We began our day early, getting all packed up and checked out of our gloriously comfortable hotel in Glasgow to head out for our next tour with Rabbie’s to the Isles of Mull and Iona. It was an absolute zoo (including a lion mascot for some reason) at the bus station, but we finally found our van and driver, Tom, who was conspicuous in his purple tartan kilt. It was a long haul to get to Mull, but we made a few stops along to way to see sights, stretch our legs, use the restrooms, and refuel. We stopped first at a little town called Luss for a lovely walk on the beach of Loch Lomond. Tom has been playing Scottish music between his history tidbits so he played a beautiful rendition of a sad song about events at Loch Lomond.
Our next stop was at a glorious mountainous area called Glencoe, where we have been before, but it is truly a wonder to see (and a sacred place for me) and there Tom stopped at two places we hadn’t previously visited so it gave us really good views of different mountains that were a bit less crowded with tourists. One mountain we had not met before, which is considered a guardian or watcher to the range, was called Glen Etive, and it was really dark stone and beautiful. It was here that I asked permission to make beautiful photos of its image, offered it my greeting, gratitude and left some of my hair as an offering.
A lot of sad history lives in the land there, the site being the place of a massacre of clan against clan in a terrible betrayal. There is a range of three mountains there called The Three Sisters, whose Gaelic names are Ghearr Anoch, Anoch Dubh, and Beinn Fhada, and they are special to me. I approached them with reverence and respect, and sang a song of offering to them. I wish I had time to do this in each place we have gone, but it is what it is in a mixed group tour, so most of my praise to these lands has been silent. But the lands need our healing songs, and I do want to plan a dedicated pilgrimage here next time. A lot of the places I would like to see aren’t as easily accessible, so we may need a bit more planning time to make them happen.
We stopped at the Glencoe visitors centre for lunch and restrooms, but had only 45 minutes so we could make our way to the first ferry on time to stay on track for getting to Mull. We were able to walk a little bit after lunch for more views of the mountains and see inside a little replica of a straw and peat house that was likely what people lived in back in the day in this valley. It was really quite warm inside it! Hustling back to the bus, and Tom doing his best to get to the ferry, we missed it by mere seconds, but the crossing is only a five minute journey to the other side so with offloading and reloading we waited about 20 minutes to catch the next one. The journey to the next ferry was about 30-45 minutes drive away and we made that one right on time to queue up. It was a very chilly, wet journey so even though we almost always opt to stand outside on a ferry, it was just so cold and wet we went into the lounge. Back into the van, we were finally on Mull and made our way to the village of Tobermory, where we stay for two nights.
Not too much time to explore, we settled into our room, and our tour mate who is staying here with us came to ask if he could join us for dinner. So we walked down to the town and had the most delightful dinner at the MishDish Cafe with him, whose name is also John, who was born in Scotland but lives in Brisbane, Australia. The guys both ordered the salmon and mashed potatoes, and I had the Cullen Skink fish soup, all of which were delicious. We shared some chips and haggis balls, also super good!
We decided to have a wee dream of whisky at the adjoining bar afterwards, then shared a cab up the incredibly steep hills to our bed and breakfast. I didn’t sleep well, but eventually fell asleep for maybe 5 hours, so at least got some rest. The bed is too small for the two us who are so used to a king sized bed. An absolutely lovely breakfast from our host, Susan, at the Fuaran B&B, and now we are ready for our adventure today!
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