Corryvreckan
The Gulf of Corryvreckan is the name of the narrow stretch of sea between the Northern tip of
Jura and the Isle of Scarba. It is famous for its whirlpool, the second largest in the World,
and is the only place in the waters of the British Isles classified as unnavigable by the Royal
Navy, although small vessels are able to pass at slack tide when the weather is calm. However,
many boats and lives have been lost over the years trying to do this, and during his stay on
Jura the author George Orwell nearly drowned when his boat capsized in the Gulf of Corryvreckan.
The whirlpool is also believed to be Homers's
Charybdis, mentioned
in The Odyssey. It is best seen between flood and half-flood tide when there is a strong
wind from the West or South. Some visitors are dissappointed because they do not see it at the
right time of day.
The Legend of Corryvreckan
Breacan was the Viking Prince from whom Corryvreckan is said to take its name. Breacan, Prince
of Lochlann, loved a daughter of the Lord of the Isles and sought her hand in marriage. Her
father, having other plans for his daughter's future, wished to refuse his suit but did not
want to anger the King of Lochlann, the Prince's father, so he explained politely that no
marriage would please him more but that in the Isles a man who was not a competent sailor was
useless and that it was therefore the custom for every young man who sought a wife to prove his
skill and competence to care for her by anchoring his ship for three days and three nights in
the Whirlpool of the Old Woman. Would he, Breacan, do this? Breacan, very much in love, agreed.
He hastened to Lochlann for his galley and there consulted his father's wise men who first
deplored his rash promise and then gave advice. They told him to take three new cables, the
first made of wool sheared from sheep of the first year, the second made of hemp grown in a
graveyard and the third made of maiden's hair, and every hair of it must come from the head of
a maiden of spotless fame. The first two cables were easily come by, it is said, but the third
the wise men were believed to have considered (and hoped) impossible. But the Prince was young
and handsome and when he appealed to the maidens of Lochlann for their help all went well and
he got his three cables and sailed for Jura. In due course he arrived and anchored his galley
by all three cables in the dreaded spot and the whirlpool gushed and twirled and twisted until
at length the woolen cable snapped. But it had held for a day and a night. On the second day
the swirling waters grew wilder and stronger and the hempen cable parted. The third day dawned
clear and calm; it seemed to the Prince that the rage of the pool was slightly abated though it
still whirled furiously. He had, however, high hopes and put his trust in the maidens's hair
cable; but one had played him false; she was no maiden, nor was her reputation without a spot,
and when the strain came on her hair it broke and the ship with all on board, including Prince
Breacan, were sucked down into the whirlpool which ever since has born his name. But Breacan's
dog sprang clear and then went searching till he found his master's body thrown up again by the
angry waters; he dragged it ashore and for long a cairn marked the spot in a large
cave on the West coast of Jura which, like the
whirlpool itself, was also called after him and where he was buried.