Isle of Mull, Staffa & Iona

When researching Scotland I found this Three Isles Tour that covered the Isles of Mull, Staffa and Iona. I was immediately interested and booked it. Unfortunately, the downfall of this tour (which I was prepared for) was how touristy it was. Neither Keith or I were really interested in how touristy this tour would be but were very interested in visiting these Isles.

Doesn't Keith look happy! Haha. The tour consisted of a bus, boat, and ferry ride. We boarded the ferry in Oban around 9:30am to take us to the Isle of Mull where we'd meet our tour. The ferry is a huge passenger/car ferry (bigger than the PEI ferries I think) that takes approx 45 minutes to travel to Mull. Once we arrive in Mull we were to catch our bus...yes, a tour bus! When we got off the ferry I'd have to say there were about 15 buses! The buses were covering the same tour we were taking as well as tours to the other side of Mull. Clearly someone is making a fortune off this place.

Mull is a good size island, and is the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides being 338 square miles. Unfortunately, approx 300 of those miles are single lane roads! These means long travel times when driving as you have to pull over into the scattered passing lanes when you meet a vehicle. Because of this a 30 mile journey took 1.5 hours! How crazy is that!? When the roads were built, it was too expensive to bring in the asphalt (or whatever the roads are made of, so they were built as single lanes to be cost effective. Although this may seem like a downfall, it is a beautiful island and adds to its peacefulness. We drove through mountains and by lochs (lakes) and glens (valleys), a few very small villages and miles and miles of untouched greenery and countryside.

The bus took us to Fionnaphort (small village on Mull - this picture is of Fionnaphort) where we met the fishing boat that would take us to Staffa. Staffa is an 33 hectare uninhabited island that lies 10 kilometers west of the Isle of Mull. The island is very unique and spectacular as it is formed entirely from hexagonally-jointed basalt columns. Here is a link to the information on it.

We spent an hour on the island checking out Fingals' Cave
and walking around the small island. Walking around the island took about 10 minutes! We also grabbed a seat on the rocks and had a picnic lunch of bread, cheese, and cider! It was great! Once the hour was up, we were back on the boat.




The boat ride coming over was about 30 minutes and was quite rough. Then trip back was brutal! Even being a fisherman's daughter I am not good with anything but calm seas. And this was far from calm! I have not been on a boat before in seas like this - it sucked and my stomach felt it. It was a long 45 minute trip back going against the waves. One poor little girl threw up right across from me/ Thank-God I was laying back and had my eyes closed or I probably would have been next! Haha.





The boat then dropped us off on Iona. . The first thing I saw when I got off the boat was beautiful white sand and clear blue water! I instantly fell in love with the island. We only had about 2 hours to tour around, so we checked out what we could, but it was nearly enough time to see everything we wanted to. The main place to visit was the Nunnery which is now stone ruins, and the Iona Abbey. The Abbey overlooks the ocean and Mull and is just amazing. It consists of a large cathedral, museum, gift shop and other buildings I can't remember the names of. We spent most of our time here as it is quite large, but visited a few gift shops as well. I would love to come back someday to visit the other side of the island and swim in the clear blue sea.

When our time was up we caught a small ferry back to Mull (10 minute ride). Here we met the bus and were on our way back to meet the ferry to Oban. When we arrived in Oban the ferry was a half hour behind schedule so we spent some time in the small tourist centre checking out the gift shop. Once we were back in Oban (around 7:30pm) we went back to The Lorne pub for dinner. After food and a few drinks we walked back to the B&B for rest and relaxation.

The pictures below are all of Iona. The first is where we arrived in Iona, the second is the lobster traps they use or lobster pots as they call them. The third is the Royal Mail bicycle for delivering the mail! I had to take a picture of it! The fourth is the ruins of the Nunnery, the fifth is the Abbey and the remaining two are various photos of Iona.