Blogs from Isle of Mull, Argyll, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe

Nothing unusual … the day began early. Cereal for breakfast and we were on the road headed for Fionnphort to catch our boat trip to Staffa Island … so we thought. The drive was slow due to the narrowness, blind corners and summits and windy nature of the road. The mist, low cloud and occasional drizzle added to our carefulness. The animal sights along the way contributed to our enjoyment. At Fionnphort we were advised that there was no guarantee that we would be stepping onto Staffa due to the Atlantic swell. Disembarking would be too dangerous. The sea out of the protected harbour was up and the wooden ‘brown boat’ would be rolling making those who were prone to sea sickness quite sick. It was approximately an hour out, an hour on Staffa (if able) ... read more

Courtesy of guest blogger TWJ Isle of Mull, 3 days, 118 miles... Dad has been talking about cycle touring for a while and I thought what better way to start than with Nick who's crossed continents on his bike! For years I've turned my nose up at cycle touring, but I decided I would do it for dad and it would be 3 days of hell and hard work, but I'd manage. Plus Nick had bought me nice new yellow Ortlieb pannier bags! Day 1 (Oban to Craignure to beach near Iona) We arrived in Oban to pouring rain on Saturday about lunchtime, and a huge faff to get three bikes off the roof rack. As we were taking the bikes off, Nick had a bit of a calamity when his bike toppled over whilst still ... read more

Today is Sunday, which means everything is either closed or opens late. I had decided to take a tour that does island hopping, and the earliest tour starts at 10am. I had leisurely breakfast at my B&B - it was a feast, prepared by the hostess. The choices were either a full Scottish breakfast (Sausage, Bacon, Eggs, Tomato, Black Pudding, Mushrooms, Potato Scone) or, in my case, an extended continental breakfast, which included Scots Porridge with honey and heavy cream, 2 croissants with butter and jam, a very large platter of fruits, veggies, and various types of cheeses. Of course, a choice of 3 cereals, toast, orange juice, choice of coffee or tea goes without saying. I loved the porridge, but I could only sample the fruits and cheese platter as it was so big. I ... read more

AROUND MULL 1. Staffa & Treshnish Isles Wildlife Tour. At 10.00am on an overcast Sunday morning we stepped aboard our cruise boat together with about 30 other people, looking forward to seeing puffins for the first time. We had booked this cruise before we left to make sure we had a space on the boat, but we could just have arrived and it would have been OK. The weather didn’t look too promising, windy and showery, but our captain reassured us, promising that the showers would stop and we’d have fine weather shortly and he was right. The boat sailed out towards two small islands, Coll and Tiree, stopping along the way to look at some bottle nosed dolphins. They were spotted near a group of gannets who were feeding on a shoal of fish. The ... read more

It was another grey, overcast morning but still not threat of rain and it looked like we would get another days driving in with dry road conditions. On paper in the atlas the drive today to the Isle of Mull didn’t look that long but we weren’t naive enough to think that our target just short of Tobermory on Mull could be made at an easy pace. As we wanted to take a circuitous route for the scenery we needed to ensure we kept to a bit of a timetable as we also a short boat ride across Loch Aline to be factored in as well and there was a timetable for the car ferry to think about as well. We met the young women from last night at breakfast again and carried on our conversations ... read more