Day 8: Hebrides Isles

Weather: Sunny

This morning we had a full Scottish breakfast consisting of Bacon (ham), link sausage, poached egg, fried bread, tomato and baked beans. It was very good!

Next we decided to take a tour. We took a ferry to the Isle of Mull. It took 40 minutes and we passed an old light house and a castle.

We docked at the pier at the Isle of Mull where our tour bus was waiting. Our driver, Adrian, entertained us with history and stories all the way across the 38 mile-long isle. One funny story was:

    'When he first came to the isle he asked a local resident how far it was from Craignure (where we docked) to Fionnphort (where we caught the 5-minute ferry to the Isle of Iona). The bloke said, "I don't know". Adrian said, "What do you mean, you don't know. You've lived here all your life." The bloke said, "All I know is from Fionnphort to Craignure is 38 miles." So Adrian said, "Well it must be 38 miles from Fionnphort to Craignure." The bloke said, "No, not necessarily. It's just a wee bit from Christmas to New Years but a long time from New Years to Christmas." '

The Isle of Mull is the 2nd largest of the Inner Hebrides. It is also the wettest, but we lucked out. It was a beautiful sunny day with NO RAIN! It has a population of 2500. It is very desolate in parts but the moors and small lochs and, of course, the sea made for beautiful scenery. It is home to 4 castles but we only passed 2 of them.

We saw sheep (of course), red deer, golden eagles and lost of bluebells. We saw highland cows which were the funniest animals I have every seen. They have long hair on their heads which look like bangs. We were not able to get pictures, however.

Once we reached Fionnphort, we took, a small ferry to the Isle of Iona, the home of Christianity. It is 3 miles long and about 1 mile wide. Upon leaving the ferry there were a few shops, cottages and one small restaurant. Further up the path were the remains of an Augustinian Nunnery with pretty gardens still in bloom.

Further up the hill was the Iona Abby. Apparently, St. Columba, originally from Ireland, was banished and fled to Scotland where he landed on the Isle of Iona. He settled a village (only some remains left) in 563 AD. He established a monastery and was responsible for the conversion of more or less all of pagan Scotland as well as much of northern England.







Three crosses were erected in front of the Abby and what is left of the original crosses are on display in the museum in the Abby.

The Abby dates from the arrival of the Benedictines around 1200 and was extensively rebuild in the 15th and 16th century. It has been completely rebuilt with many of the original stones, etc.

We returned to Oban by boat around 5:30 pm and found an Internet Cafe. We caught up on email and later, went to dinner at a nice restaurant. I had local lobster (1/2 of one). We reorganized our luggage and packed the car. I opened our door to take my suitcase out to the car and a cute little gray cat ran into our room. I think he was just as surprised to see me as I was to see him.

Slainte! (Cheers!)