Scottish Isles

The country of Scotland includes more than 790 islands. We visited five.

As well as the popular isles of Skye and Mull, we managed to get to a few of the smaller islands off Scotland’s west coast. Of course, each one was different and interesting in its own way.

We’d liked to have seen more Scottish isles but as we realised on the tiny island of Easedale one cold afternoon – huddled, sheltering from the showers and waiting for the ferry man to finish his lunch – we have 785 good reasons to return.

Isle of Skye

Skye is far and away Scotland's most popular island with visitors; it's easy to get to and around

The main attraction is the island's dramatic landscape

The famous Fairy Pools at the base of the Black Cuillin mountains

And a much less famous fairy pool; we'd stopped one day to admire a view and a local woman walking her dog told us about a hidden pool - 'it's a healing pool,' she said, 'with water of every shade of green you can imagine'

'Take that path down through the wood, past the bluebells and gentians and primroses and you'll come to the pool'

And we did 🙂

Elsewhere on the island, a path of flowers

And flowers for a princess - Tulip Diana

The coastline of Skye offers some spectacular scenery, like this

And this

Which led to a lot of this

But it was the island's mountainous geography we really wanted to experience

The Quiraing is one of Skye's best known walks; right from the start you know you're in for something special

The goal here is the pass between the peaks

The people on the track ahead give you an idea of the size of those rocks

We were going well until one wrong turn led us up to the top of this outcrop; it doesn't look like much but I was ready to call in the rescue chopper!

At least the view was pretty good from up there

Eventually we managed to scramble down to rejoin the path

And lived to walk another day

Easedale, Ulva & Mull

The pretty village of Tobermory, capital of Mull

The Tobermory distillery was established in 1798; it produces smokey whisky typical of the region

The most entertaining whisky tasting of our trip

Macquarie's Mausoleum - the tomb of Australia's first governor, Lachlan Macquarie

Macquarie may be buried on Mull, but he was born on the nearby island of Ulva

It's a small island with some lovely walks

Summoning the ferry from Ulva; slide the door open to let them know you're waiting

Who pays the ferryman? 🙂

The old, now flooded slate mines on Easedale, the smallest island we visited; for 300 years Easedale was the centre of the Scottish slate industry

Miners' cottages, built in the 1700s

The only way to access the island is via the ferry; unloading passengers and supplies

And on the island itself there are no vehicles so the only way to get around is by shanks's pony; wheelbarrows at the ready to get the groceries home

A couple of locals; the woman on the right had just been over to the mainland for a run (Easedale is too small for any serious exercise) and the woman on the left is the postie

Heading off on the daily mail run

There's another interesting thing about Easedale; each year the island hosts the World Stone Skimming Championships - no shortage of good skimming stones here

Kerrera

Kerrera is the island just opposite Oban; it's home to 45 people

The Kerrera ferry, the only access to the island; and Postie Pat heading back to the mainland after completing her morning round

We waited for the ferry with a lovely couple who'd lived on the island for many years; their son lives there now with his family and when we landed he was at the dock to pick up his parents

The main destination on Kerrera is the Tea Garden at the south end of the island; we opted to walk the long way round

And were rewarded with scenery like this

We'd really been looking forward to seeing Kerrera

Our daughter, Gracie, worked at the Tea Garden for a couple of months during her big trip a few years ago

She absolutely loved it and knew we would too

The way to the Tea Garden is pretty well sign-posted, and yet we somehow managed to miss this gate

We made it - eventually

It's a beautiful place run by a lovely couple, Martin and Aideen; many of these offerings are made from Martin's grandmother's recipes

It all sounded so good it was hard to choose (a few years ago this would have been Gracie waiting while the punters decided what they wanted) 🙂

And after lunch we opted for tea and scones and a delicious chocolate brownie; could it have been better? We think not.