Inhabited west coast Scottish islands

This post covers two islands, Erraid and Iona, rather than just the usual one. This is because both are quite small and both are inhabited satellites of Mull. The next post will also cover two of Mull’s four inhabited, satellite islands; Ulva and Geometra, but for this post I will start with Erraid as it is the southern most of all four islands.

Located at the south western tip of the Ross of Mull, Erraid is a small, tidal island that is almost square in shape, about a mile in length on all four coasts. Erraid’s main claim to fame is, in fact, as a tidal island in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped where this aspect of it’s geography is of importance to a section of the story (David Balfour, the hero of the story, thinks he is stuck on the island before he discovers he can walk over to Mull when the tide is out). It is separated from Mull by a narrow channel of water wrapped around the north and east coasts of the island - when the tide is in. When the tide is out then that channel of water becomes a large area of sand which can easily be walked across. The strand to the north would appear to have a permanent channel of water running along it. This is produced by a river flowing out of Mull. That might make crossing from Fidden inadvisable - although I have read that doing so is possible. This probably due to the ‘river’ in question being more of a stream and any water still in the channel from this source might well be very shallow. I have also read that it is only when the tide is high, or close to high, that walking across at some point is not possible (that for most of the tide cycle, walking across is both safe and easy) but I can’t confirm this and checks should be made locally if not planning the trip when the tide is pretty low. My investigations certainly indicated that the usual way across was to drive down to Knockvologan (at the very end of the road south out of Fionnphort). After that you then need to walk down the very rough track (which would probably require an armoured vehicle to drive down), then turn right (north) when you reach the shore and head up the beach until near the north eastern tip of Erraid. When the tide is far enough out it is easy to cross over before reaching the north eastern corner but Erraid’s coast there looks very steep and quite high. This would require a scramble to reach the land and the walk to the northern shore (where the houses and jetty are located) also looked like it would be hard going. Fortunately, the land around this north eastern tip is lower and flatter and scrambling up to the grass at this point is easy. As soon as I cleared the rocks it was obvious I’d used the normal crossing point as there was a clear path through the grass towards the houses along this northern shore. The land here was, as said, low and grassy and good enough (I’d say) for some degree of crofting.
The first building reached was, indeed, what appeared to be an inhabited croft house. It is certainly, on one of my maps, indicated as a croft - and it looked to be in a habitable condition, although I don’t know if it is still a functioning croft or not.. From there it is easy to see a row of terraced houses a bit further west. These were built by the Northern Lighthouse Board for the men, and their families, who looked after the lighthouses in the area. These houses are currently occupied by an offshoot of the Findhorn Foundation (sometimes referred to as the Findhorn Community). From what I’ve read they live rent free and are mainly self-sustaining as regards food. Their income is boosted by charging visitors to come and stay and study with them for short or long periods of time. Some, it seems, come and never leave.
As already mentioned, Erraid is about one mile square and the highest point on the island, located near the north western corner, is Cnoc Mor - which appears to be about 75 meters high (just under 250 feet). There is a disused observation tower (of some sort) near the top. The rest of the island is scattered with several even lower lumps of hilly ground and I have read that walking on the island is pretty rough and hard going (although an Internet video clip I saw would suggest that good paths have also been produced over time).

Erraid, as already mentioned, is not very big but I didn’t have enough time to do more than tick it off my bucket list and go for a brief walk westwards towards the houses and jetty - but I suppose a whole high tide could be spent checking out remote beaches and coves along the western and southern coasts as well as some of the ancient ruins indicated on the map. I have no idea, however, if any of these ruins are even visible never mind worth looking for. A climb up Cnoc Mor could also be undertaken and, despite it’s low height, there should be a wonderful 360 degree panorama as the hills towards the western end of the Ross of Mull are also quite low and are unlikely to get in the way of the view to the north and east.
I cannot find any mention of wildlife on Erraid but I suspect there are none that are not also found on Mull and the same goes for the flora. Like most west coast islands, Erraid is almost, but not quite, devoid of trees as there is a small wooded area to the west of the Findhorn Foundation houses but this is by no means big enough for the island to be described as wooded.
When I left Tobermorry, early in the morning, to head for Erraid, the Sun was splitting the sky but, sadly, it had become very dull by the time I got to Knockvologan (and it had started to rain by the time I got back to my van after my visit to Erraid). This has resulted in the photographs I took (see below) being a bit duller than I’d hoped they’d be - but that is the west coast of Scotland for you.

