Vivthesetter, real name Paul from Warwickshire, was on his holiday break up on Mull this August and appears to have spent a lot of his time pointing his Nikon D300 at the bird life that covers the island. Of course it’s not all birds. He’s also got some charming images of interesting places and other wildlife dotted around various parts visited. He was successful in snapping a Minke Whale, Basking Shark, some excellent shots of a White Tailed Sea Eagle and, the one which really caught my eye, this Manx Shearwater, skimming so close to the surface of the sea, yet looking so laid back whilst doing so.

You can check out the rest of his photos from Mull in two Flickr sets he’s created of his visit to bonnie Scotland’s Inner Hebrides, called Isle of Mull 2010 and Isle of Mull Wildlife.

Thanks for sharing your pictures Paul.

Ralph
Twitter: mullescape

Not all visitors to Mull are looking for self-catering accommodation. In Colin Rennie’s ‘Marvellous Mull‘ in the Press & Journal, he writes about his recent trip to the island which involved a stay in Tobermory and the Western Isles Hotel. The hotel sits right above Tobermory to it’s northern edge. It’s been a while since I stayed as a guest. We had a big party of people there in 2003 when we used it as a venue for getting married. The weather was great (it was April so we were lucky) and it couldn’t have gone more smoothly.

Sadly, since then the hotel has been through a succession of owners, the latest being Richard Nealon and Esplin Chapman for the last couple of years. We popped in there for lunch over the summer and it’s still work in progress, but hopefully Richard and Esplin can return it to its heyday once again. I certainly hope so as it’s one of the best locations on Mull and certainly in Tobermory.

The one thing that would have improved Colin’s piece was a little bit more on the wide array of visitor attractions, things to do and places to eat all over Mull. Of course, there’s only so much information that you can squeeze into a print article in the newspaper. But you can read some of our home grown reviews of places worth a visit here.

As Colin sums up, “Although we stayed for only a couple of days in Mull, with the slow pace of life and the beauty of the landscape, it seemed much longer.” I’ll second that!

Ralph
Twitter: mullescape

If you’ve stayed at Beach House for a self-catering break you’ll probably have appreciated that it’s actually a family holiday home. We decided to let others come and enjoy the views and other delights Mull has to offer as, unfortunately, we can’t use it all of the time.

We have wonderful grounds immediately surrounding the house, with our own forest, burn and gardens. Problem is, a few years ago we got an unwelcome visitor, better known to gardeners as Japanese Knotweed. It’s anyone’s guess how it got there, but the current thinking is that some bird probably brought it in as a seed from another part of the island.

The problem with this plant is its incredible rate of growth and ability to spread through the ground rapidly. It now covers a significant corner of the garden, so we popped up this month to attack it. We’re using a treatment from Roundup called Tree Stump & Root Killer, with a big badge on it saying it kills Japanese Knotweed too. Lets hope so!

Anyway, you can see what we’re dealing with in the video above.

Ralph
Twitter: mullescape

OK, let’s just admit that having access to broadband on holiday can be a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand it’s great to be able to do work whilst cut off from the rest of civilisation and the usual distractions of everyday life. But, at the same time, if you’ve come to Mull to get away from it all, do you really want your email nagging for your attention or all your twittering colleagues and friends tweeting you from afar?

Yet there’s little doubting that it’s very convenient to have ready access to a WiFi connection whether for your mobile phone or your laptop. So many of the things we take for granted these days just do not operate without some way of tapping into the internet.

Very fortunately we’ve had broadband at Beach House for four years now. We’ve just got around to upgrading the router so that visitors can now enjoy a much stronger WiFi connection, thanks to BT’s Home Hub. This offers the older wireless G link or, for newer devices it can connect at the much faster wireless N standard.

Just don’t assume that faster WiFi makes the web faster too. Whilst we’re delighted we have broadband out here, it’s pretty slow by modern standards, at just a half meg. Though, for a bit of web surfing and email, you’ll really never notice.

Ralph
Twitter: mullescape

It seems that one of the UK’s more colourful Union leaders, Bob Crow of the RMT, has waded in to the debate on potentially privatising or outsourcing some of Scotland’s ferry routes.

There’s been recent debate of the options open to the Scottish government when it comes to how critical links, such as the Oban to Mull run, can be maintained and even improved. But there is equal concern that any new approach, such as putting specific routes out to tender, doesn’t simply result in poorer service and higher prices.

It’s this outcome that would be the worst case scenario, causing harm to Island life and the economy on Mull and Iona, much of which benefits from its popularity as a tourist destination.

You can see a previous post on this issue and some comments here.

