Exploring the Isle of Mull

Now that I've described what there is to do at Glengorm castle & estate, I thought I'd continue with what else there is to see and do on the island if you're staying long enough to do more exploring. It's also worth noting that if it's raining at Glengorm, you could quite possibly get into your car and drive to somewhere else on the island and find sun! The reverse is also true, of course.

I wrote about the Isle of Mull earlier this year and what we've done on our previous trips there - Duart Castle, of course, the isles of Iona and Staffa, and pony trekking, to name a few - so I will try not to be too redundant.

We keep returning to Mull because, although many islanders rely on tourism during the non-winter months and the island is well-visited then, there are still fewer people than on Skye and the mainland. I liked Edinburgh, but there were just way too many people there for our taste. Tobermory can get pretty crowded because it is a tiny town with one main street of shops, but we spend most our time out walking anyway. It's not that we don't like people, but...well, maybe that's part of it. We just really like our peace and quiet and value time alone.

Oban

Duart Castle

The ferry ride from Oban to the island takes 45 minutes. You drive your car into the belly of the giant ferry and then go upstairs for the sail out of the harbor, past Kerrera Island, Lady's Rock, and Duart Castle (seen in the Sean Connery film "Entrapment"), and finally land at Craignure ("Crayn-nyur'") on the Isle of Mull. Before you come to Mull with your own or a rental car, make sure you read instructions about driving on single-track roads. Once you get the hang of it, this style of driving is logical and not even difficult (I say this having only observed M driving there, not doing so myself). The road from Craignure toward Salen starts out as a two-lane road, but after a few miles you get this...

single-track road

If you have a guy on your tail seemingly pushing you to go faster, stop on the left side of the road at the very next passing place. If the passing place is on the left, pull into it. If it's on the right, stop opposite on the left side of the road. STAY LEFT! When you see an oncoming car, use the passing place in front of you in the same way, and either use your left blinker or flash your headlights at the oncoming car to indicate that you are waiting for him. If he gets to a passing place and flashes at you, drive on and pass him while he waits. Give him a bit of a wave as you pass to thank him for waiting.

Be aware that on the other side of every bend and curve in the road there could be suicidal grazing sheep and frolicking lambs, or a group of highland cattle. They have the right-of-way.

So...once you get the hang of driving on Mull, what can you see and do? In order to not reinvent the wheel, I thought I'd provide a few links I've found to what others have already written followed by photos of what we've done.

Links

Holiday Mull's extensive website offers tips on driving as well as links to wildlife tours, self-guided walks, accommodations, places to eat, and things to do.

The Scotland Info Guide site offers similar information with less flash and flare. Helpful for the basics.

Check out the Round & About Mull & Iona diary for scheduled events during your visit!

This blog post by a country hopping couple lists ideas for things you should do on the island with pictures. I'd add to their list a boat trip to Staffa, combined with the boat ride to Iona.

The Walk Highlands website offers helpful information on various walks you can take around the islands. The site shows you how difficult each walk is, how many km/miles it is, and roughly how long it will take you.

What We Did

Visited Tobermory

Although we are not shoppers, I do enjoy stepping into the quaint little shops, and I always find something to buy. Don't miss the bakery, the chocolate shop, the book shop, or the soap shop.

I believe the whisky distillery offers tours, though we haven't done this yet.

Stop in here if only because it smells so wonderful!
Isle of Mull soaps make for nice gifts to take home.

I love handmade pottery, and we have several pieces from Mull.

Aros Hall, next to the big church (which is a cafe and shop, not a church).
This is where the Producers' Market is held on Mondays.

A tip for when you find the bookstore (on the north arm of the harbor): check out the local interest books. There are some unforgettable collections of stories, tales, and legends about Mull collected and written by islanders as well as several great books describing walks to take on the island. If you didn't bring any Ordinance Survey maps with you, pick up one or two of those as well.

This is our Scotland shelf. Of the 24 books, 10 of them are about Mull.

Of course we had to have fish-n-chips while in Scotland, and our favorite place is on the Fisherman's Pier in Tobermory. It's a little van near the clock tower.

Hikes / Walks

This is the main reason we come to Mull. We are by no means serious hikers, which means unless you have a physical disability or serious injury, if we can do it, you can do it. This is where the hiking books come in really handy. You can decide how far you want to walk on any given day, how much up-and-down you can handle, and choose a walk that fits. We've done the Ardmore Shore walk, been to 's Airde Beinn (the crater loch), walked much of Glengorm's land in the north, and this time added a few new walks.

