Carradale Forest Walk

Carradale on the Mull of Kintyre is where novelist Naomi Mitchison (1897–1999) and her husband Dick came to live in 1937. They bought Carradale House and Naomi spent most of the rest of her life there. A prolific writer, she continued to work well into her 80s and died at Carradale when she was 101.

She was born in Edinburgh in 1897 and was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford and following in the footsteps of her famous father, the physiologist, J B S Haldane, she went on to university to read science. She abandoned her studies to go into nursing and in 1916 married Dick Mitchison, a barrister who later became a Labour politician.

When the Mitchisons lived in London, their house at Hammersmith was famous for its hospitality. The list of their visitors and friends reads like a literary Who’s Who of the day and included Aldous Huxley, E M Forster, A P Herbert and Wyndham Lewis. When they moved to Carradale, the parties continued and it was not unusual to for Naomi to be found typing away on an old battered typewriter surrounded by an army of visitors and children.

She wrote more than 90 books on subjects ranging from Arthurian legends to science-fiction. In her most controversial work, We Have Been Wanted, this noted feminist explored the whole gamut of sexual behaviour. Rejected by several publishers and subjected to censorship, it was finally published in 1935.

She was actively involved in her local community and represented the area on the local council, where she was responsible for instigating improvements to the harbour. Carradale House was regarded as an intellectual centre for young, left-leaning men and women as well as the wide circle of friends that Naomi had drawn from all sections of society. There was every possibility that her intellectual friends would find themselves in the company of and arguing with fishermen, ghillies, estate workers and locals from the surrounding village.

Naomi was awarded a life peerage in 1964 for her services to literature but probably valued her appointment as ‘mother’ and advisor to the Baktgatla tribe of Botswana more.

From the car park turn right onto the main road into Carradale. Walk right through the village until you come to a Forestry Commission signpost for parking on the right. Turn into the car park and walk through to the signpost for walks to Kirnashie and Deerhill.

Follow the road to a T-junction and turn left along a forest road, following blue and red waymarker poles. Pass the red waymarked turning for Deerhill and continue along the forest road for about a mile.

Eventually reach a gate across the road. Cross here by a stile to a car park, which is an alternative start to the walk. Turn right at the car park in the direction indicated by a fingerpost for the Kirnashie Walk. When the track rejoins the forest road, keep right.

When the road forks, keep right, always following blue waymarkers. Eventually a marker will indicate a right turn onto a footpath that heads uphill. This will lead up the highest point of the walk with magnificent views over the sea to Arran. Just off to the left, a picnic table is well placed for a break and refreshments.

Continue downhill from here on a well-made footpath, passing a junction on the left with a fingerpost pointing to Deer Hill. Eventually you will see the village and its playing fields before you. When the path reaches a junction with a lane turn right.

Continue to the junction on the left signposted Carradale, which will return you to the car park. Retrace your steps to the main road and turn left to head back through the village to the harbour.