Iona is a jewel of an island - and I can see why Saint Columba decided to stop there and make it the centre of his mission. If Erraid is a chunk of land chiseled out of the south western tip of the Ross of Mull then Iona is a splinter off only the western tip (only the eastern coast facing Mull). It is reached by ferry from the village of Fionnphort. When I first went to Iona (with my parents, a long, long time ago) it was only a passenger ferry that was in service. I cannot remember what type of ferry was used on my second visit in 1992 (with JT, my girlfriend at the time) but it is now a small car ferry. That, given how small Iona is and it’s lack of roads, sounds ominous - but not so. Only inhabitants, the disabled, and possibly bin and delivery lorries, are allowed to take their vehicles across. From what I’ve read this was not the case when the car ferry was first introduced - but the inhabitants quickly discovered that allowing all cars to cross was going to ruin the nature of the island and cause constant traffic jams. With people in the more populated areas of the UK taking their cars to the shops a hundred yards away, I can’t understand why they thought, even for a second, that allowing easy car access for everyone would work!
Iona lies about one mile west of the western end of the Ross of Mull, across the Sound of Iona. It is about three miles long (north to south) and about a mile and a half wide at it’s widest. Although there are some slightly hilly and rocky areas the overall impression is of a low lying, lush green island surrounded by a rocky shore dotted with many white, sandy coves and beaches lapped by blue and turquoise waters. Even the grass on the rocky areas is the same lush green as the lower areas. The southern third of the island is fairly wild and uninhabited - but the general feeling of peace and quiet overrides everything else.The island has a population of about 150 (although different articles I’ve read indicate anything between 120 and 180 - perhaps the latest 2022 census will clarify that). Although small, Iona offers many facilities for the visitor. This includes a couple of hotels (with restaurants), cafe, guest houses, bed & breakfast, hostel, campsite and a golf course. There is also bike hire and a taxi service (although how COVID might have affected all of those is not known to me - so it might be worthwhile checking out the current facilities before getting there). There are also various historic buildings to explore - the most obvious, of course, being the abbey which is on the site established by Saint Columbus way back around 563AD. The abbey includes the burial sites of many of Scotland’s early kings. The road from the ferry runs north towards the abbey and then a bit further towards the northern tip of the island, and my maps indicate that there are many paths which would allow easy access to the more remote corners of the island. The road also runs south for a short distance before it turns and heads over towards the west coast - with more rocky coast and white sandy coves lapped by those turquoise waters. Beautiful and peaceful at all times but a paradise when the Sun is shining.
The main income would appear to be crofting and the tourist trade. There might also be some fishing but I can’t find any information online regarding the island’s income sources. Iona is also famous for it’s marble - a lovely, mainly light green stone, with some darker green and white mingled in. It’s my understanding that the seams of Iona marble have just about run out to the extent that it no longer brings in any income to the island, although bits can still be found if searched for. These are mainly turned into jewellry and the scarcity of the stone possibly explains the high cost of those items.
It would appear that Iona is also home to corncrakes. These birds are in great danger of extinction and it is good to see another location where they continue to thrive. I also read that Iona hosts puffins but I have to wonder if that is true as puffins normally nest (when they do) on uninhabited, rocky islands. This needs further investigation. There are various other birds to be found on Iona like; skylarks, shelducks, terns, oystercatchers, goldfinch, gannets and several others that dedicated bird watchers might find of interest. Other than birds, you might also spot otters in some locations and seals just about anywhere in the surrounding waters. I could not find, in my research, mention of any rare plants or flowers and I can only presume that there are none on Iona that can not be found on Mull or other west coast islands. Like Erraid, and most other west coast islands, Iona is mainly treeless, but it does have a few - but very few and what few there are seem to be scattered around some of the houses in the village centre.
Although I went to Finnphort on my last Mull trip, I only continued down to Erraid and did not cross over to Iona this time. That’s partly because I was running to a schedule but also partly due to having been on Iona twice before. A good enough reason by itself given my time and cost constraints and as I’m trying to complete my bucket list of visiting islands I’ve not visited before - but there is an associated reason. During my first trip with my parents, a ferryman told us that there was a local saying: if you visit Iona once then you’ll visit three times before you die! Having been twice, and now aged over 70, I’m avoiding making that third trip! It’s not that I’m superstitious - but why take the chance?

As always, there are many more detailed and specialised articles, on both islands, to be found on the Internet.

As usual, some photographs of Erraid and Iona follow - but note that the ones of Iona are from 1992 and the ones of Erraid were taken on a dull day.