journey to a western isle

WEDNESDAY - Six see sea eagles

Early start today - breakfast just after seven and another scorcher of a day.  Hard to believe the news we saw last night on telly - most of South West England deluged with floods!  We were SO lucky.

Spectacular hour and a half drive to the Ulva Ferry - skirting the edges of the lochs on empty roads.  Such incredible isolation and wilderness.  Amazing reflections off water like glass and incredible colours and shadows in the early morning sunlight.

Had to wait for some horned friends to let us pass though

At one stage we were rounding a hairy cliff path hugging the rocks on one side and a steep drop to the loch on the other.


The Ulva Ferry landing stage is so sweet and we could see the little Boathouse nestled across the loch on Ulva itself, waiting for us to venture over for lunch later in the day.

The additional interest here was that I'd been reading snippets of Johnson's and Boswell's Journey to the Western Isles about when they'd sailed over to Ulva, so I've put this into a separate post.

Click here to read my blog on Dr J's landing at Ulva.

Anyway, we weren't looking for safe passage to Ulva just yet, our quest was to travel with Martin and try to spot some sea eagles in flight over the loch.

We climed aboard the Lady Jayne and sped off between the magnificent mountains and rock formations.  More basalt columns here which have been overshadowed and forgotten with the splendour of Staffa.

and the most incredible water patterns 'cos the loch was so smooth

 like glass in fact, even reflecting the clouds

 We were no sooner out in the loch than we spotted a school of porpoises jumping and playing near the boat - incredible.  The sun was beating down (as usual!) and the sky blue.

We could see where the white tailed sea eagles were perched in the trees far away but had to wait a good hour for them to swoop down for some fish.  Meanwhile we were entertained with loads of graceful seagulls swooping around the boat, two golden eagles above the hills opposite and red deer on the ridge.

Finally the magnificent sea eagle swooped down from his eyrie and around the boat in search of the piece of fish Martin had chucked into the loch.  What a magnificent sight!  The seagulls soon chased him off though.  My pics aren't brilliant but here they are:

plucky old Jonathan Livingston in full persuit!

The run back was choppier but still incredible colours on the mountains

Back at the Ulva ferry, we signalled for the ferryman to come over and were soon taken on the 5 minute hop over to this little island.

 

We found a picnic table to perch on and were bowled over by the choice of fresh food at the Boathouse (click here to check it out), where they make all their own bread and pull mussels from ropes in the loch and collect oysters and prawns fresh too.  Incredible.

and I am saying nothing about this teapot!

Just sheer bliss!!

Had a meander in the sun around one side of the island to a tiny simple church designed by Thomas Telford.  Apparently when all the roads and bridges were built in Scotland he was commisioned to design churches and even some houses.

It was very utilitarian in design but so interesting to see, and Audrey gave us all some stern words for the day 

Also enjoyed the little museum in Sheila's Cottage, an old thatched croft, telling the disturbing history of the Clearances which displaced and decimated the poor all over Scotland.  If you click, this link tells you about the Mull Clearances and this one about the Clearances on Ulva.

Tearing ourselves away from Ulva and the idyll of sitting staring at the loch and mountains in the sun, we caught the ferry back to Mull and drove the most spectactular coastal route to Tobermory, past dramatic cliffs, flaggy shores, golden eagles overhead, the lovely cove of Calgary Beach - everything so beautiful and wild and harsh.  And inevitably held up by the odd herd of wilde beasties!

Dropped very suddenly down the steep hill into the captivating Tobermory with all it's painted houses huddled around the beautiful harbour.  Even the fish and chip van on the pier is a Les Routiers!

Dined at the Fish Cafe in the ferry terminal with fantastic sea food and really imaginative menu 

Spectacular drive back chasing the sunset, along the rocky lochs, herds of deer at the sides of us and another golden eagle and an owl or two.  And now the final agony, which of my 15 sunset shots to upload.  It was all so beautiful driving along and stopping in the total silence to take yet another photo.

Another perfect day with fabulous friends.


Now I need to write up our Thursday adventure cavorting by woodland streams . . .

Read all about it here

the good doctor

As we speak I am coming to the end of writing up our Wednesday adventures on Mull and Ulva.  But, having trouble cramming everything in, have decided to dash off this addendum on Doctor Johnson and James Boswell's jaunt to the Western Isles rather than putting it all in the same blog post.

I'd been reading snippets of their journals which I found online (click below to read):

Johnson's account

Boswell's account

just from the part where they were coming to Mull from the Isle of Coll (Katie Morag's home, if you were paying attention to Tuesday's blog!).

Yale University Press book cover

Johnson says, "After having listened for some days to the tempest, and wandered about the Island till our curiosity was satisfied, we began to think about our departure. To leave Coll in October was not very easy. We however found a sloop which lay on the coast to carry kelp; and for a price which we thought levied upon our necessities, the master agreed to carry us to Mull".

Doesn't this make you realise how adventurous travel was back in 1775.

"As we were to catch the first favourable breath, we spent the night not very elegantly nor pleasantly in the vessel, and were landed next day at Tobor Morar, a port in Mull"

The roads would have been virtually non-existant.  They spent some time with friends then decided to travel to Iona by horse, by way of Inch Kenneth for a night.

