Linda and Allan, Canadian friends who live in Ireland, are expected to arrive for an overnight visit today. With their ETA about mid afternoon, M and I resolved to defy the weather and get out of the house and explore, by car, the northern part of Mull.
We drove anti-clockwise, quite slowly. The very curvy road is mainly one car width but has passing space every couple of hundred metres. The scenery would have been great except that the sheets of rain and spray obscured our vision. Never mind, at least we were out and about.
If the above gives you the impression there was little but sheep to get excited about, you’re on the mark.
After slurping down some welcome hot soup at one of the few eateries for humans we passed (sheep are much better catered for), we were back home in Tobermory in good time to welcome our guests.
A kilt, the Campbell tartan! That’s what Allan was wearing when he turned up. Bought on EBay too! And with a sporran bought at the Eumundi market. And a Chinese style shirt bought in Singapore. Linda was more conventionally attired, to our relief.
He insisted on wearing this to the Mishnish pub and the restaurant and caused no surprise at all among the throng, even among the hard-bitten types who were in the Mishnish only to watch the match of the night blaring away on the big screen TV.
Wednesday. The rain’s stopped. There’s even some sunshine. The traditional browse of the local shops, just a few paces from our front steps, occurs before Linda and Allan depart by car-ferry-car-ferry-car for the Glencoe region and Kilmarnock.
With the weather holding and the heather calling, Mary packs a quick lunch and we pile into the car to visit the island of Iona, about the furthest distance you can drive on Mull, and almost all on narrow roads, thankfully not so wet, today.
Once we’d passed the relatively familiar section terminating at the main ferry village of Craignure, the scenery just got better and better, particularly as the terrain previously untravelled by us was mountainous, and the weather fine.
The Iona ferry departure point, Fionnphort, was barren but the nearby famous island was nicely illuminated by sunshine. Mary was surprised by the amount of development visible, about 15 minutes away by kayak and £4.50 return PP on the ferry.
Read more about Iona here.
In a nutshell, Columba, one of the honchos in Celtic Christianity in Ireland in around 560 AD, got into a serious dispute with his Irish boss. He and some supporters were exiled to the edge of the known world, which happened to be what is now the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Here he founded a religious settlement on Iona, based on Celtic Christianity which differed in many ways from the beliefs and rituals of Christianity in Britain, which followed, naturally enough, the Roman Christianity model. Significant among these differences was the method of calculating the date of Easter, a disagreement which exists even now within Christian sects. Eventually, in Britain and Ireland, the Roman version won out, presumably due to main force rather than logic or common sense.
Anyway, Iona continues to draw both faithful and faithless, possibly because it is the burial place of many Scottish kings, including Macbeth, made famous by the Bard. The abbey on Iona now is ecumenical, which means that it is beholden to no particular Christian sect, but it is Christian.
I have read that about 130 people now reside permanently on Iona. We joined the ferry, which takes its passengers, on foot and a few in little electric shopping carts, on board via a concrete ramp with waves swirling around it. Some dexterity and timing required here to avoid swamping of footwear and electric motors.
As you can see, the weather was beautiful. None of the seriously ancient buildings are visible, the Abbey itself being only mediaeval. But our two hour stay was pleasant and the grass wonderfully green and lush.
Our return journey to Tobermory was via the scenic route as on the map above. Here the scenery was even more impressive but the drive even slower as a result of stopping from time to time and getting out to take a pic, or just enjoy the view, over the sea, the loch and islands out to the left.
Tomorrow, Friday, we leave Mull by ferry to Oban and drive north toward Glencoe to find somewhere to stay for a couple of nights. Won’t be staying with anyone called Campbell (nothing personal, Pat and Alistair).
- Written using iA Writer, images modified using Photogene, and blog Posted using BlogPress, all from my iPad
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