The CalMac ferry from Tayinloan on Kintyre takes about 20 minutes, and the Kintyre Way passes the slipway, so Gigha is an easy detour. Islanders bought Gigha in 2002 and still celebrate 15 March, the day the sale went through, as their independence day. The island is six miles long and no more than a mile and a half wide, and bikes are for hire at the activity centre by the slip. At the north end, the Twin Beaches are white sand on either side of a narrow neck of land joining Gigha to the islet of Eilean Garbh. In the south, Achamore Gardens, begun in 1945 by Sir James Horlick, cover 50 acres with rhododendrons and azaleas that do well in the mild climate. Nearby are the ruins of the 13th-century Kilchattan Chapel, with carved medieval grave slabs, and on the hill just west stands an Ogham stone, carved more than 1,400 years ago in an early Irish alphabet of notches and strokes. Caravans aren’t allowed on Gigha.
