Carradale Golf Club logo is of The Crubon Rock Buoy and is seen from almost every hole on the golf course. The logo was based on the original buoy and we would be delighted if anyone has a photo of the original buoy.  Johnny Durnan has kindly given us this photo of the current buoy.

 Cruban in Gaelic has three meanings: Crouch/Squat; a small bit/portion; a Crab

The following information has been gathered from local knowledge.  At low tide the flat rock can resemble the back of a crab and fishermen sometimes refer to small brown crabs as Crubans of which there are many from the Cruban Rock down to Port Righ.  So a small rock crouching below the surface with lots of brown crabs nearby fits the Gaelic description particularly well.

While the local spelling is ‘Cruban’, the buoy is marked on Admiralty Charts and known to the Northern Lighthouse Board as the ‘Crubon Rock Buoy’.  The Northern Lighthouse Board conducts an on-going review of all aids to navigation to ensure that each buoy or light remains necessary in the modern world, where electronic navigational equipment increasingly replaces the good old fashioned seaman’s eye.  The Crubon Rock has not been exempt from this scrutiny, but we are delighted that it has been preserved down the years, thanks perhaps as much to its iconic status as a local landmark in Carradale as to its usefulness as a navigational mark.  Whatever the reason, this old buoy provides a beacon which has both rallied the members of Carradale Golf Club for over 100 years and provided guiding light towards safe water for passing mariners.  Long may it continue!