"This was a day of inconvenience, for the country is very rough, and my horse was but little. We travelled many hours through a tract, black and barren. . . . . . . .   We travelled diligently enough, but found the country, for road there was none, very difficult to pass".

Boswell adds,  "We had a very hard journey to-day. I had no bridle for my sheltie, but only a halter; and Joseph rode without a saddle. At one place, a loch having swelled over the road, we were obliged to plunge through pretty deep water. Dr Johnson observed, how helpless a man would be, were he travelling here alone, and should meet with any accident; and said, 'he longed to get to a country of saddles and bridles'."

from, http://www.greatclanross.org/icons5.html

And by the time they got to the coast it was very late at night, the ferry to Inch Kenneth had gone and a gentleman who could have put them up was ill so they had nowhere to stay and no-one to ask at that late hour, although they could see Ulva across the straits.  However, as fate would have it . . .

Johnson says, "While we stood deliberating, we were happily espied from an Irish ship, that lay at anchor in the strait. The master saw that we wanted a passage, and with great civility sent us his boat, which quickly conveyed us to Ulva, where we were very liberally entertained by Mr. Macquarry."

and this will be Lachlan Macquarrie who went on to become Governor of New South Wales.  He left Ulva in debt in 1777 due in part to his over generous nature!   So Johnson and Boswell only just managed to enjoy his hospitality - read all about it here:

http://www.jimandellen.org/J&BForever.html

and so the journals go on - quite fastinating if you fancy dipping in.

and you'll see that later on our Wednesday travels in 2012 (click here) we took the little ferry across to the very Isle of Ulva - so that was quite an amazing feeling!!

(If you've come to this page from our 2013 holiday on Mull, then please click here to return).

in the footsteps of giants

TUESDAY - Six sail for Staffa

Another day to remember.  Incredible weather, not a cloud in the sky, lashings of factor 50 and one of the most incredible geological features of the British Isles.

We set forth from Fionnphort on our 10am sailing with Davie in his fantastic little boat - click here for tour info - and headed out under a deep blue sky over a calm blue sea with all the beautiful islands dotted about.  We could see as far as the mountains on Rhum, the Isle of Jura and the Isle of Coll, where Davie reminded us the wonderful Katie Morag books were written, over to the mighty ridge of the Cullins on Skye and even Ireland way in the distance.

and don't you just love the wonderful 'we are here' on Davie's treasure map below

Must have only been about 20 of us in the little boat, so that when we got to Staffa we few had the island to ourselves.  The 45 minute crossing was idyllic, passing shags basking on the rocks, common seals sunbathing and puffins flying around Staffa.

 and suddenly we were there . . .

Drawing up to Fingal's Cave on the edge of Staffa was nothing less than a Grand Canyon moment - something unique, special and totally awe inspiring.  Davie was even able to take the boat inside the cave, as he said the weather and water conditions were so perfect, and he can hardly ever do that!!  I am going to have huge difficulty selecting photos for this page I took that many - 117 of the rocks alone if you're counting!!!!

Gigantic basalt columns spread all the way round from the cave along the cliff to the little jetty.   Some sloping crazily, some small, some huge - all totally beautiful and captivating. And to think we were at the other end of this just two years ago at the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.  Just totally unbelieveable to be here.

We disembarked and managed to tiptoe our way around the rocks to the cave itself.  Great that the National Trust hasn't spoilt this by taming it and making it 'safe' and touristy like they have most other places.  It's just totally natural and amazing.  Half the party had gone up on the rocks to see the amazing flocks of puffins nesting up there.  Sorry we had to miss that, but Fingal's Cave was a lifetime's ambition ticked off.  Finding it hard to understand why this is not on the Unesco World Heritiage Site list for the UK.  Shame on them.

No words now - just some images, but before I begin, you really should play this video - to get into the mood while you ponder the pics - Mendlessohn's 'Fingal's Cave' Hebrides Overture.  And moreover you can see my camera didn't lie with the amazing colours in the Hebridean seas

Here we go

and round and into the cave itself

They say the sea floor around Staffa is full of sponge and coral - quite incredible - although no idea if this is it in this rock pool?

and now to wend our way back

and scramble up the cliff

 
before the boat came back in and sped us away from the island

to Iona

for a fab lunch in the lovely gardens of the St Columbia Hotel with the sun beating down and cooling ginger beers all round, then a visit to the Heritage Centre and a last wander on the beaches before a ferry ride back to Mull.

And later, back at the ranch, dinner with fellow guest Donald who's on the Oban lifeboats so was fastinating to talk to, and a magnificent feast of mussels from the loch, local venison and smiley faced soups to cheer us

 and another sunset to soothe the soul

Yes, a day to remember . . . and I thought of this poem Dad loved so much

Four ducks on a pond,
A grass-bank beyond,
A blue sky of spring,
White clouds on the wing:
What a little thing
To remember for years --
To remember with tears!
~ William Allingham, from Flower Pieces and Other Poems (1888). A Memory

And if you're up for more, read on (click here) for our Wednesday expedition to the Sea Eagles and Ulva