From the Archives: Swimmers, Stags & Strange Tales

18 June 2025

Our local historian Iain Thornber recently shared two remarkable tales of wildlife—and one bold human—defying expectations in the waters around Kingairloch.

In 1935, hundreds of passengers aboard MacBrayne’s steamer Lochyfne witnessed a breathtaking sight: a red deer stag leapt from the Morvern shore and struck out across the Sound of Mull—a distance of nearly three miles. Captain Mackenzie, at the helm, carefully altered course to avoid the animal as it battled strong currents before successfully landing on Mull. Even more curious is a story from September 1910, when a visitor to Kingairloch wrote to the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette describing a rabbit swimming across Loch a’ Choire. The startled onlooker watched as the rabbit emerged near him, shook off the water, and bounded into the hills—likely escaping a nearby shoot. A half-mile swim may sound far-fetched, but as modern wildlife clips confirm, nature is full of surprises.

Equally astonishing is the tale of Colonel Platt’s son, who in 1892 swam into Loch a’ Choire to retrieve a wounded stag shot late in the day. With no boat at hand, he bravely entered the water, secured a rope to the stag’s antlers, and wrestled the creature back to shore. Just a year earlier, a Clyde fishing boat encountered a stag swimming from Kingairloch towards Appin. The crew launched a small boat, lassoed the deer, and brought it aboard. Not only did it supply the crew with fresh venison, but the captain proudly had its head mounted by a Glasgow taxidermist, displaying it in his Greenock home as a trophy of “deer stalking by boat at sea.”

These curious stories remind us that Highland history is as rich in eccentric adventure as it is in natural beauty.

Article and image courtesy of Iain Thornber—Swimmers at Loch a’ Choire, Kingairloch circa 1920.