immensely proud of mine. I hope you’ll enjoy it too!
I wrote a review of the Volan 158 For P&H Sea Kayaks and you can read it here.