Ralph
Twitter: mullescape

Just spotted this picture uploaded by Gemma Reece down in Shropshire who, presumably, has been holidaying on the Isle Mull recently. Anyway, I’ve seen dozens of pictures of Duart over the years. Taken quite a few myself as the CalMac ferry puffs past the headland just before Craignure harbour. Duart sits right at the very edge of the cliffs looking over the Sound of Mull. But this picture definitely stands out for me. It has a clarity and composition that’s either pure luck or real talent. I’m definitely envious. You can see a better and bigger version of this shot here.

Ralph
Twitter: mullescape

This one’s for anyone who has a particular love for the Isle of Mull. According to a recent report in Am Muileach, one of the island’s local weekly papers, the Scottish Government is asking for input into the Scottish Ferries Review. The consultation closes on the 30th of September so if you have a view on how Mull (or other islands) are serviced by ferries, this is your chance to make your views known.

The paper explains that the Review document can be found online and warn that it’s quite a lengthy document but has links to the online questionnaire. You do not have to answer all the questions however, so if you have a view, whether as a local, or as a past, present or future visitor, please take a moment to take part.

The big question is what happens to the vital lifeline of the Oban to Craignure route? In this review the Scottish Government has apparently suggested that they are specifically going to consider this single service being put out to tender. The whole point of tendering is to try to get competitive bids, but the reality is that there aren’t many island ferry routes that a private contractor would jump at — they’re just not profitable. The Mull route is however. So, for me at least, even the notion of breaking up the Caledonian Macbrayne routes seems ill-judged. If you take away one of the profitable routes from CalMac, they have even less cash to service the unprofitable island routes.

At the same time, the cost of getting to Mull, which for a standard car and passengers is about 80 pounds with two adults and two kids at the moment, might simply go up. After all, if it were to be tendered successfully the whole point of tendering for the bidder is to secure a route where they believe there’s money to be made. To secure it they need to keep costs to a minimum in the tendering process. The government can then absolve itself of the responsibility to the community of maintaining the vital lifeline to the mainland by getting a bid that takes that burden off its hands. But then the successful private company is going to be looking to make up its low tender offer by squeezing more profit from travellers.

In other words, I can’t see how the Oban to Craignure run can be hived off from the rest of CalMac’s routes without it being bad for tourists, which would then be bad for Mull’s local community. There’s a bigger picture here which says that for Island life on Mull, and elsewhere, to thrive the Scottish Government has to accept that it needs to treat Ferries as a vital utility that must be maintained in order to make these beautiful parts of Scotland viable over the long term. Short term cost-cutting through tendering off profitable ferry routes will, I think, ultimately depress other economic activity on Mull and make it a less appealing destination for tourists. No-one, surely, wants that?

We pay taxes so Goverment and local government can maintain our roads and motorways. Ferry routes are the highways to the islands and, as such, Government must be charged with maintaining them for the benefit of tourists, trade and locals. So, until it can be proved otherwise, it’s probably a case of… better the devil you know!

Ralph
Twitter: mullescape

Typically the most common question we get asked is… ‘is it free on these dates?” Well, as it turns out, on the Beach House website at mull-escape.co.uk you can actually find out whether it’s available in just a few clicks. This video below talks you through the process.

If you want to view the tutorial in full size go here. Availability and Booking Tutorial.

Ralph
Twitter: mullescape

Things I didn’t know before I watched ‘Mull – Eagle Paradise‘ using the BBC’s iPlayer catch-up service…

• Wildlife Cameraman Gordon Buchanan is from Mull
• The last Eagle was killed in the UK in 1918
• Eagles were re-introduced initially to the island of Rhum in the 60s
• Despite 140 birds being released in the 60s, the first Eagle chick to be born didn’t happen until 1985 on Mull
• Mull is particularly appealing to Sea Eagles because, despite the name, they rather like the plentiful supply of rabbits
• A third of all the sea eagles live on Mull

So, all things considered, I found this rather short BBC programme quite informative. With only 10 minutes there wasn’t much talk of some of the resistance to the growth in eagle numbers from farmers, who feel that these beautiful birds are predating lambs. More studies are being done but, for now at least, it’s uncertain whether eagles actively kill live lambs or are simply scavenging dead carcasses.

There’s no doubt that eagles have been very beneficial to tourism on the Island. At Beach House we’ve seen them floating around high up over Loch Scridain and the Ross of Mull. Of course, people visit the island for many reasons, but there’s no denying that the eagles add something special to the mix.

Ralph
Twitter: mullescape

Credit where it’s due. Just spotted this little snippet about a holiday home in Tobermory, towards the top end of Mull, which received a commendation at the Saltire Society 2010 Housing Design Awards. The house is up above the shoreline looking down over Tobermory Bay. We had extended family living up near there before this site was redeveloped.

If you love good architecture and imaginative use of space, you’ll enjoy checking out Bookend Cottage’s site. It also being in the self-catering business you might even want to stay there… but do check with us first

Ralph
Twitter: mullescape