If you have time it’s well worth checking out some of the shots already in the group. But the thing that really caught my eye came from a tweet from Mull&Iona saying “Mull & Iona Flickr map is coming together. Always need more so join in.”

Maps are a great way to add context to a photo. They also act as a superb memory jogger, helping you to better recall where you were and what you were doing when it was taken. That’s why we try to map every picture we take when we’re on holiday in Mull. It’s also why I plan to add a few of my own photos to this map as we’ve built up quite a collection of images over the years.

A new Mull & Iona Flickr group is a blog post from Ralph @ Beach House Self-Catering, Isle of Mull

1. Isle of Mull: Iona – Great beaches

Until you’ve seen the sand on the beaches of Iona you won’t believe it. The beaches are pristine with azure seas filled with the healthiest looking seaweed and kelp. There are a succession of small sandy coves on the shoreline in front of the main road in Iona. On a sunny day these look stunning and quite at odds with what you’d expect of the Scottish west coast.

But one word of warning… beautiful as it is, there are still issues with soil pipes running down to the beaches here from the dwellings. To avoid the occasional bad odour, best to steer well clear of the areas where the pipes come down to the shoreline.

On the plus side, given that Iona is just 1.6 kilometres wide (and about 5km long) it will only take about thirty minutes to trek across the island to the utterly pristine sands at ‘Camas Cuil an t-Saimh’ or in English, ‘the bay at the back of the ocean’.

This is well worth the modest effort involved as it’s a great beach for a picnic and relaxing with uninterrupted views whilst the kids play on the shoreline.

2. Isle of Mull: Iona – Good food

Options for eating on Iona are pretty limited. If you’re not coming with a pre-prepared picnic there are two surprisingly well stocked shops where you can load up with snacks and drinks. However, if you’re looking for something a little more refined there’s nothing more pleasant than a visit to The Argyll Hotel right at the shoreline.

The Argyll has been on the go for over 140 years and is a popular place with people into hotels rather than self-catering. But what we know it best for are the excellent meals on offer, with many of the ingredients being grown on the island in the hotel’s very own Organic Garden. It’s soils are kept fertile using using local seaweed.

An alternative option in the St Columba Hotel which also offers meals for island visitors or Martyrs Bay Restaurant and Bar to the left of the pier.

3. Isle of Mull: Iona – History

This is possibly stating the obvious but in any case… Iona is a hugely significant part of early Scottish history. Iona Abbey was a significant centre of learning which was founded back in 563AD by Colm Cille (better know as Saint Columba today) after he was exiled from Ireland. For more visit the history section of the Wikipedia Iona entry. There’s also the St Columba Centre in Fionnphort which interprets the life and work of St Columba and the religious community he founded.

The Abbey buildings have a fascinating history and are well worth a visit. Buried there are a raft of ancient kings of Scotland as well as the Labour political leader John Smith.

4. Isle of Mull: Iona – Everything is a walk away

Touched on earlier, Iona is an easy bite-sized morsel of interest and entertainment. Nothing takes long to get to, be it the Abbey, the hotels and local shops, or over to the other side of the island and the beaches there. Also, given its relative flatness, it’s a great option for fairweather cyclists who don’t want to strain too hard. Cycles can be hired at the Pier.

More committed two-wheel fans can find further cycle resources for Mull here.

Q. Got any favourite things you liked about Iona? If you do please share below.

Isle of Mull Top Tips: Four reasons to visit Iona is a blog post from Ralph @ Beach House Self-Catering, Isle of Mull

Isle of Mull beaches. No.1 – Carsaig

Carsaig [MAP] is a stunning little spot on the southern coastline of the Ross of Mull. Like a lot of beaches on Mull it’s a single track road to the beach which has seen better days. The road down to Carsaig is fairly steep ending in a spot where a few cars can park. Facing the sea head to your right (west) along the track. After a short while you get to the bat where there’s a pretty good sandy beach.

However, if you carry on along the shoreline you reach the stone flats. This is an ancient seabed that’s turned to a soft porous rock and it’s absolutely stuffed with fossils which kids can literally pull out of the soft sand with their bare fingers. In addition there are some beautiful natural salt-water pools filled with all sorts of colourful life.

