Isle of Mull

On Thursday we left Skye, taking the last (in the world, no less) operating turntable ferry at Glen Elg to the mainland. The ferry has space for six cars, its platform being turned by the crew pushing it round. Very sweet. The ride lasts 10 minutes.

Further on the way to Oban, where we stayed the night, we stopped off at the Nevis range, taking a gondola chair lift up Aonach More. We had lunch at 2,175ft, three mountains along from Ben Nevis. The macaroni cheese was awful, the Orkney Brewery beer great.

In Oban, “seafood capital of Western Scotland”, we had a fab dinner, seafood, of course. To gain an appetite / undertake our strict daily exercise regime, we walked to the top of the town to experience McCaig’s tower, a huge ring of stonework with arches, built between1895 and 1900 by said army man, but with no purpose in mind. So this conspicuous edifice has a lawned garden inside; however, the balcony at the front has stunning views over the town, the lochs and the mountains stretching away to the Outer Hebrides. Oban is a serious fishing and ferry town.

On Friday, we took one of the ferries to the Isle of Mull, a 50 minute journey, and are here, in Tobermory, for four nights. Our AirBnB is a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen in a four apartment complex. The other apartments are only bedrooms. Rip Off I hear you clamour. I cannot disagree. But the building is at the northern end of the iconic frontage for which Tobermory is world renowned. Yep, more than Tenby. And it is a beautiful run of brightly coloured, mostly Victorian buildings overlooking the harbour. This place is also overrun by visitors from all over the world, Americans most obviously, as they do.

And for our contribution to the royal wedding, we were looking around the Abbey on the island of Iona, a 10 minute ferry ride from the south western tip of Mull. Famous for being the base of St Columba, who delivered Christianity throughout Scotland and Ireland in the 6th century, the abbey is impressive, its museum, featuring carved stonework, inspiring. Then we had a walk over a white sanded beach, again to do the right thing.

On the trip back, a mostly single track road over the centre of Mull going up and along its highest mountain Ben More, we saw a pair of eagles. Then we saw this

Mulled Over