Davaar Island: The Secret Cave Painting You Walk to at Low Tide

The Dhorlin — a natural shingle causeway exposed at low tide — leading across to the green hump of Davaar Island at the mouth of Campbeltown Loch.
The Dhorlin — the shingle causeway that appears at low tide and lets you walk dry-shod to Davaar Island. Time it right, or don’t go.

Overview — an island you walk to, and a secret in a cave

Guarding the mouth of Campbeltown Loch sits Davaar Island — a green tidal island with a proper sense of adventure to it. At low tide a natural shingle bar called the Dhorlin rises out of the sea, and you can simply walk across to it. Once there you’ll find wild goats, a lighthouse, sea caves — and, hidden in one of them, a genuinely astonishing secret: a life-size painting of the Crucifixion, made in the dead of Victorian night and passed off, for a while, as a miracle.

We timed the tide to walk the whole way around the island. It’s one of the most rewarding half-days on the entire Kintyre coast, and the photos speak for themselves.

Getting there — and the tide (read this) ⚠️

Davaar is reached on foot across the Dhorlin causeway from the shore just east of Campbeltown (Kildalloig) — but only around low tide. The island’s own welcome sign puts it plainly: check the tide times before you cross, and don’t set out without allowing enough time to walk both there and back. People do get cut off here. The causeway covers again as the tide comes in, and the water is cold and moves fast.

Plan your visit around a falling/low tide, give yourself a clear window, and keep an eye on the water. Get that right and it’s easy and safe; get it wrong and it’s genuinely dangerous.

The 'Welcome to Davaar Island' sign asking visitors to check tide times, keep dogs on leads, and respect the wild goats and grazing livestock.
Read the sign. Tide times, dogs on leads, wild goats — the island tells you how to visit it well.

The Crucifixion cave painting (the sourced story)

The island’s famous secret is the Crucifixion cave painting — the last of seven sea caves ringing Davaar’s southern shore.

In 1887, a local Campbeltown art teacher named Archibald MacKinnon painted a life-size image of the crucified Christ on the wall of the cave — in secret. He later said the image had come to him in a dream. When fishermen discovered it, they took it for a miracle. MacKinnon then admitted, in the local paper, that the work was his own — and the townsfolk, feeling duped, ran him out of town.

He wasn’t done with it, though: MacKinnon returned in 1902, and again in 1934 (in his eighties) to restore his painting. It’s been retouched several times since by art teachers from Campbeltown Grammar School — including after it was vandalised in 2007, when someone painted a caricature over the figure. Today it sits quietly in its cave, lit by the daylight from the mouth, and people leave little offerings of stones and crosses beneath it.

A life-size painting of the crucified Christ on the rock wall inside a sea cave on Davaar Island.
The Crucifixion cave painting — created in secret in 1887 by Archibald MacKinnon, and mistaken for a miracle.
A small shrine of white stones and a white cross arranged on the rocks below the cave painting on Davaar Island.
Offerings left below the painting — a wee shrine of white stones and a cross.
The dark mouth of one of the seven sea caves in the cliffs on the southern shore of Davaar Island.
One of the seven sea caves on the south shore — the painting is in the last of them.

Walking round the island

Because we caught the tide right, we walked a full circuit — the shingle shores, the caves along the south side, the crags, and round to the lighthouse on the seaward end. It’s rough and rocky in places (proper footwear), gloriously wild, and you’ll likely have it almost to yourself.

🗺️ Map — our actual route round Davaar (from GPS)

The map below is our real recorded track, pulled straight from the GPS in these photos (13 June 2024): on across the Dhorlin causeway, along the south shore past the sea caves and the Crucifixion cave, then round the seaward end by the lighthouse and back.

🗺️ Route map — download: `davaar-walk.gpx` · `davaar-walk.kml` · `davaar-walk.geojson`

⚠️ The track is a guide, not a route to follow blindly — it’s our path on one low tide. Always check the tide yourself and pick your own safe line over the rocks.

The white Davaar Island lighthouse standing on a rocky clifftop above the sea at the mouth of Campbeltown Loch.
Davaar Lighthouse (1854) on the seaward point — a Stevenson light watching the mouth of the loch.

The wild goats

Davaar is home to a herd of wild (feral) goats — shaggy, big-horned, and completely at home in the bracken and foxgloves. We spent ages with them. Give them space (they’re wild), keep dogs on leads as the sign asks, and enjoy the show.

A group of shaggy wild goats — billy, nanny and kid — grazing among bracken and foxgloves on Davaar Island.
The Davaar wild goats — the island’s permanent residents.
A tall purple foxglove in flower on the boulder shore of Davaar Island with the sea behind.
Foxgloves everywhere in June — the island’s a riot of them.

Leave it better — a wee beach clean

While we were round the back of the island we gathered up some old plastic fish containers that had washed in, and carried them to a safe spot to be taken away. It’s a small thing, but these wild, hard-to-reach shores catch a lot of marine plastic — if you can carry a bit of it off with you, please do. It’s exactly the spirit these places deserve.

Best time to visit

  • Around low tide — always, and with a safe margin (see the tide warning above).
  • Late spring/early summer for the foxgloves, the goat kids and the long light.
  • A calm, dry day makes the rocky circuit far easier and safer.

Reality notes

  • ⚠️ TIDES — the big one: cross only around low tide; check times; allow plenty of time to get back. Don’t risk it.
  • 🥾 Footwear: rough, rocky shore and boulders — boots, not sandals.
  • 🐐 Wild goats: give them space; don’t feed them.
  • 🐕 Dogs: on leads (goats and grazing livestock, per the island’s request).
  • 🔦 The cave: a torch helps you see the painting properly.
  • 🗑️ Take your litter (and a bit of the sea’s) home.

Combine it with (Kintyre — provisional)

Davaar sits right off Campbeltown — pair it with Glen Scotia distillery and the rest of the Kintyre run. [Kevin — this was the same Kintyre trip as Glen Scotia and Glenbarr; tell me the full day/route and I’ll thread the Kintyre stage together.]

Sources