From the Isle of Staffa, the boat took us to the Isle of Iona. Iona is a little over a mile off of the coast of the Isle of Mull. The island is about 1 mile wide and 4 miles long. Most of the cars on Iona are owned by Iona’s few residents. So there are not that many cars. The main ferry between Iona and Mull looked like it could only take a couple of cars at a time. When I arrived on Iona, the weather had turned to an annoying windy rain. I went directly to the Iona Abbey and explored it while the weather past. The architecture of the old churches is always quite interesting. A black cat apparently lives in the Iona Abbey. The cat was sleeping and was not bothered by all of the tourists walking around.
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| Courtyard at the Iona Abbey |
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| Inside the Iona Abbey |
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| Iona Abbey |
The rainy weather stopped while I was at the Abbey. With the weather now good, I started walking north to check out the isle. I came across a trail to Dùn Ì. Dùn Ì is the highest point on Iona at 331 feet. I managed to hike all the way to the top.
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| Iona lambs and sheep |
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| Sheep on the north side of the island |
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| Iona Abbey from Dun I |
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| Looking south from the top of Dun I |
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| Looking north from Dun I |
From the top of Dùn Ì, I tried to find a path to the west coast of Iona. I kept running into fences. I found ladder stiles, but they kept me going in the wrong direction. I also kept running into extremely boggy land. It was still a beautiful hike though. I ended circling back around to the Abbey. By then I had about 40 minutes to kill before it was time to catch my ferry back to Mull. The rain had started again as well. So I wandered the “town” area until it was time to go.
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| View on my walkabout of Iona |
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| St. Oran's Cemetery |
It was rainy on the bus ride back across Mull. On the ferry from Craignure to Oban, there was still some rain, and it was also cool and windy. I still went out on the deck and took some pictures.
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| Duart Castle |
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| Lismore Lighthouse |
Once I was back in Oban, I went to the Oban Bay Brewery and had a pint of Ginger Jakey Amber Ale. I had bangers and mash for dinner. After the dinner, I still hadn’t had enough fun for the day. I walked up hill to see McCaig’s Tower. It looked too interesting to pass up. John Stuart McCaig started building the tower in 1897 to honor his family and to provide work for stonemasons during the winter months. Work stopped with only the outer walls built, when he passed away in 1902. The tower is now a public garden. The view of Oban from the tower is pretty good.
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| McCaig's Tower |
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| Inside McCaig's Tower |
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| Oban - ferry terminal and train station |
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| Oban and the Isle of Kerrera |
The posts for Wednesday, May the 8th are over, but there is still more to come from this trip…
5 comments:
Why did you keep running into fences and going the wrong direction? Were you wearing a blindfold or was the rain in your eyes?
Maybe it was the pints
WOW. 2 islands in a row of hiking to the highest point. :)
First, love your pictures. I plan to download them. Second, two questions. The small building at the cemetery---is that a chapel? Did you go inside? Love, Mom
It is St. Oran's Chapel. I did not go inside.
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