You know, I tried writing about this trip an organized manner in which I would take day by day or at least leg by leg in order, in the way I experienced it. But wow is that hard, not to mention boring. It’s hard not to start every paragraph with, “Then we went…” So I decided to be my usual organized: controlled chaos. That means I’m going to have posts about different aspects of my trip, rather than the day by day. Besides, I’ve already given you the run down, now for the fun stuff! Onto the islands
The Hebrides in Scotland consist of hundreds of islands,
with only about a dozen being inhabited. We went to the isles of Mull, Skye,
Lewis and Harris. I’m lucky that I’ve also been to Orkney, but that’s a tale
for another day. I’m not going to go into a lot of history of the Hebrides
because you can read this wonderful article by Lynne Warren with photographs by
Jim Richardson on the National Geographic website.
The Isle of Mull
After spending a few hours in Oban, we caught the 45-minute
ferry to Mull. I stayed outside pretty much the whole time, not wanting to miss
any of the lush scenery and Duart Castle.
Are ye of the Clan Maclean? This is
the seat of the clan, bought by Colonel Sir Fitzroy Maclean in 1911.
Mull is the second largest island in the Hebrides, with
Tobermory as its capital. Tobermory, also, is home to the aptly named Tobermory
Distillery. I’m going to do a scotch post coming up, so I won’t go into the
tour very much. Mull boasts amazing beaches, archeological sites, and you can
take a ferry over to Iona to see the Iona Abbey, all of which I will do on my
next trip. Unfortunately, the only scenery we saw was the quick drive to
Tobermory and our hotel.
But what a hotel! The Western Isles sits atop a hill,
elegant in stature and overlooking the bay.
I could have sat and looked at the
view all day. Well, I could have sat there, looking at the view and knitting
all day. We got there in time for a delicious dinner. Sounds simple enough, but
when was the last time you went to a restaurant where one of your choices for
the price fixe starter was duck pate with redcurrant jelly and an entre choice
was guinea fowl coq au vin? And with this view
As the sun set, everything started to sparkle
Everything about this hotel has a personal touch and invites
you to linger. The conservatory is bright and cheery, with the perfect view of
the bay.
The lounge is charming and what I would want from a 3-star, historical
hotel. There are different sitting areas with fireplaces and comfortable
couches and wing back chairs.
Some might consider it old fashioned, but my
romantic “I’m an American but I want quintessential British” imagination was smitten
with it. I felt as if I had walked into Hyacinth Bucket’s ideal hotel, and I
mean that in the nicest possible way.
Our room was simple and comfortable with large book of island
information and stationary, a well stocked tray of tea, shortbread, water,
and rubber duckies in the bath.
I can’t wait to go back.
Before the distillery tour, we explored the main street of
Tobermory, that runs the length of the bay. So many cute shops and friendly
shopkeeps.
Yes, this is a tourist place, but it didn’t feel like the tourist
trap that Oban did. (I don't mean that to sound so negative about Oban. It was lovely, but the yarn shops were closed because it was a Sunday, so I was a wee bit cranky.) Maybe because it was smaller or that there were fewer
people or that there were fewer shops so it didn’t feel like we were looking at
the same thing in every shop, whatever the reason, it was a lovely morning
stroll. We ended up at the Tobermory Distillery and sat looking at the boats
in the harbor to wait for our tour to start.
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| The building on cliff in the upper right is our hotel |
The tour was wonderful, but like I
said, I will get in to that later.
All too soon, it was time to catch the ferry back to the
mainland to drive to catch the next ferry to Skye.
Next up, the mysterious and rural beauty of Skye.
