A quick and wonderful tour of Eigg

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Ever since I read a book, ‘500 places you must see on the British Coast before your die’, (as if there’s an option afterwards!) I’ve been wanting to visit Muck and Eigg, small Scottish islands off the west coast of Scotland. It wasn’t guaranteed during winter, so we were lucky to get a ferry to Eigg today.

Once we were out of the port, Glyn received a text saying that the ferry maybe cancelled due to the weather. This was a concern in case the return ferry got cancelled and we would’ve been marooned.

Eigg is about 5.5 miles long and 3 miles wide. With a population of 110, there’s no central hub, just houses scattered randomly over the hills and by the shore. A single lane road traverses from top to bottom with a few side tracks to the three farms and houses. There’s a shop by the pier, a kindergarten and primary school on the one road and a brewery that is being upscaled into a pub. A doctor comes in from Skye every Wednesday and the medical centre is opened. Tourists can camp anywhere so long as they’re not in anyone’s garden, plus there’s a few wooden pods and a B&B. Older school kids go to Mallaig and have to stay for a week in a hostel especially built for island children. And the primary school headmistress has a cat that goes wandering for days, so cats do live happily here too, apparently she sent an email out rather worried when it went on it’s first walkabout.

As time was very short, I had previously found Charlie’s Taxi online and called to book him to take us to the Singing Sands. Charlie is a beardy Scot, smokes a pipe and likes a dram, the full Scottish package and it was worth visiting just for him!

We had less than 2 hours on Eigg sadly and Charlie told us that the Singing Sands don’t sing in the Winter, they need to be dry and at this time of year, they are a bog. So he took us to another nearby beach at the Bay of Laig from where we could see the Island of Rùm through the mist. Further along the beach were naturally hexagonal rocks similar to those at the Giants Causeway in Northern Island, but we didn’t have time to get that far. I generally like beaches but something about this one I loved, the air was clean, we were alone (apart from some sheep) and it was just very beautiful. We were almost late for Charlie, I had threatened that if we missed the ferry that we’d be sleeping on his sofa but he didn’t seem bothered and kept telling us about how he normally keeps a bottle in the car and has a wee dram that he shares with his passengers every stop. But it’s ok, there’s no police here.

For the short time we were with Charlie, we learnt a lot about Eigg, he is more of a tour guide than taxi driver. He pointed out the house where Tolkien would stay when he wrote and apparently the mountains of Rùm were the inspiration for Mordor. Another nearby house was where the first series of Outlander was filmed. Some photographer had a BBC documentary shot there and Charlie being the only taxi (actually it’s a big blue minibus) transported people, with wee dram for all! The photographer was filmed photographing Charlie so he ended up on TV and other islanders made fun of him for being up his own arse. When a tube shaped parcel arrived that wasn’t heavy enough to be a bottle, the postie noticed that the sender’s address was the photographer and apparently he opened it, so everyone saw the huge portrait of Charlie and further took the piss. I told him, I hope he had it framed and put above his fireplace. I’m a bit dubious about the postie opening mail, but Charlie says he’s his mate, so it’s ok.

Another famous person to visit Eigg was Adrian Edmondson, he wanted everyone to play music with him and apparently plays the ukulele pretty well.

There’s is also some hippy type retreat in the island and that came with a story about a young lady walking to the shower block naked to save carrying anything, not realising there were bird watchers nearby. The island has their own internal email and a message was put out requesting that people stay clothed. The lady in question was a bit embarrassed, but the locals all bought her a drink because she handled all the piss taking rather well.

Also, Charlie was telling us about Close Encounters of the Fifth kind occurring on the island. Now I know that the first is seeing UFOs, second is seeing aliens, third is contact and fourth is abduction, however what is the fifth? Well it’s when humans instigate contact by meditating and taking mushrooms. Apparently there’s a bit of that going on the island. The conversation turned to fungi after this so I didn’t learn more.

Oh and there’s a waterfall that in certain conditions flows up. Something to do with how the wind blows up the mountain. From where I stood and my lack of general geography knowledge it sounded believable.

We picked up Charlie’s wife and dog to give them a lift to the shop, avoiding Charlie’s chickens who were standing on the only road when there’s so much land to roam on!

Eigg has great internet because there’s not many people on the island. Charlie has Netflix and Amazon Prime but no, they do not guarantee next day delivery. Glyn has a thing about asking this whenever we visit remote places. However unless you’re on EE, there’s not much of a phone signal and Charlie has a radio instead.

Wildlife includes lots of rabbits and I saw a couple, but no foxes, squirrels or hedgehogs. They have otters and minke whales and there’s deer on Rùm. There were two wild horses that didn’t like people, I’m not sure what happened to them. Muck also has wild ponies but are on an outer island that is only accessible by foot when the tide is out. As expected there’s also lots of birds and a retired wildlife expert that shouts at campers if he thinks they’ll disturb the birds.

After our fleeting visit, I’m determined to return in the summer, probably at the weekend nearest June 12th as they have a 12 hour Ceilidh to celebrate the islanders buying it and are known as the Republic of Eigg by the occupants of other local islands. Eigg has been owned by the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust since 1997, as a community ownership (another stakeholder, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, manages the island as a nature reserve). I believe a lot of ale and whisky is consumed and crash mats are supplied for ‘power naps’ in between the dancing during the Ceilidh. Apparently we’ll need to book well in advance as the island gets booked up quickly.

Eigg is one of the most lovely British places I’ve been to and it’s wonderfully away from the current insanity of the mainland. I would consider moving there but it’s not cheap, house prices really shot up in 2004 - yes Glyn was looking when he had a bit of internet on the return ferry.

Returning to Mallaig we had one last trip to Coop and began the 4 hr 40 min drive to Gretna Green. We’re stopping there to break up the drive home. We stopped a couple of times to photograph foggy mountains, there’s a lot of those.

Glyn also spotted the Harry Potter rail bridge when I was driving so I turned around to have a quick goosey. It actually is called the Glenfinnan Viaduct and they have Harry Potter characters on the social distancing signs.

We arrived long after dark at the Days Inn Hotel at the services. Glyn got it for a bargain price, although it’s not as cosy as our Wee Lodge on the Loch!

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