Cristine Eastin

There are lots of reasons to visit the Isle of Mull off the northwest coast of Scotland.

Here are photos from my September 2018 trip and seven of my reasons.

HIKING

Excellent hiking trails, from Easy to Difficult, lace the island. I stuck to a couple Easy routes, but Ben More in the south of the island would challenge even seasoned hikers.

TOBERMORY

Tobermory is the main village on the island and has a chocolate-box-picture seafront.

STANDING STONES

There are several standing stone sites on Mull. These stones are 3-4,000 years old! See my previous post about the standing stones I visited.

DUART CASTLE

Just south of the ferry landing at Craignure, Duart Castle stands sentinel over the southeastern approach to the island. The castle’s embattled history is fascinating. Today the enemy is the damp, which the owner, clan chief Sir Lachlan Maclean, is determined to conquer.

IONA ABBEY

A ten-minute ferry ride from Mull takes you to the Isle of Iona, a site considered by some to be sacred and the location of where the Irish monk Columba landed in 563 AD to bring Christianity to Scotland. If I recall correctly (I wandered around while the tour was going on), nothing of the original monastery survives, but in 1200 a Benedictine monastery was built by a Viking raider. This was later destroyed during the Reformation. Today we see a restored Iona Abbey, rebuilt by the vibrant Iona Community in residence since 1938. The graveyard is one of the most impressive features with unmarked graves holding the remains of forty-eight Scottish kings, including MacBeth (died 1057) and his stepson, Lulach.

QUAINT VILLAGES

Dervaig was our home for a week in a lochside cottage. A short walk took us to the all-in-one village post office and store—the cutest little completely outfitted grocery store. As you can see from this photo, walking was preferable to driving into the narrow dead-end lane of the main street.

DRIVING ON THE LEFT

It’s a challenge! And really kind of fun. And your escapades of driving on the left make for good party talk when you get home.

ENCHANTINGLY BEAUTIFUL SCENERY

Here’s the sunset view from our cottage overlooking Loch Cuin in Dervaig.

Nuff said.