Tuesday 30 July

Today was the trip to the Isles of Mull, Iona and Staffa, thus a few water trips!! We brought some filled rolls for lunch at a local bakery and headed for the Ferry Terminal. We were in a very long queue but it moved quickly once boarding started. The ferry was very full with people from all over the world going on a variety of trips.

We left Oban behind and headed towards the isle of Mull. There were views of the mainland and some of the other islands to keep us fascinated and of course the ever changing sky!!

As we got nearer to Mull, we got some good views of Duart Castle, one of the many in Scotland. Oppposite, on the end of a small island was the Lismore Lighthouse, again one of the many scattered around the coast of Scotland. 

We left the ferry at Craignure and caught a bus that took us the 27 miles to the south of the island where we would catch the ferry to Iona. It was an interesting trip along single lane roads, generally only as wide as the bus but there were many passing bays along the way! 

We enjoyed some wonderful scenery including passing a Mussel farm. We also saw a small amount of peat drying, peat cutting for fuel is a lost art in most of Scotland these days.

We met many vehicles along the way but had no mishaps!! We arrived at our destination and I was amazed at how close Iona was to the mainland of Mull! 

It was only a very short trip across to Iona and although mostly cloudy it was not too cold and we did see patches of sun. We sat outside a restaurant to eat the lunch we had brought with us with a fabulous view to enjoy. We then followed the track that took us to the Abbey. On the way we passed a ruined Nunnery, it was founded in about 1200!!


Then on towards the Abbey but we stopped to look at the King's burial mound, just before we reached the Abbey. All the early Kings of Scotland are buried here, no matter where they died their bones were brought home and buried on Iona.


The Abbey itself was founded as a Monastery about 1,450 years ago by St Columba. It was fully restored in 1938 and now offers retreats for different people. We wandered back to the jetty to await our boat to Staffa. it was nice enough by this time for people to be on the beach, although they were fully clothed!! The Staffa boat came in with a load of people and in the group I spotted the two people who I had met over breakfast last Wednesday, the couple who had met over the Internet!! So managed a quick chat with them!! Then it was onto the boat along with about 50 other people, many Americans being in the group. 

It was about a 45 minute trip from Iona to Staffa and the weather remained fairly good, although we could see some black clouds in the distance. Staffa has had a mystical appeal over the centuries and Fingal's Cave has been made famous by the composer Felix Mendelssohn who first landed in 1829 and the main theme of his Hebridean overture came to him while he was listening to the waves crashing onto the basalt columns. Staffa  is one of the islands of the Inner Hebrides. 

The rock has been formed by three volcanic eruptions as can be seen quite clearly in the photograph. The basalt is the same rock that has formed the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.


On landing, I decided to climb the steps and walk along the cliff tops to try and find the Puffins first rather than go to Fingal's cave. So off I went and find them I did!! I really did enjoy them, especially when two of them came out from a burrow about a foot below where I was standing.
 
 It was fascinating how close they allow humans to approach them. They really are quite unconcerned about us!! They begin to leave the area at this time and only return when they are ready to nest again the following year. 

Just as I was thinking of making my way back and going to the cave it started to rain. I got soaked and as the boat was coming back in to collect us decided to give the cave a miss. I thought the rock might be rather slippery with the rain!!

We then returned directly to Mull and our bus trip back to the Ferry to Oban. On the way back our driver told us that currently on Mull there were about 3,000 people, in the 1960's there were only about 1,500. In the 1850's there were about 4,500 people when the landlords decided that sheep were more productive than people. So the people were simply moved off their farms, onto the coastal areas and left to fend for themselves. 


They had no idea how to fish so many left for Australia, New Zealand, America and, in particular, Canada. In fact,there is more Gaelic spoken in North America than in Scotland!! 

Then onto the ferry for the return trip to Oban. As we travelled along a seagull followed us using currents created by the ferry to give him a drag along so he could glide and not use

energy flapping his wings. He even swooped down to take food from the fingers of some of the people at the rear of the ferry.

As we travelled we could see the weather changing behind us, It was only about 15 minutes between the two photos and they were taken looking in about the same direction!!

On arrival we headed for a Fish and Chip shop we had spied out the night before and the rain arrived just after we reached the shop. After a thoroughly enjoyable tea of cod and chips we wandered back to the hotel, rather tired but happy after a great day out!!