Carsaig is a great spot for a sunny day… and yes they do happen occasionally

Isle of Mull beaches. No.2 – Uisken Beach

Uisken [MAP] has a long stretch of white sand facing south towards the island of Colonsay. You get to it by taking the high road out of Bunnessan and, at the brow of the hill turning left and following the road over to the southern edge of the island.

For the hardier amongst you this is a great swimming beach as it’s got a long shallow incline. On summer days if you catch the tide coming in over the sand, the heat escapes from the warmed beach into the water coming up the shore, making it great for paddling or swimming.

For inveterate beach-combers it has loads of rocky outcrops full of small pockets of water, making it ideal for kids and grown ups who like to potter around finding crabs, eels, etcetera…

It also offers some stunning views. Well worth a visit and parking is reasonably good here with plenty of room for cars. To the right (facing the sea) the next beach is Ardalanish Bay. This is another white sand beach, well worth a visit.

Isle of Mull beaches. No.3 – Knockvologan

Knockvologan [MAP] is the beach formed between the Mull mainland and the island of Erraid, made famous by the author Robert Louis Stevenson in his novel Kidnapped. To get here drive to Fionnphort and take the road going past the St Columba Centre. This ends at the Knockvologan farm, where it’s possible to park in a walled area set aside for visitors. It’s then a 300 metre trek down a rocky farm road to the beach.

Again, this is one of these places which looks quite out of place in Scotland. White flat sandy beaches stretch out everywhere at low tide, with little stone outcrops dotted between. If you catch the tide coming in or going out it’s quite a sight as, with the beach being so flat, the water moves very fast in each direction.

But it’s relatively safe as the incline is such that you would have to wade out a very long way before it becomes deep water.

Isle of Mull beaches. No.4 – Scoor Beach

To get to Scoor beach [MAP] you take the road to the left of the A849 (heading west) 50 metres before crossing the stone bridge on the way into Bunessan. Follow this side road past Loch Assapol until you head uphill. At the top of the hill as it bends to the left (there’s a wildlife sign at the point where you stop) you can park to the side of the road and follow the path through the fields. This 5 minute trek takes you down to a long bay of white sand surrounded by steep rocky outcrops offering loads of fun for adults and kids alike who want to rock hop… just be careful as it’s a long way to go if you break an arm or leg!

Isle of Mull beaches. No.5 – Fionnphort Beach

Getting to Fionnphort beach [MAP] is fairly straightforward. Just follow the A849 until it runs out of road and you’re there. Park at the St Columba Centre where there’s no charges and head down to the beach following the path.

Because of the position and shape of Fionnphort’s bay it can catch a huge amount of seaweed at certain times of year – especially after stormy weather. This is great material for gardeners but can be a bit smelly to traverse to get to the beach. Fortunately it’s at the top of the bay and you’ll forget about it as soon as you gaze across the sound to the Island of Iona a short distance offshore.

Aside from the white expanse of sand, two distinct aspects of this beach are the surrounding pinkish rocky sides which were once cut to make stone slabs adorning buildings across the world and the huge boulder sitting at its centre, with a massive crack down the middle of it. This is a mini-me rock-climbing adventure for small and big kids alike who can climb up between the two halves of the boulder and sit on top.

If it’s a low tide you can head to the far north west corner of the beach and continue through to bays further along the coastline, offering lots of rocky outcrops between the sand for hours of distraction as you rummage through rock-pools and jump over the pink stone.

If the tide comes in just head up the hill and walk overland back to Fionnphort.

Q. Have you got a favourite beach at this end of the Isle of Mull which you’d recommend to others visiting the island? If you do please let me know below.

Isle of Mull Beaches – Top 5 on the Ross is a blog post from Ralph @ Beach House Self-Catering, Isle of Mull

We’ve still no idea how or where this plant made its way into the grounds of Beach House, our self-catering farmhouse on the Ross of Mull (that’s the bit that juts out to the south going towards the island of Iona). Our best, and only, guess is that the seed was transported to our ground by a bird as there’s no other known outbreaks of this foreign invader close by.

