Thursday 24 July was the date for one of
Mull's major annual events the Mull Highland Games which is held on the
Tobermory Golf Course. The event starts with a march from the Main Street where the Hereditary Chieftain Sir
Lachlan MacLean of
Duart and
Morven leads members of the
MacLean Clan accompanied by the Mull and Iona Pipe Band up to the Games Ground.
The Games ground in
Tobermory is recognised as one of the most beautiful in Scotland with views down the the Sound of Mull and the hill which provides visitors with a natural grandstand. The Mull Highland Games consists of a complete range of events from Traditional Highland Dancing,
Bagpiping and the Light Events which are mainly athletic based events including the 100 yards up to One Mile, Long Jump, High Jump and Triple Jump. Then there are the Heavy Events which include Tossing the caber, Shot Put, Hammer and throwing a weight over a bar.
This years games took place on a lovely hot sunny
afternoon which fortunately was made bearable be the easterly breeze blowing across the games ground. In the light events the notable performance of the day came from
Cambletown athlete Matthew Turner who won the majority of the track events.
Today saw the visit of HRH Princess Royal to Tobermory. The purpose of her visit was to officially open the new Harbour building Taigh Solais and the Pontoon system which have been constructed for the
Tobermory Harbour Association. The Princess Royal arrived by helicopter at 12.30 p.m touching down at the
Tobermory Golf Club adjacent to Creagorry. Monica was all ready to receive her Royal Highness for tea and scones but obviously the invitation must have been mislaid in the post.
Neil MacCallum from Fionnphort was on hand to pipe a welcome to the Princess Royal before she was given a guided tour of Harbour Building and Pontoon System and a chance to meet all the key people who were involved in the project. The Princess Royal then unveiled a plaque to commemorate the opening and then the junior Gaelic choir Coisir og Thobar-Mhoire sang for her a song in Gaelic. The Princess Royal was presented with a bottle of finest Tobermory malt whisky to mark the occasion before she made her way back to the helicopter.
The departure of HRH Princess Royal was then signal for the start of a day of events. Firstly the visitors and residents of Tobermory were treated to a RNLI Sea King Helicopter rescue exercise involving the Tobermory lifeboat which all took place in the Harbour. There was no shortage of local food on offer including delicious Inverlussa mussels and chocolate and guinness buns, I know it sounds like a strange combination but they were very nice - honest. The Lediag car park was also host to a mixture of community stalls including
Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust.
The next event to take place was a raft race organised by the RLNI. The race consisted of mixture of homemade rafts of all shapes and sizes, including a floating bed. Some of the rafts were far more sea worthy than others but fortunately the RNLI Sea King Helicopter was not required to make a rescue although most of the participants were throughly soaked on completing the course.
The evening saw a continuation of the celebrations with a open air live concert, first up were the
Isle of Mull Gaelic Choir to sing a selection of Gaelic songs. Next on stage after a very heavy downpour was Sam Sedgewick who was followed by Mull's own singing shepherd
Iain Thompson. Whilst the artists were performing on stage the Harbour Building remained open for visitors to take a look around. A large proportion of the ground floor is the new home for the
Sealife Surveys Visitors Centre.
This is a modern architect designed interior containing a huge marine viewing tank. which is home to a host of native marine species. The centre also has plenty of educational and informative displays about the rich marine and land wildlife in and around the Isle of Mull. There are also plenty of wildlife and eco based products on offer for visitors to purchase as a reminder of their visit to Mull. This of course is also the place to book your boat trips to see the dophins and whales that are abundant in the waters around Mull.
Meanwhile back on the stage the next performers were two local bands the first called The Sorren Maclean Band followed by The Ross Baird Band who both got an excellent reception from the people of Mull. The headline act for the evening were the Red Hot Chilli Pipers. The Chilli Pipers were winners of the Prime Time BBC One show 'When Will I Be Famous' with a blistering set Rock Bagpipes that astounded the viewers and critics!. I'm pretty certain Mull has never seen our heard anything quite like the incredible piping and astounding drumming to a mixture of traditional and popular rock and pop tunes, they defenitely put on a great show and were a fitting finale to a great day.
Having had a busy April and May Monica and I decided to have a long weekend away, fortunately the weather forecast was very good as the plan was to go camping to Fidden farm at Fionnphort. We had already checked that the seldom used tent was still fit for human habitation and we also managed to assembly together various items of camping gear and our sleeping bags. So Friday teatime with the car duly packed complete with our trusty bikes strapped to the back we headed to the south west of the island.
