We had a great trip to Mull and Iona. The weather held out for 3.5 out of 4 days. Full-on sunshine. Like nothing I’ve seen before in Scotland.

We left Glasgow on Thursday afternoon for Oban. It’s a long drive through lots of very pretty but tiny villages along the way. The gale was in effect, our little car was drifting this way and that, but we made it without any major problems. Oban is quite a picturesque town on the water. We stayed at a lovely b&b called The Old Manse. Good choice. We wandered about the town for a little while, had a pint in one of the oldest pubs and then a spectacular seafood meal at Ee-usk on the north pier, the 2005 AA Scottish Seafood Restaurant of the Year.

Next morning, up bright and early for our ferry crossing to Mull. It was drizzling, but not raining… we arrived on Mull and followed a train of cars heading west across the base of Mull towards Iona. One by one the cars dropped off until it was just us left on the single lane road dodging the hair-raising driving by the locals coming towards us. Driving on Mull is an interesting experience. 95% of the roads are single laned, with passing bays every 200 metres or so, there is a lot of trust involved. You get used to it, provided you don’t have passengers in the back that scream everytime you go over a blind ascent…

After an hour and a half of driving, we managed to dash onto the foot-passenger only ferry to Iona. It’s only a very short crossing, but the sea was so rough, the ferry rocked dangerously back and forth for the entire journey. We arrived on Iona with still very shaky sea legs and sorted out the b&b at the local general store. There are some lovely b&b’s on Iona as well as two great hotels, it just depends on how much walking you want to do, and how much cash you have to spare. We chose the cheapest and closest to the pier, because I wasn’t sure I wanted to walk 2 miles with luggage if it was bucketing down with rain… Only permanent residents have the right to cars on the island so as a visitor walking is the only way to go. As it turned out the sun was shining so we could have walked to something nicer, but there you go, you never can tell.

We spent the afternoon visiting the Abbey, the old nunnery, all the teeny gift shops and taking a walk to the north point of Iona which in the sunshine looks like you could be in the Caribbean. Aqua coloured sea, with fine white sand, the only thing missing is some scorching heat. It’s absolutely beautiful. The island is peaceful, it has a good pub, and a few great restaurants. Definitely a rare gem in Scotland and somewhere well worth going a bit out of your way to get to.

Saturday we boarded an old fishing boat for a trip out to Staffa island. One of the Treshnish Isles, Staffa plays host to Fingals Cave – the one and the same that inspired Mendelssohn to write his Scottish Symphony and Pink Floyd to write a psychedelic number for the film Zabriske POINT (although it was later not used in the movie at all..). The cave is amazing. In fact the whole island is amazing. The volcanic mass of the island, shards of stone pointing upwards is incredible. I clambered up to the most northern point of the island, and sat on the cliff tops quietly waiting for the puffins to join me. The trip was highly recommended, low key, scottish and very interesting, much nicer than a huge touristy version.

In the afternoon we drove through some of the most majestic scenery on the west coast of Mull I’ve ever seen. So desolate, so quiet, but so beautiful. We arrived into Tobermory early evening. Although home to a distillery, a chocolate factory, a fish n’chip van that has received the gourmet accolade of inclusion in Les Routiers 2002 Guide, and the best cookies in Scotland from the ‘Island Bakery’, Tobermory is a village more famous for the setting of the tv equivalent ‘Balamory’ than anything else.

Unfortunately for us, pretty well everything in Tobermory is closed on a Sunday, so we didn’t get to visit any of the above, but we did manage a pint or two at the MishNish – a truly typical pub and a couple of lovely seafood meals. We stayed at the Failte Guesthouse right on the harbour which was wonderful (unfortunately they don’t seem to have their own website). A great location, an ample breakfast and lovely rooms, all at a very reasonable rate, definitely a warm recommendation from me. From Tobermory we took a drive around the north of Mull to Calgary Bay and back. This was the 1/2 day of rain we experienced but despite the weather, Calgary beach still looked very exotic. I can imagine in the summertime it would be packed with keen tanners and family oriented frisbee throwers…

Monday we were ready to leave Mull via a ferry crossing from FishNish to Lochaline. Again, we drove through some beautiful scenery towards Argdour where we took a second short ferry crossing to Onich before taking in the majestic hills of the Glencoe pass.

If you have 4-5 days to spend in Scotland – this is a fabulous trip. Some of the best scenery and so close to Glasgow you won’t feel like you’re spending the entire trip in the car.

Wonderful!

See more photos here