Anyway, this video gives you the update….

The Japanese Knotweed saga continues at Beach House is a blog post from Ralph @ Beach House Self-Catering, Isle of Mull

Previously it was impossible for us to do the changeovers on a Saturday or Sunday. But as of now that’s all changed. If you were put off because of the Friday changeover, that’s now a thing of the past.

So if you liked the idea of our self catering former farmhouse but didn’t like the Friday to Friday week, it’s from Saturdays from now on. Just go check out our availability calendar and see for yourself.

We’ve changed the booking days is a blog post from Ralph @ Beach House Self-Catering, Isle of Mull

Then nothing…

But you can’t keep a good subject out of the media for long, so it was little surprise to see Mull and its islands reappear on last night’s “Three Men go to Scotland“. It was a bit of a rambling show where the editor had clearly played pretty fast and loose with the order of the footage. It seemed to allow the presenters, Rory McGrath, Griff Rhys-Jones and Dara O’Briain to hop between Mull and the mainland as if they were in a Tardis rather than a beautiful old sailing boat.

But in the limited time available for the show the three protagonists managed to spend time in Duart Castle learning about Clan MacLean. It then jumped back to the mainland to visit Inverawe smokery and a spot of scallop diving just outside Oban harbour before returning to Mull to go check out the always impressive Fingal’s Cave on the island of Staffa.

It was then on to the Ledaig Distillery (or Tobermory Distillery if you prefer). Rory McGrath was on a blagging mission to ensure an (un)healthy supply of the local brew, before heading off from Tobermory and around the Ardnamurchan headland to the north, despite a false start when they caught the boat’s propeller in a local lobster pot just outside Tobermory bay.

Clearly they shot quite a bit of footage on Mull that didn’t make it to the finished programme as Griff Rhys-Jones mentioned visiting Ulva which didn’t make it into the final edit. It would be nice to be able to see the material that never makes it to the final cut on the BBC’s iPlayer website, rather than being forever lost for lack of time in the main TV show.

But, just like the buses, there was more on Mull this festive season in the form of the Springwatch Christmas Special. Towards the end of the 90 minute show the programme revisited RSPB Warden Dave Sexton who monitors the eagle population on Mull.

It seems that the BBC has a wildlife fund which contributed cash in 2007 towards the eagle revival programme on the island and Dave explains how the money has helped towards the overall success of the project. It’s well worth viewing this segment before the catch-up service on the BBC iPlayer site expires.

More of Mull on the TV this Xmas is a blog post from Ralph @ Beach House Self-Catering, Isle of Mull

Check out Mull Events on Facebook is a blog post from Ralph @ Beach House Self-Catering, Isle of Mull

But as we complete the first decade of the 21st century, you’d think that forcing kids to commute for over an hour to get to school would be a little much to expect when they already have a perfectly functional classroom in their community. Yet that’s precisely what’s about to happen as the Ulva Primary School (which is on Mull but right next to the island of Ulva) is slated for closure, meaning kids will now have to take a school van up hill and down dale to go to the next nearest in Dervaig, itself eight miles from Tobermory.

It’s a fairly arduous daily task for both driver and kids. Potentially over two hours of round-trip commuting to and from the school via a route that Argyll and Bute Council thinks will be passable in winter — which is a whole debate in itself.

This issue has been very smartly highlighted by the Save Ulva Primary School campaign, who decided to illustrate the issue by filming (and speeding up) just what’s involved in transporting kids all the way from their homes up to Dervaig… and it was captured on a good day with little traffic. What would it be like, you have to wonder, when it’s snowed under or there’s a lot of traffic on these single track, poorly maintained sections of road?

Now let’s just think about this from a cost/benefit perspective for a second. There’s the cost in fuel and in paying for the time of the driver. That must all surely add up? There’s also the loss of part-time employment to the area of three staff. Then there’s the environmental and very obvious safety issues of sending a van full of small kids up and down a less than ideal road. Then there’s the question of how the loss of this amenity will affect the local community it currently serves. That’s one that’s impossible to put into financial terms.