It's during our walks that we really get to explore the island and forget about everything but where we are.

Speinne Mor, the hill we didn't quite climb. I know it looks like a little bitty bump,
but the walk was more strenuous than we were prepared for.
It didn't help that we kept losing the darn trail, which was described as
"clear and easy to follow".

Loch Frisa

the Mishnish lochs

waterfall on the Aros Park walk from Tobermory

Lochan a'Ghurrabain, Aros Park walk

Calgary Bay

This beach is a popular site during the summer months on a fine weather day. We tend to go for a drive on days when it's raining, and it's rare that the rain doesn't let up for at least a bit. So we like to stop here and stroll on the beautiful white sands. There's also a walk from here called "Art in Nature" where you'll apparently see sculptures along the way.

The waves leave artistic patterns in the sand.

Loch Na Keal is another place to stop, and especially to hike along. If you're knowledgeable about the tides, you can get to McKinnon's Cave - and you can read about the legend in one of the local books about the island! 

Salen

We stopped for a restroom coffee break in Salen, and something helpful to know is that there are public restrooms here in case, as happened with us, the restaurant is closed and the coffee shop's restrooms are out of order and being seen to by the local plumber.

Not far from Salen are the ruins of Aros Castle, and that is a nice short walk through some bracken, along the shoreline, and around the ruins.

There is much more that awaits us!

What's Next?

Climbing Ben More  Yeah, right. Perhaps at least we can get up Speinne Mor next time.

Hiking on the isle of Ulva

Exploring more of central and southern Mull

Attending a performance at the Mull Theatre, "the smallest professional theatre in the world"

Attending a ceilidh

Meeting Iain Thomson, Mull's "singing shepherd," and hearing him sing live at a pub or ceilidh

Do you have a holiday destination that you love returning to over and over again?

Scotland: Isle of Mull

I'm cheating a little bit with this post because we haven't been to Scotland recently. Our last trip there was in 2010, and before that we were there in 2007 and 2006 (the year we got married). However since we are considering another trip there next year, I wanted to reminisce a bit.

As I've written before, we got married on the Isle of Mull at Glengorm Castle in 2006. It was a beautiful clear day and so we had the ceremony outside on the lawn next to the castle. We had no guests at the wedding except for our two witnesses - M's mother's cousin from Edinburgh and his Austrian wife, who drove across Scotland and took the ferry from Oban to the island for the ceremony.

We stayed in a room in the castle, and this was the view from one of our windows:

M's ancestors on his mother's side were Scottish (McDougal), and he wore the clan tartan - and wore it well, I must say!

The next summer we returned to Scotland with my two children and M's mother for an unforgetable two weeks. We spent a week on the Isle of Mull in a rustic self-catering cottage on the castle grounds, followed by a week in the highlands. While on Mull M's mother's cousin and his wife (K & B) joined us for a few days and we explored as much of the island as we had time for.

This is Sorne cottage, and we stayed in the half closest to the camera.
It sleeps six, but since we were already five, K & B pitched a tent in the yard.

living room of Sorne cottage

Tobermory

Northern coastline of Mull with mainland Scotland
in the background

Tobermory from the hill above

My son touches the ocean for the first time

In 2010 my son decided not to join us, so it was M, his mother, my daughter, and I who spent two weeks on the isle. The weeks were filled with hikes, shopping in Tobermory and cooking in the cottage, pony trekking - an unforgetable beach ride for my daughter and me - more hikes, tons of photography, a boat trip to the isle of Iona, where Christianity came to Scotland with Saint Columba, and Staffa, an island inhabited only by a population of adorable Puffins and other wild birds.

Duart Castle on Mull

the abbey on Iona

waterfall on a hike from Tobermory

Tobermory

Puffin

Isle of Staffa - basalt cliffs

These sheep were queuing up at an open gate. We are not sure
what that was all about.

"Hamish. Hamish! Get back here right NOW and pick up your coat!"

Mull is a small island with roughly 2800 inhabitants and a coastline of 300 miles. There are three castles on the island, one of which is open for tours (Duart - seen in the film Entrapment with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones). Glengorm is privately owned and a B&B with self-catering cottages as well. Torosay Castle used to be open for tours and we saw it in 2008, but it was sold in 2012 and is now privately owned and closed to the public.

There is much more of Scotland still to see, but we keep coming back to Mull. If you like vacations consisting of being close to nature, hiking, biking, running, or riding, don't need constant action and aren't daunted by fickle weather, I can highly recommend a week or two on Mull. There are plenty of tourists there in the summer, but we had our peace and quiet, especially while hiking.