After a scenic journey in the splendid evening sunshine we arrived at Fidden Farm. We have camped here several times but before it was in our little campervan. Monica assembled the tent with ease and we were soon snug in our temporary home next to a glorious white shell sand beach dotted with pink granite rocks which are common in this area on the Ross of M
ull. We were seranaded to sleep by calling Corncrakes and the drumming of Snipe.
We awoke to blue skies an glorious sunshine, so after a hearty cooked breakfast we set off on our bikes to explore an area just outside Fionnphort called Kintra. The ride was easy going as most of the Ross of Mull is relatively flat. The little lanes were alive with the beautiful song of the Skylarks and the sharp call of the Stonechats. At Kintra we found lots of lovely beaches and rockpools to explore, many full of anemones, whelk, shells and various coloured seaweed and kelp.
In the afternoon we cycled back to Fionnphort and we joined Gordon MacCormick aboard the
M.V.Volante for a wildlife and sightseeing trip around the island of Iona. The trip took us around the north of the Iona and out to the island of Reidh Eilean where we saw Grey Seals and hundreds of Puffins together with Razorbills and Guillimots.
On Sunday we took our bikes on the short ferry crossing to Iona. It surpises me that Calmac charge for taking bikes aboard their ferries at a time when we are being continiously reminded of the environmental damage vehicle pollution is causing to the planet, surely we should be encouraging cycling as a method of transport. Having previously been to the western side of Iona we chose to cycle to the north. We left our bikes as directed by the signs and
headed across the dunes to the glorious sandy beaches. Whilst I swam in the the turquoise blue waters I couldn't help but notice the amazing metamorphic rocks which were by the shoreline. These rocks have been so altered by the heat and intense pressure that they appear as course grained rocks with differing coloured bands running through them. We returned to the campsite and that evening we were treated to a magnificent sunset. When the weather is good there can be fewer places better than Fidden Farm.
Saturday I was joined by a friend from Sheffield for a gentle cycle ride round the the north of the island. We set off from Tobermory on a cloudy dry morning and were soon climbing uphill past the
Tobermory Campsite and along the Mishnish Lochs and on past the end of Loch Frisa. We cycled on towards Loch Torr accompanied by a stonechat who was vociferously proclaiming his territory. We then started the steady climb up the windy road to Dervaig. The climb wasn't as hard as thought, it appears quite severe in a car with the numerous hairpin bends but on a bike it seems easier to negotiate. On reaching the top you are rewarded with fine views down to Dervaig with it's pretty Church with a white pencil tower. Before you know it your through Dervaig and stopping to identify the various wading birds in Loch a' Chumhainn. We carried on round the island with a slight diversion down to the small stone pier at Croig but alas there were no otters to be seen today so it was back to joi
n the B8073 and onto our Lunch stop at the
Carthouse Tearoom at Calgary. After a delicious bowl of homemade chunky vegetable soup and soda bread we freewheeled down the hill to be beach. We walked across the sand dunes and watched the sand martins darting in and out of their nesting site and then walked along the deserted beach.
We continued on round Calgary Bay looking out for bottle nosed dolphins and porpoises but to no avail, but there were plenty of wheatear on the rocks at the side of the road. We then climbed slowly up across the moorland into the wind and over to Loch Tuath with fine views to Ulva and Ben More beyond.
Our next stopping off point was the impressive garden of Lucy Mackenzie at
Lip na Cloiche. The garden is well worth a visit and Lucy also has an excellent selection of plants and cards for sale and is more than happy to show visitors round her gardens.
We carried on cycling along Loch Tuath past the magnificent Eas Fors waterfall which wasn't at it's best due to the shortage of rainfall on Mull during April and May. Our next little diversion was down to Ulva ferry the crossing point for the island of Ulva. After a quick look round for otters we continued on our way on the long steady climb round to Loch na Keal. We kept a look out for a rare bearded seal which has been spotted in the Loch on previous days but maybe it's now headed back to colder waters. We did however have a great views of a White Tailed Sea Eagle being mobbed by a pair of Buzzards as we approached the campsite at Killiechronan.
Next it was round to Salen for a well earned drink at the Salen Hotel before we cycled back to Tobermory and fish and chips from the
van on the pier. Our ride was over 60 miles long and took around 8 Hours and best of all I bet we only saw 30 vehicles on the road during the ride.
