If the CCC Sailing Directions are the main course of Scottish cruising under sail, this Companion is both the tantalising G&T and the reflective single malt digestif. The Companion offers the prospect of the secret anchorage and the purple mountain; and, even years later, recalls your travels, white sands, alluring distilleries and ruined castles open on your knees before you.

The Companion’s depiction of Castle Tioram drew me to Loch Moidart, “something of a pilotage challenge” it says, and the Sailing Directions guided me in past seals reclining on the rocks only feet away.

The general cruising advice on anchoring, passage planning and communications; the notes on local history and geology, on flora and fauna; and the often lyrical writings of previous generations of sailors exploring the West of Scotland combine to make this new edition a book for both the boat and the armchair – accompanied by that single malt.

Mark Turvey

ISBN number: 9781846236976