Don't miss the Glengorm Coffee Shop for lunch, where you'll find their own lamb, beef, and produce on the menu. Check opening times, because the drive out there from Tobermory is several miles on a windy single-track dirt road which can be full of potholes. After lunch take a hike out to the coast.

"Yeah, you with the camera...take another step closer."

We are on the verge of booking our stay on Mull for next year, and I'm already getting excited. Our only remaining question is whether we'll stay for one week or two.

Packing for Scotland

I've been absent for a while for (once again) no good reason, though I have been substitute teaching an Integrationskurs for the last week. It's actually an Alphabetisierungskurs, which means the students started the course not being able to read or write, at least not with our alphabet. This class has advanced to the A1 niveau, and they are a fun and interesting group!

Next week we'll be leaving on another trip to Scotland - our sixth together in 12 years. We'll be staying on the Isle of Mull for a week at Glengorm Castle in one of their self-catering flats, followed by three days at a B&B near Tyndrum where we stayed last year with the kids, and finally a few days near Edinburgh. This time M and I are going alone, and we're hoping to avoid the rental car problems we had last year - which I never ended up writing about. Hm.

Since the plan for this weekend is packing for Scotland, I thought I'd write a quick blog post about that! I know people who prefer to vacation at beaches and hotels with big pools where it is warm and sunny, but  - especially after a hot and dry summer like we've just had - we bundle up and head for cooler, wetter climes.

We each have our own packing list, and I'm mainly going to cover mine. M takes care of all the technical and electronic stuff, charging cords, batteries, etc., though I am in charge of my own camera batteries and memory cards.

So then, what do I pack for a trip to wet and windy Scotland? This is a start:

Most important for us are the hiking gear and photography equipment. We are by no means serious hikers, in part because we lack the fitness for it, but we love to go for long walks looking for pretty views and interesting wildlife. The wildlife on Mull has been doing its honest best to elude us, though this year we're hoping to be able to at least observe, if not photograph, some of the island's birds of prey.

Hiking Gear

I pack my hiking boots, a backpack designed for hiking, and a rain jacket that folds up and stuffs into its own pocket, making for easy storage. That's what the lobster is sitting on - more on him later. Shown in the photo are two of my four pairs of hiking pants. I have one for when it might be wet, one for when it's fairly wet, and one for when it's really, really wet. The Wisconsin shirt is one of only two t-shirts I'll bring; I rarely need short-sleeves and pack mainly long-sleeve or 3/4-length sleeve shirts. I bought the green Craghopper fleece last year, and it's super cuddly! Of course I am packing my Poldi the Steinkauz (owl) shirt.

We also have the all-important OS (Ordinance Survey) maps and a compass, though I should admit that we usually rely on M's GPS thingy to guide us during the actual hikes. It handles the rain better.

The Olympus binoculars are important for spotting wildlife as it runs, slithers, or swims to places we are not, and for identifying large birds. We'll be bringing two flashlights because we're planning to do the Whisky Cave walk, which unsurprisingly involves a cave.

We don't go anywhere without Avon's Skin-so-Soft® to fend off the midges (affectionately referred to by locals as "those fecking demons" and other colorful pet names), and this year we're also bringing Smidge® at the advice of the good people in the Scotland from the Roadside Facebook group. There's also a mosquito face net, though I've never needed it before.

We'll each have a Swiss Army knife, because who would go hiking without one? Same with the Snickers! 

Last but certainly not least: our mini-pharmacy: Band-aids, blister pads, adhesive tape, gauze, Fenistil for bug bites, Bepanthen for cuts and scratches, and Ibuprofen, Imodium, and cold medicine - not all of which is pictured.

Photography Equipment

I'm bringing my new camera, which is M's "old" Canon EOS 70D. We decided he should probably have a new camera to better capture the birds of prey in flight (we have high hopes), and the 70D can do things my 40D cannot. I'm looking forward to getting acquainted with it.

My lens of choice is the EF-S 18-135mm, not that I know what any of that means.

I'll have the monopod, while M will haul a tripod on his backpack. 

We'll have extra batteries and memory cards, and M will have several different lenses so that he can be in the middle of switching them when the Steinadler (golden eagle) flies overhead.

Self-Catering Needs

Center front you see the all-important knife sharpener. We cannot stand dull knives, but we seem to be alone in this. We bring a knife sharpener everywhere we travel - I even bring one when I travel to my parents' house. This little one isn't M's favorite, but it works in a pinch, and his whetstones would be too cumbersome to pack.

