Scotland – Off to Tobermory

The other side of being at this altitude is that not only is it late when the sun goes down this time of year, but the sun rises very early. Light starts showing around 4:15am and sunrise is before 5am. I really enjoyed having my quite time outside looking at the area of the ocean known as the Inner Hebrides. This is an area of islands and land masses that have a very long history, and it was just amazing thinking we are able to be here at all.

This was to be our one day that we just drove the whole day. We did not stop for any gardens, hikes, or bird watching. We had to catch a two ferries this day. The first was a small ferry outside of Fort William across Lock Linnhe. It was a small ferry and only took about 7 minutes to get on, cross, and get off. The second ferry was the important one and would take us off the mainland to the Island of Mull. We were now driving through areas of the Scottish Highlands that you really can’t get to unless you are in a car. The roads are narrow in spots. Most Americans could never imagine roads that go on for miles that are really just one land roads with periodic patches off to one side of the rode. People just pull over to let people coming the other direction go by. This may sound strange, but these areas are very remote and there just is not a great deal of land to build wide two-lane roads. Everyone just gets used to it and everyone waves to each other and thanks each other as they pass. The one thing this does mean is that you are at best going to only average about 30-35 MPH on these roads and most of the day was traveling like this. Another little interesting note is how many castles there are spread across the UK. Scotland especially has many. Almost all of them are just shells of buildings and are really ruins, but you come across them so often you begin to not even take notice of them.

My cold reached its max this day so us just having to ride was a great benefit for me. I was nodding in and out of consciousness but was always so impressed with each view I saw. Most times Becky and I found ourselves just looking out one side of the car or the other just to take in all the views. We would stop sometimes to take pictures and enjoy a view along a loch or near a vista. We also started listening to the book Enigma by Robert Harris. We finally arrived at Lochaline to catch the ferry to Fishnish on the Isle of Maul. We got our car in the line to board the ferry and then grabbed some lunch at the little food shack. Somehow when they boarded the 2:25 ferry our car did not get on, but many others that showed up after us did. This meant we had to wait 50 minutes till the next ferry. Frustrating, but I just sat in the sunshine in the car and napped.

This second ferry of the day was wonderful. We were able to get out our car and go up top and watch as we crossed from Lochaline to Fishnish. It was chilly, but just such breathtaking views as we crossed over. We then were off the ferry and able to relax and drive the remaining bit to Tobermory.

This is such a quaint little town, or really burgh. The main street is along the Inner Hebrides and the entrance to the Sound of Mull and all the buildings along the main street are painted in bright, bold colors. It is almost magical how nice the town looks. The population is only about 1,000 people. We stayed at a the very nice Western Isle Motel. We had our meals in the dining room that overlooks the bay. We had a very nice dinner then we all walked down to the main street and each couple took off on their own. Becky and I found a nice path at the other end of main street that took us up to overlook the town. So relaxing.

Tobermory was established in the 1800’s but has a history to the 1500’s when a Spanish war ship sank in the harbor after fleeing from the British. The boat blew up and there are many legends to why and to whether the boat had a great deal of gold on it. Divers throughout the years, the most recent was in 2020’s, have found sunken ship parts, but no one has ever found any gold.