This small ruined castle is still a presence which looms over any craft gliding under its walls to reach the inner pool. No doubt this was the builder's intention.

The harbour is as handy for sailors today as it was for Robert the Bruce – or Magnus Bareleg, who came before him. They too were occasional visitors, not residents. Here you can find a sailmaker, a good bookshop, food stores, a fishermen's co-operative with cheap, good-quality gear, and several places to eat and drink. If you want to stretch your legs, one choice in early summer is to head down the road for the grounds of Stonefield Castle Hotel to see the best azaleas and rhododendrons in Argyll and Kintyre, outside Horlick's gardens on Gigha Island. The hotel itself is private and pricey, but its situation is wonderful.

East Loch Tarbert suffers from seasonal overcrowding. I recall leaving here with the Whitsun week racing fleet, and out in the sound I counted 250 yachts; there was not one bare inch of horizon. They rafted up together in the small harbour each night. A local man said to me, "They've ruined the place! All neet ye canna hear onything but the clack o' high heels ower the foredecks!" No doubt he was a devout – and possibly envious – Presbyterian.

The narrow harbourside road serving the fish pier is frequently clogged with Spanish lorries, I've been told, which pick up loads of green crabs; the ones we do not eat in the UK. They are cooked in paellas back in Spain, where British holidaymakers pronounce them delicious. What would 'The Bruce' have made of all this? There's no doubt in my mind: every time I see the castle from this angle I form the clear impression that the old boy's spectre is extending a contemptuous middle finger to the lot of us!