We also bring one good kitchen knife - again, I never travel without it when I know I will be doing some cooking. M made a sheath for it before my last trip to Wisconsin, with a warning mainly to protect the airport security guys rummaging through my suitcase.

We pack our vegetable peeler because I don't like using anything else, and mini packets of spices for the recipes we're bringing - lamb stew and Gulasch. We buy the lamb and beef from Glengorm and the vegetables from their gardens - it doesn't get more local than that!

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

I always pack a kitchen cloth as well, because usually it's a washcloth that is provided for doing dishes and wiping the counters, and I prefer the ones we use at home. I probably sound a little looney.

Miscellaneous

I bring two or three books and buy more while traveling. For Scotland I always bring a book about Scottish history, and for Mull I bring the little book about walks to take on the island, which I picked up a few years ago. 

I like to keep a journal to record the fun, funny, and frustrating moments and basically what we did each day.

There are other things on our packing list, but what I've pictured and mentioned above are the most important. Ha! I just realized I didn't think to put my tablet, keyboard, or smart phone in the picture. I will surely bring the tablet for checking emails occasionally and the mobile phone for summoning island rescue if one of us runs into very bad luck, but M will have his laptop, and if there's any posting of pictures being done, I'll use that. 

What do I buy??

What kinds of things do I buy when we go to Mull and other parts of Scotland? I'm not much for shopping, really, but I love the little shops in Tobermory. This is what I bought last year (two of the books were gifts from the kids):

The Craghopper fleece, Jacobs Cream Crackers (we both go mad for these!), books, books, and more books, a Mull calendar to hold us through the next year, something showing Mull - last year two slate coasters - a Mull heather scented candle, a bar of Mull soap, and a mini bottle of Tobermory whisky. Island Wife was written by a woman who lived and ran a B&B on Mull with her husband for a number of years, and the History of Glengorm was published last year and written by the mother of Tom Nelson, who has owned and run the Glengorm estate since he took over from his parents.

Why the lobster?

The lobster has become somewhat of a mascot for us, due to a book we're both reading which was written by a clinical psychologist from Canada who has been making quite some waves during the last year or so. Funnily enough, I bought this little finger puppet on our trip to New Hampshire & Maine as a souvenir quite a few years ago. He's been living in my "teaching props" bag since then, but lately he hangs out in our living room.

Scotland, here we come!

North Mull, view from Glengorm Castle

a burn on Mull

Loch Na Keal, Isle of Mull

Beautiful Mull

a tribute to the beautiful Scottish Isle of Mull...

This post is somewhat retro and somewhat forward-reaching, since all the photos are between four and nine years old but we have booked a week on the Isle of Mull for September 2015 and expect to have plenty of new pictures and memories when we return.

In 2006 M and I got married on the island, on a day so beautiful and clear even the local photographer was impressed. We would have had the tiny private ceremony in the library of the Glengorm Castle, but the decidedly unscottish weather allowed us to be outside on the lawn next to the castle overlooking the sea.

behind us: blooming Rhododendron bushes, the sea, the mainland of Scotland,
and the peaks in the background are probably the Isle of Rum

When I say private ceremony, I mean it was just us and our two witnesses from Edinburgh (and of course the registrar who performed the ceremony and her assistant*). We didn't want anyone to feel obligated to make that long and expensive trip, and to be honest we wanted this to be a private moment just for us. It felt very intimate and meaningful and if we had it to do over again, we wouldn't change a thing.

*An unexpected guest was Pip, the castle's semi-retired Border Collie, who popped out of the Rhododendron with a plump and freshly killed bunny hanging from his mouth, which he devoured undisturbed by our intrusion in his dining room. Afterwards the assistant, who'd kept her poise during the feast, doubled over in horror saying, "'Twas awful! I could hear the bones crunchin'!"

We stayed three nights in a room of the castle with a stunning view out the windows overlooking sheep fields facing the sea.

Laorin

In 2007 we returned with both of my children and M's mother for a week in one of Glengorm's self-catering cottages. We went hiking, explored Tobermory and two castles (Duart and Torrosay, the latter of which was sold a few years later and is no longer open for tours) plus the Aros castle ruins, drove around part of the island and hiked to MacKinnon's Cave, into which my Schwiegermutter's cousin (one of our two witnesses, both of whom joined us for several days on the island) scrambled with my son - there was only time for those two to go in because the tide was rising - ate at a great restaurant in Salen, and hiked some more. My daughter and I went pony trekking twice also, once on Glengorm's grounds and once not far from Loch na Keal.

