The Lovely Isle of Mull

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Ferry to Mull

I set the alarm on the mobile phone for 6am so we would have time to eat and make it to the ferry by 7:40am which is the time mom said is the latest to check in for the ferry with the car. We headed down to the lobby right before 7am (7am is when they open for breakfast) to try to grab a quick breakfast before we left for the ferry. We asked our server how to get to the where you load the cars onto the ferry. So mom pulls out the tickets and discovers that the latest check in is 7:15am and it’s now 7:10am! D@mn!!!! We grab our things and race out to make an attempt to get to the ferry in time. The server actually showed mom on the map which streets to take, but by the time we get the car out of the car park, she’s not too sure what way he said to go. OMG! We get there at 7:20am and luckily the attendant lets us get in line to get on the ferry. It seemed like we waited a long time before they started letting the cars and trucks on the ferry, but probably wasn’t that long. We parked the car on the car deck and headed up to the observation deck. I wanted to go outside to watch as we left the harbor and mom agreed to come out for a while. From the ferry the views of Oban harbor are beautiful. Opposite Oban is the Isle of Kerrera. There is a monument on the end of the Isle of Kerrera in honor of the founder of Cal Mac Ferries. It was a little chilly and misty so early, but cool enough to go back inside for a while.

Then we passed by the Eileen Musdile Lighthouse on the tip of the Isle of Lismore. Opposite the lighthouse is Lady’s Rock. Then Duart Castle came into view on the Isle of Mull - this is what I had been waiting for! Just beyond Duart you can see Torosay Castle also. We were one of the first cars off the ferry. It was one of those ferries that you drive on and then straight out the other side, very cool. The ferries in Greece you had to back up onto them and park. We took a right off the ferry and headed up to Tobermory since it was so early. We thought we could get some breakfast there too. We hit some long stretches of single track roads and I got lots of practice pulling in to the passing places when meeting oncoming traffic. For the most part you could see the oncoming traffic for some distance. A few times we were met on a blind corner, but usually they were wide enough to pass. Only once did we have to back up to a passing place on our side of the road.

The Isle of Mull is the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides and is off the west coast of Scotland in the council area of Argyll and Bute. With an area of about 338 square miles Mull is the fourth largest Scottish island and the fourth largest island surrounding Great Britain. Mull has been inhabited since around 6,000 BC.

Tobermory

Such a picturesque little village! We were famished as we had pretty much had only a bite of our breakfast before we dashed off to the ferry, so I asked around where we could get some breakfast and ended up eating at the arts center which has a little café. We ended up buying a few souvenirs in the arts center and then did some window shopping too. We walked around by the distillery so I could take some photos across the harbor of the pretty brightly painted buildings along the harbor front. It was really quiet in Tobermory, I guess the season was pretty much over at this point. We were a little bored and decided to head back past the ferry to Torosay Castle.

Tobermory is the capital of, and the only burgh on the Isle of Mull in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. It is located in the northeastern part of the island, near the northern entrance of the Sound of Mull. With a current population of approximately 700, the town was founded as a fishing port in 1788. Many of the buildings on Main Street, which are predominantly shops and restaurants, are painted in assorted bright colors.

Torosay Castle

Torosay is actually a lovely Victorian house that is slowly being restored. There are personally written notes throughout the house written by the 5th Laird of Torosay himself and a lot of signs inviting visitors to please sit down if they wish - unusual! The house still needs tons of work, but it’s nice that they are keeping it up and preserving it. The gardens are beautiful, but not overly ornate. The sun was nice and warm and it was a beautiful day to wander around the gardens. There was also a lovely little Japanese Garden where we sat and relaxed for a bit. There were some highland cows in the pasture along the drive, but I thought I would take some photos of them on the way out, of course when we left they were far off in the distance! Torosay Castle was completed in 1858 by the eminent Architect David Bryce in the Scottish Baronial styleIt is one of the finer examples of his work and possibly one of the few still used as a family home, and open to the public.

Duart Castle

We headed over to Duart Castle along another single track road. The driveway in to the castle was really long (maybe a couple of miles) and there were lots of sheep in fields along the drive. The castle sits on a beautiful point of land overlooking the Firth of Lorn. This castle was just a ruin back in the early 1900’s. The family (MacLean) bought back the property and restored it beautifully. A large part of the castle is open to the public (the whole north wing) including the ramparts with fabulous views. We had some soup at the castle tea room and it was horrible! It was potato leek (which I love), but both of our stomachs felt a little upset after eating it - could have used some Pepto-Bismark!! After we toured the interior of the castle I wanted to walk down to the edge of the firth, but mom wanted to go sit in the car, so I went by myself. Probably just as well the path down was steep and a bit muddy, coming up again was a good workout!

Duart castle stands on a crag at the end of the peninsular that juts out into the Sound of Mull at the intersection of the sound of Mull, Loch Linne and the Firth of Lorne. Duart was originally a rectangular wall enclosing a courtyard. At about 2:30 when we were done visiting the castle, we decided to try to catch an earlier ferry back to Oban since we didn’t go to Iona. We were originally on the 7pm ferry and we ended up being able to get on the 3pm ferry instead which was awesome! I took a bunch more photos on the way back. The sun was warmer and it was much more pleasant on the outside deck.

Back in Oban

When we got back to Oban, I swung by the laundry before we brought the car back to the car park. It’s so awesome to have nice clean clothes again! We headed back to the hotel and parked the car and walked down Georges Street to Cuan Mōr Restaurant to get something to eat. Then we walked farther down the street to the Bank of Scotland so mom could get some more cash. We stopped in a jewelry store along the way so mom could get an earring back to replace the one she lost somewhere. I bought a lion rampant charm for my charm bracelet there as well. We went back to the hotel and just relaxed. All the driving is taking its toll on me - I’m just beat. But - I ended up reading again until 2am - why do I do this to myself!!

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Photos

Duart Castle
View from the ferry on the way to the Isle of Mull

Tobermory
The lovely village of Tobermory - love the multi colored buildings!

View from the ramparts of Duart Castle
Gorgeous view!

Seagull Gazing out into the harbor
in Oban

Seagull
in Oban

Clumsy Seagull
Love this shot! Just lucky timing to catch the slip

More Seagulls
in Oban