All Things Scottish, Day 7

Today was a beeline from central Argyll & Bute, to the far reaches of the Isles of Mull and Iona. So a lot of time was spent driving and on the ferry from Oban.

Up until now, all the ferries have been small things (at most a dozen cars, perhaps.) In contrast, the ferries and ferry terminal at Oban are industrial things, designed to move lots of people and transport between the mainland and the large isles. So while the smaller ferries bounced around like rubber duckies in some of the winds we've had recently, the large Isle of Mull ferry just casually plowed through the waves. The wind on the top passenger sun deck were around 90kph sustained.

The Isle of Mull itself doesn't have a lot of "stuff" on it but is quite scenic. The two main roads are the usual single-track style with lots of pull-outs. Of course this being Sunday there were a lot of tour busses plying the way, so it was slow going.

Given the weather, I decided to pass on a plan to hike at Carsaig and defer that until tomorrow, and continued straight on to the Isle of Iona. This small island at the tip of Mull houses the historic Iona Abbey, first founded in around the year 600 as from Ireland, St. Columba descended upon the early Scottish kingdom of Dalriada to Spread The Light. It's been updated and rebuilt many times, the latest incarnation from the the early 20th century.

By mid afternoon the weather had cleared up, so I visited the Abbey first before closing time. I managed to sit in on a professional recording session for a choir making a recording in the Abbey. Nice, but I heard about 5 takes of the same piece!

Then, using a cartographic postcard of the island, I set off on foot (the only ferry passage to the island unless you're a resident) to explore the hills of the north half, including the "high point" of Dun I. The island is taken up with crofting, and visitors can freely explore any of the hills and valleys and see some of the historic sites. This season is rather wet so a lot of the pasturage is boggy and muddy, but it was still fun to walk around for a few hours.

Finished off the day with a gourmet dinner at The Argyle Hotel (also my room for the night) which uses locally-sourced food from nearby farms and their own vast organic garden. It was very good, and the evening finished off with a few pours of Single Malt Whisky (which is as cheap as a beer, generally speaking) and a selection of Scottish Cheeses.

Alltold quite civilized for being the edge of the world!