Sorne Cottages, no longer available for short hire :-(

coastline of Loch na Keal

Tobermory, the "capital" of Mull

Highland Cattle with Duart Castle in the background

My son wanted to scramble up, into, over, down, and through everything,
and mountain-runner Keith happily went with him. Thank goodness,
since he had to fish him out of this river when he crossed where it was
deeper than expected!

After our week on Mull the five of us drove through the Highlands on a trip planned by M's mother. We stayed at the Clachaig Inn near Glencoe, toured Eilean Donan Castle (where, when my Schwiegermutter asked the brazen guide - surely a blackguard cousin of the clan who owns it - what he wears under his kilt, showed us a bare cheek!! I may or may not have let out a shriek of surprise...), Urquhart Castle, and Blair Castle, rode the Hogwart's Express Jacobite Steam Train from Fort William to Mallaig and back, overnighted in Spean Bridge, Drumnadrochit, and Kinloch Rannoch, took a boat tour on Loch Ness, explored touristy Pitlochry, and strolled around the battlefields of Culloden, Bannockburn, and Stirling.

on the Jacobite Steam Train

Eilean Donan Castle

Urquhart Castle ruins overlooking Loch Ness

We returned to Mull in 2010, but this time my son decided he didn't want to come with us. Silly lad. This time we stayed for two weeks in Sorne cottage and took many more hikes and one day trip to the Isles of Iona and  Staffa. Thank heavens for me, the sea was very calm that day, so the ride out to Staffa wasn't at all horrifying, which I have heard and read it can be.

Iona Abbey

the uninhabited Isle of Staffa

Staffa's black basalt columns, formed some sixty million years ago
by a massive undersea explosion. 

Puffin - these birds are so adorable!

pony-trekking again - cantering along the beach of Loch na Keal
Pure heaven!

Many of our hikes led to the sea, where I could sit for hours.

Several hikes took us past abandoned houses or villages.

This is our kind of vacation. We seek out places where we can
be alone with nature and our cameras. Although Mull depends
somewhat on tourism during the summer months, one can hike
for hours without seeing anyone else.

heather, bracken, and the sea

I have to share two of my favorite pictures from our time on Iona, but first an explanation: my Schwiegermutter and I love museums, churches, castles, etc.. We like to take our time and read carefully. M and my daughter like museums, churches, and castles to a point, but they both read quickly (and retain more than I do!) and can make it through a self-guided tour in about half the time. While I was wandering around the ruins of the Iona Abbey, I saw M and my daughter sitting on a bench. Awww.... sweet picture! They grinned, I snapped it, and then wandered off. I turned to see if they were following me, and snapped the second photo. This pair of photos makes me giggle every time I see them.

In September we're going alone and staying in one of Glengorm's self-catering flats. This trip will be about hiking and photography, and M wants to visit the Puffins on Staffa again. I'm not so sure about that unless the sea is as calm as last time - and what are the chances of that?! I might have to wait for him on Iona and explore that island more.

We have been told we should visit other islands in Scotland and that there is much more to see! We're sure this is true, but there is something so familiar and special to us about Mull, and we keep longing to return. There's still more to see on this small island, too - for instance we haven't climbed Ben More yet! And with the vacation nine months away, there might even be enough time for us to get fit enough to give the ol' mountain a try.

One more thing we'd like to do is hear & see Iain Thomson, Mull's "singing shepherd," live in a pub or at a cèilidh. We heard his music playing in a shop in 2010 and promptly bought his CD, which we love. When we found his second one, we ordered that, too. I'm listening to his music as I type this, and I could listen all night. Instrumentals, Scottish reels, original songs, cover versions, traditional tunes... One of my favorite lines is from a song on his first CD, called "Come by the Hills": "The cares of tomorrow must wait 'til this day is done." I am so grateful that little shop in Tobermory was playing his CD the day we walked in!

This video is a montage of M's and my photos set to Iain Thomson's song "Ulva Boatman" (used with permission). M made it the year I arranged a penpal exchange between my students in Wisconsin and students at the high school in Tobermory, to give my students an idea of what there is to see and do on the island.

It's best viewed in the small version rather than full screen, and it probably won't work on a tablet or android.*

My words can't do justice to the wonder and beauty of this island, but hopefully the pictures speak for me. Mull has captured my heart, and I cannot wait to return.


*If anyone knows how to post a video on Blogger that views well on full screen with clear photos and without using Youtube and is willing to share, please send me an email! :-)