Inhabited, west coast Scottish islands - Mull

Mull, at around 340 square miles, is the third largest island on Scotland’s west coast after Skye, at around 640 sq.mi., and before Islay, at around 240 sq.mi. (with the largest being Lewis at around 685 sq.mi.) - and fourth largest of the British Isles with Mainland Shetland being larger than Mull but smaller than Skye. Note that none of the above includes mainland Britain or Ireland (which, after all, are islands off the north west coast of mainland Europe). If not for the sound of Mull, running roughly west to east, it would not be an island at all but the southern most section of the West Highlands (the Scottish landmass west of the Great Glen). Mull can be considered as three separate sections. The easternmost is mainly the Ross of Mull which turns west and extends towards Iona along the southern shore of Loch Scridain but also (for me, anyway) all the land east of Glen More. The middle section lies between Loch Scridain and Loch na Keal on the west and between Craignure and Salen on the Sound of Mull. The third section is the land west and a bit north of the middle section. Note that due to Mull’s shape (almost a triangle), and how it sits, makes describing it’s coasts according to compass points a bit difficult. For this blog I have decided that the first section, described above, forms both the east and south coasts with the section between Loch Scridain and Loch na Keal as the west coast and the coast along the Sound of Mull as the north coast. That leaves the bit of coast which includes Calgary and Dervaig a bit out on a limb - is that also west coast or north coast (as it kind of faces north west)? I’ll leave that for everyone to decide for themselves.
Like most of the West Highlands, Mull is mainly a wild and rugged land. It is predominately hilly and mountainous with Ben More reaching to over 3000 feet, several other at about or over 2000 feet while much of the rest of the island is rugged if not quite so high at about or over 1000 feet. There are a couple of lower lying areas, for example the neck of land between Salen, on the Sound of Mull, and Loch na Keal on the west and around Dervaig, but not as many as, for example, Islay. As perhaps a result of this, the coast line is also pretty rugged with few family friendly sandy beaches - or so it would appear if sticking to the main roads. In reality, Mull has quite a number of sandy coves and beaches but most of them are small and tucked away at the end of minor roads or even requiring a walk to reach them. There is, however, an abundance of rocky coast line shores to explore. The more easily reached sandy beaches are around the western tip of the Ross of Mull and at Calgary (on the bit of coast facing roughly north west between Treshnish and Tobermorry). The lack of easily reached sandy beaches might explain why the beach at Calgary is often very busy.
Mull’s population is around 3000 (2990 on the 2011 census but thought to have grown a bit since then), with settlements at Craignure (where the main ferry from Oban arrives), Bunessan, Fionnphort, Calgary, Dervaig, Salen and Tobermory. There are two other ferry crossings, one from Lochaline on the northern side of the Sound of Mull and one from Kilchoan, also on the northern side of the sound but way out west near Ardnamurchan Point.
Tobermorry is the largest and main settlement and can be considered, I think, as a small town rather than a village (although I have to admit that I am not sure at what stage a village officially becomes a small town in Scotland). In addition to those mentioned above there are many other smaller settlements scattered all around the island. The main sources of income would appear to be crofting/farming, tourism and fishing along with a couple of distilleries (one for whisky and one for gin).
Mull offers all the usual west coast island activities to explore and enjoy; all the flora and fauna common to the west coast islands (including some fairly rare), eating out in fine restaurants (many offering fresh seafood), hill walking and ruined castles to explore, of which there are quite a few, along with fishing and other water sports. Included in the wild life to spot is a growing colony of sea, or white tailed, eagles which can often be seen hunting for fish on the west coast over Loch na Keal and surrounding areas. There are so many sea eagles these days that the local crofters seem to be getting pretty upset as, in addition to fishing, the birds seem to be quite keen on lambs! There are also red deer, otters and pine martins to spot (if you are lucky). The pine martin is not (I read) native but seems to have arrived in more recent years. For some reason, and especially given it’s size, there seems to be a paucity of ancient sites to visit - although there is a stone circle at Lochbuie (two, actually, with an older, smaller one close to the more obvious one). There are, however, also a number of standing stones scattered around the island, which could be fun hunting down and visiting. In addition to all the above, there are it’s satellite islands to visit. These include Iona, Erraid, Ulva, Gometra. All of those are inhabited and will be described in my next post. In addition to those small, inhabited islands it is also possible to join trips to visit uninhabited Staffa, with it’s famous Fingal’s Cave (the other end of the basalt rock columns at the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland) and the Treshnish Isles, which lie just a bit further north and west of Staffa. The Treshnish Isles have a colony of puffins making this a trip worth doing for those interested in wild life.
It should be said that Mull is well worth a visit with lots of things to do and see - including some very wonderful scenery, as I hope a couple of the following photographs show. Note, however (and as before), there are many more comprehensive blogs and articles about Mull to be found on the Internet.
Note also that despite about three previous visits to Mull (so about four in total), I did not have a big selection of photos to choose from. My last visit, for example (and although I did tour around Mull), was mainly to visit the small inhabited islands of Erraid, Ulva and Gometra, so I did not take much time to stop for photograph taking. I had previously visited Iona a couple of times and, not having given myself much time, I skipped making a third visit. Note also, that having selected photos from a couple of visits, I decided to organise them here into a sort of tour. This tour starts from Craignure then heads south and west along the Ross of Mull to Fionnphort. I then retrace that route back to the head of Loch Scridain (because there’s no option to doing that) and then headed clockwise around the western coast of the island to Calgary and Devaig to Tobermory and then back to Craignure to catch the ferry back to Oban.
 

The above photograph is of Craignure - or a part of it. It was taken, looking south, from the ferry queue. I say part of it because Craignure is quite long and narrow with houses mainly on the landward side of the main road, north and south of the ferry pier. There is a small section at the south of the village which is on the other side of the road. A full view of the whole village is probably best achieved from a ship passing through the Sound of Mull as that is probably the only way to get a full shot of the village.

The above photo was taken halfway along Glen More, looking south from The Three Lochs viewpoint towards Lochbuie. I do not include this photo for any other reason than it being a fine view.

The shot above is from near the head of Loch Scridain, looking north across the loch to Ben more.

The above photo is another view across Loch Scridain to Ben More.

 

The photo above is of the centre of Bunessan which is on the southern shore of Loch Scridain and only a couple of miles east of Iona. More accurately, the Bunessan houses are scattered around Loch na Lathaich which is an inlet of Loch Scridain.

 

 

The photo above was taken at Fidden which is a small hamlet on the way to Knockvologan - which is where the crossing to Erraid is made.

 The above shot is of the uninhabited island of Erosa near the mouth of Loch na Keal. It was taken from near the head of the loch and I presume it’s the inhabited island of Ulva to the right of the photo.

 

The shot above was taken from near the head of Loch na Keal looking south south west towards Ben More.

The photo above is of the fine beach at Calgary. This is one of the few beaches easily reached from the main road and as a result of this it is usually a lot busier than this photograph suggests.

 The photo above is of Dervaig (or part of it) near the northern coast of Mull.

 

 The above shot is part of the main street at Tobermorry.

The photo above is of the main street of the village of Salen.