Inhabited, west coast Scottish Islands

Continuing north from Dana, the next inhabited, west coast island is Luing (pronounced Ling - although the Gaelic pronunciation might be slightly different from that, but this appears to be, at least, how it should be said in English). Luing is the southern most of the Slate Islands - and it also seems to be the largest by area, being slightly larger than Seil to the north (although Seil’s populations would appear to be more than double that of Luing). These islands are known as the Slate Islands because slate had once been quarried, in large quantities, on most of the islands in the group. Although there are about half a dozen Slate Islands, only Luing, Easdale and Seil remain permanently inhabited.
To get to Luing, unless you have your own boat or helicopter, you first have to travel through the island of Seil to the north and get the ferry from North Cuan on Seil over to South Cuan on Luing. I could, therefore, have described Seil first - but I had decided to cover the islands from south to north, as best I could, and that meant Luing first.
Luing is about six miles long, north to south, and about one and a half wide at it’s widest. It seemed a bit larger than that to me which is strange considering that the southern third is uninhabited. That leaves only about four miles by one and a half to drive about over and, as I said, it seemed to be larger than that - but I won’t argue with the geographers who I’m sure know best. It is a low lying island - but not a pancake, by any means. It’s lumpy with many small hills, mainly lying north to south with the highest being Binnein Furachail at only 87 meters, and with the usual rocky, west coast outcrops. The main road from South Cuan to Toberonochy runs down a valley between the hills to the east and those to the west. The land itself is typical west coast of Scotland land - that is, not of great quality. There are patches that are good enough for sheep and cattle to graze, other patches best left for the sheep and large areas that are very rough and others that look quite boggy. Many of the grazed areas are also covered in clumps of rushes. Note that the Luing cattle (or some of them) are a special bred - a cross between Highland and Beef Shorthorn bred to prosper in the harsh weather conditions. There are also a couple wooded areas - mainly of native species but also with some patches of pine trees. These would appear, on the whole, to only border the main road west of Binnein Furachail with a few smaller wooded areas dotted about.
Luing struck me as pretty tranquil with not much in the way of traffic to disturb the peace, outside of the short periods when a ferry arrived (roughly every thirty minutes), when there is be a brief period of four or five cars, in both directions, to contend with. All the vehicles arriving on the island seemed to disappear quite quickly. There are a few things to visit, like ancient forts, duns and earthworks along with an abandoned corn mill and a church, but not very many. The villages of Cullipool and Toboronochy are worth a visit, and a wander around in, with additional habitation in what I would describe as townships, with the houses scattered about rather than all grouped closely together. Cullipool also hosts a restaurant and the only local shop is also nearby. There are also a couple of flooded slate quarries in Cullipool and also one at Toberonochy and another one north of Port Mary on Cuan Point. Some of the slate quarries on Luing didn’t stop production until as late as 1965 - and this, it seems, due to economics rather than being flooded in the great storm of 1850. The Toberonochy quarry, so I was informed by a local, is flooded because streams were still coming into it but the pump to take the water away no longer worked (switched off or broken, I don’t know) - so it filled up because of this rather than being flooded by storm as many of the other Slate Island quarries were. A few of the slate quarries did survive the 1850 storm but they also had all closed, by around 1950. I did read (during my research on Luing) that there is a proposal to resume slate quarrying - but I don’t know how this is progressing or which quarries it’s hoped to reopen.
A couple of the Luing tourist web sites mention beaches - but I couldn’t find any and the local at Toberonochy confirmed that, as far as he knew, there were no sandy, family friendly, beaches on the island - just muddy, rocky or slate ones. I suspect that the mention of beaches was only a marketing ploy to encourage visitors. So, there is not a lot to do and see which will take more than a couple of days - but it’s ideal if all you seek is a quiet, relaxing break from city life, with, at the same time, easy access to Oban and the nearby mainland and the islands of Seil and Easdale. There are certainly several spots on the coast, with wonderful views, where having a picnic and a wander around, would be a great way to spend a few hours. Having said that, I figure there are quite a few walks that could be undertaken. There are quite a few ‘tracks’ indicated on my map and some are shown as ‘double tracked’, and therefore wide enough for a vehicle. I cannot comment on how good the surfaces on those are but I figure they will be good enough for, at least, walking and possibly cycling. One of these seems to run along near the top of the ridge of the western hills between Black Mill Bay and the township of Bardrishaig, near Cullipool, and this might well provide a nice walk with views out over the Sound of Luing, The Garvellachs, and the Firth of Lorn towards Mull. There would also appear to be a few other tracks which could provide for a pleasant day out enjoying such pursuits.
As previously mentioned, the southern third of the island is uninhabited. This is made up of two low hills, lined up north to south again, at 42 and 65 meters respectively. There is a dirt vehicle track, starting at the farm at Kilchatton, which runs down the centre of this area. It seems to service a few wind turbines but then continues south to end at nothing just below the summit of the southern most hill, Aird Luing. There is one building marked about halfway down this road - but if that was once a house then I suspect it is now abandoned. When I last visited (May 2021) the northern slopes (at least) of the northern hill were a very lush green which was also very uniform looking and lacking sheep or cattle. I suspect this was a cultivated area growing a crop of some sort. I am no expert in crops but since there is an abandoned corn mill at Achafolla, just a mile north, then perhaps this was a field of young corn of some type? There is no mention of Luing producing any crops so, if this area is cultivated, perhaps it is only producing winter feed for the cattle? The southern hill, from what little I could see of it from the road between Kilchatton and Black Mill Bay, just appeared to be wild and covered in the usual moorland vegetation. On my map there is an ‘earthworks’ indicated near the coast on the western slopes of Aird Luing. I did an Internet search for ‘Luing earthworks’ and the pictures and description returned indicated that, for those interested in such things, it might be worthwhile taking a tramp out to see it (although, if I were you, I’d do my own research first before starting out as there may well be less to see than might be hoped for, and getting to it will entail a tramp over wild land with no track or path).
That is about all I can say about Luing. I will end this with a few photographs - not to display any photographic abilities I might (or might not) have but to give a better indication of what Ling has to offer. My next island to describe is Seil - and, I will probably include Easdale, given how small it is, in that next post.

The above photo is of the south Cuan jetty at the north end of Luing, taken from the north Cuan jetty at the south end of Seil. The stretch of water between them is the Sound of Cuan.

The above photo was taken just south of the south Cuan jetty, looking north east towards the mainland.

The above photo is of Cullipool. Cullipool is quite strung out and I could have included several different but similar shots - but I decided upon this one.