Tides at the Falls of Lora

Tidal flow

Because of the restriction to the flow of water, the height of the tide within Loch Etive never catches up with the height of the tide to the west of the narrows, and the time of the tides in Loch Etive is always later than the time of the tides to the west of the narrows.

The UK Hydrographic Office publish tide information for two places of interest here - Connel, to the west of the narrows, and Bonawe, which is some 10 kilometres east of the narrows, up Loch Etive. So for example, on 12 October 2010,

high water at Connel was at 08-13
high water at Bonawe was at 10-08

So the time delay was 1 hour 55 minutes.

low water at Connel was at 14-54
low water at Bonawe was at 17-15

So the time delay was 2 hours 21 minutes.

tidal range at Connel was 3.5 - 1.1 = 2.4 metres
tidal range at Bonawe was 1.8 - 0.3 = 1.5 metres

So the tidal range at Bonawe is a lot less than the tidal range at Connel.

The primary port in the area is Oban, and Connel is 10 minutes after Oban, so you would need to add on 10 minutes if you want times with respect to Oban.

The result of these time delays is that once high water has been reached at Connel, water goes on flowing into Loch Etive for another 1 hr 55 mins. Slack water time in the narrows roughly corresponds to the high tide time at Bonawe.

Once low water has been reached at Connel, water contimues to flow out of Loch Etive for another 2 hr 21 mins. The low tide slack water time in the narrows is roughly the same as low tide time at Bonawe.

At slack water time in the narrows, the water isn`t always static - you can get a situation that water is flowing out of Loch Etive through one part of the narrows, and water is flowing into Loch Etive through another part of the narrows.

The time delays have another interesting effect in that to the west of the narrows, you get the situation that the tide has turned, and should be flowing in one direction, but for the next couple of hours it is flowing the wrong way. In the area between the narrows and the islands Eilean Mor and Eilean Beag, you get some wide circulating currents.

Also, if you are looking for tidal currents without all the waves and whirlpools, there is another narrows 2 kilometres to the east of the bridge, caused by a group of small islands. You can get some quite strong currents there, some of which are faster than you can paddle in a sea kayak. On a big flood tide, there is a strong anti-clockwise curving current past the islands.

Tide times

One of the more curious facts about the timing of Spring tides is that for each location in the UK, the highest Spring tide always occurs at roughly the same time of day. For the Oban/Connel area, this is around 1800 - 1900 hours GMT, or alternatively, around 0600 - 0700 hours GMT.

The corresponding lowest Spring tide is around 1200 - 1300 hours GMT, or alternatively around 2400 - 0100 hours GMT.

Now of course you have to take account of the 50 minute change of the high tide time per day, but in broad terms you can say that the best ebb tide time for playboats will be mid to late morning. The best flood time for sea kayaks will be late afternoon/early evening.

I guess that means that the playboaters can operate throughout the year, but sea kayakers are going to have problems with darkness during the winter months. I met this in early November, when for two days in a row, I had to leave a fabulous wave because it got too dark.

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