More stories from our Journey

June 7 – The ferry trip to Mull is only one hour, from one pretty harbour to another on Mull, with the ferry arriving at the southern end of the island. We were dismayed to find that our accommodation in the north of the island was as far away as possible from places we wished to visit. This was unavoidable as there are only three towns on the island and the capital Tobermory is largest and furthest away, but also the cheapest because of that. It was a planning lesson for us although we like it up here and the hotel staff are really pleasant – though the Wi-Fi, once again is pitiful. Another inconvenience is that a short cut road to the far west of the island has been closed for repairs, necessitating a much longer journey to get to where we wanted to be. We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with paperwork, other planning, and doing whatever computer work we could.

June 8 – We were up early for a 90 minute trip out to Fionnphort, a harbour at the far western end of the island, and the point for catching a ferry to the island of Iona. Although long, the drive was really pleasant, mainly through green rolling hills and pasture land. The ferry ride across to Iona is only 10 minutes, and part of a long term plan of ours to get another boat out to Staffa Island, a further 45 minutes away. After landing on Iona, we filled in time taking a long walk across the island to a beach on the far side. To our delight, the beach was covered in a vast array of beautifully coloured rocks, all smoothed by aeons of water erosion. The whole scene was very restful, as the beach was backed by pasture land dotted with a scattering of sheep and foraging birds. We had lunch there before the walk back to the harbour for our boat to Staffa. We had originally planned to do a three hour walk to the south of the island to visit another bay of geological significance, but had been warned that the track was quite boggy in parts, and we had had enough of that in northwest Scotland. We did a short walk up past the famous Iona abbey and also visited the ruins of a nunnery that had been built around 1300, well preserved apart from the absence of the roof. Early afternoon arrived and we set off in a small boat with around twenty or so others for Staffa. Staffa is a small island completely composed of basalt columns, and is the site of the famous Fingal’s Cave, the inspiration for Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture. The weather was good and we were able to get off the boat and spend an hour on the island. We first walked out to a Puffin sighting area, but most of the birds were sitting out on the water, as this is apparently the safest place for them to be during the day – if attacked by predatory birds, they can easily duck under the surface of the water. We were then able to walk around to the cave mouth, hopping along over the tops of some of the columns. In structure, the island is identical to the Giant’s Causeway in the north of Ireland. It was really exciting for us to be climbing over the basalt columns we had admired from afar for so long. We were fortunate to have excellent weather (no rain) the whole day, especially considering that it is a place renowned for abysmal weather. We took the long drive back to Tobermory, happy with having had such a great day, and shouted ourselves to a fine dinner in the hotel restaurant (Many of the main roads on the islands are ‘single track’, meaning one lane only, with short laybys for oncoming traffic avoidance. These can be a little stressful especially on sections of steep hills and with tight corners, as this often is where you can meet oncoming cars and as we have noticed, locals who know their roads aren’t at all intimidated by the narrow roads).

June 9 – We decided to have a relatively easy day, with a drive around the accessible parts of the north of the island. We drove up to Calgary Bay, the place after which Calgary in Canada was named. It was a rare beach for Scotland, in that it was backed by sand dunes which had been encouraged by a local community group.  The bay was a wide sweeping affair with hard, white sand and the usual shallow water, enabling us to take off our shoes and do some gentle paddling. It is a very attractive place and it was a great spot for lunch. We were also able to visit a nearby sculpture park established on a farming property, with pathways meandering through the woods and hillsides. We continued on, making our final stop at the Mausoleum built for Lachlan Macquarie, the former Governor of New South Wales. It is situated in a small field on private property, but is owned by the National Trust of Australia, and is managed by the National Trust of Scotland. Macquarie was born on the Island of Ulva, which is adjacent to Mull. It is in a very peaceful setting, and included a plaque describing him as “the Father of Australia”. It had been good to have a fairly relaxing day with not too much on the schedule. On arriving back at the hotel, we walked down to the waterfront to visit the Tobermory Distillery. Once inside the shop section, we were persuaded to sample two sorts of whisky, unpeated and peated. Irene wasn’t keen on either sample. However, Howard, who had never liked whisky, was attracted to the flavour of the peated version and suffered a conversion of sorts. Without him knowing, Irene quietly purchased a bottle for him for his birthday, along with a few tiny bottles of each sort, for souvenirs.

June 10 – Today we decided to have a really easy day, slowly re-packing our gear and contemplating the rain outside. We took a walk from the hotel down to the township harbour. Our main task was to visit the post office to weigh some travel books and paperwork that we wanted to send home by mail. The price was much less than we had expected, so happiness prevailed. We wandered along the waterfront, visited the Mull Museum for a touch of information overload, and headed back to the hotel with a couple of small booklets on the geology and shaping of Mull. It seemed like a day during which we had achieved little, however we had had a relaxing time, compared to days where we were on the go all day.

June 11 – The target for today was to travel from Tobermory to Glasgow. We did our last trip from Tobermory to the harbour at Craignure to line up for the ferry back to Oban. The drive gave us our last views of the wonderful Mull scenery, and we settled into the ferry journey on a relatively flat sea. Oban is not a place that where we wanted to spend any more time, so we headed off on the A85 for Glasgow. The GPS was a real benefit until the very last couple of streets in the west end of Glasgow. Our hotel had no vehicular access, and was approached by a confusing array of lanes. After a minor confrontation with a large rubbish collecting truck backing down one of the lanes, we finally managed to find a tiny car park behind our hotel, and luckily there was one space left for us. The area we were in seemed a little bit rough, but the hotel was quite nice inside and we had a comfortable first floor room with a view out onto a busy street with a tree-lined border. We quickly unpacked our gear and then took off to walk into the city to the Marriott Hotel, where Howard’s brother Eric and sister in law Gillian were staying for the night before taking off on a small cruise ship journey north. The weather was terrible, but the rain held off until towards the end. The wind was ferocious, and we were really pleased to arrive and enter the warmth of the Marriott. We had a great reunion, and chatted into the night over a couple of drinks and a snack dinner. The walk home was slightly less uncomfortable as the wind had dropped significantly, and we got home dry after a forty minute walk. We decided that Glasgow looked as dull and gritty as Edinburgh, and was a city we probably didn’t need visit again.