It does make you wonder if the council, in its enthusiasm to close a vital rural school to ‘save money’, may actually just be shifting around the numbers from various spreadsheets but, in the end, not actually saving enough to justify the closure of a vital community resource? It may save on the education budget, only to pop up on the transport one or some other line item in other departments. Have the wider implications of this decision really been thoroughly considered in this plan?

OK, so this isn’t so much about why the island of Mull is a beautiful holiday destination (which it is!). But part of Mull’s popularity lies in the people that choose to live there and have helped to make the island the appealing holiday destination that it is. If the council takes a short-term view on ways to save money and cut costs — which may be smoke and mirrors in any event — then it could be damaging a vital part of what helps maintain the vibrancy and appeal of the island for residents.

Maintaining services in rural island communities is always going to be more expensive than in a densely populated city. But if we want our islands to have a healthy future, it won’t be helped by short-term cost-cutting of services that are a vital lifeblood and part of the solid foundations of wider island life where the knock-on effects of any cuts will be much more keenly felt.

Anyway, if you’ve ever visited the Isle of Mull or you agree that there’s real reason for Argyll & Bute Council to reconsider this closure, you should head over to the campaign website and sign the online petition, which is currently at 395 signatures.

And all because some bankers wanted to make a quick buck and very nearly brought our economy to the brink of disaster. We now own these banks but have no money to pay people who actually contribute something to society and our future generations. Everyone else is footing the bill, including, it seems, the kids of Ulva Primary School.

The closure of Ulva Primary on Mull… how bankers blew up island life is a blog post from Ralph @ Beach House Self-Catering, Isle of Mull

Following that link I discoved some beautiful images that Richard had captured back in 2009 of otters doing what they like to do. Mind you, they are nothing if not elusive and usually difficult to spot as you drive by the coastline, often missing them gamboling on the shoreline unless you’re particularly eagle-eyed. Yet Richard perservered and found his target, capturing some fantastic images in the process.

His account of how he came to be on Mull is well worth a read, as he mentions that it was through pure fluke that he first spotted otters eating at Craignure, just as they waited to leave Mull at the end of their holiday, back in 2007. But that experience made him want to revisit Mull to capture these beautiful mammals on camera, which he realised upon a return trip in 2009.

You can see the results of his return to Mull on this blog entry.

Richard Peters’ Otter shots on Mull is a blog post from Ralph @ Beach House Self-Catering, Isle of Mull

Why am I mentioning this? Well local reporter Darren Parkin was recently up on, in and around the Isle of Mull for a seven day cruise on the Glen Tarsan, courtesy of The Majestic Line, owned by Andy Thoms and Ken Grant. Based in Oban and Dunoon the company runs a number of cruises around Argyll waters, one of which encircles Mull over six nights in, of all things, a converted fishing trawler!.

It’s certainly a far cry from the larger ocean-going cruisers which can really only dock at fairly large berths. With a converted fishing boat, it’s much easier to pop in and out of the ragged Mull coastline, stopping at the many smaller piers along the way. This is the trip Coventry Telegraph reporter Darren Parkin took and reports on for the paper.

It’s a good report, excepting the tired and over-used story about how Tobermory is also known as Balamory… yeah yeah enough already. But Darren then gets into his stride, writing an enjoyable piece that even made me wonder if I couldn’t squeeze in a cruise sometime. “Skirting the top side of Mull during the afternoon, the boat anchored in Loch Sunart later in the day as the sun was beginning to drift towards the horizon. There was time for a walk from rocky coastline, through shaded woodland and up a relatively easy ascent to behold spectacular views from the hills.”

So, if you’re planning to holiday on Mull, you could spend part of your time getting a quite unique view of a unique island, in an fairly unique manner… apparently the boats don’t even smell of fish any more

Ralph
Beach House Self Catering, Isle of Mull
Twitter: mullescape

Reporter recounts cruise round Mull in former fishing trawler is a blog post from Ralph @ Beach House Self-Catering, Isle of Mull