Day 14 – From the Outer to the Inner Hebrides

In which Sid and Doris find there really is always room for a Mini.

Today we go from Castlebay on Barra to Oban, switch ferries and head back to the Isle of Mull. Much of the day will be spent on the CalMac ferries on the Mull of Kintyre. So it is important that we get this straight: today’s music is not Paul Mc Cartney dirging on about Mull of Kintyre, mist rolling in from etc.

Imagine Sid and Doris in the Mini on the dock in the dark with the Barratlantic trucks waiting to load onto the first ferry of the day. The hotel has given us hot breakfast rolls to eat in the queue and this feels very good as dawn breaks. We are sitting on the dock of the bay, admittedly not in Sausalito California like Otis Reading but feeling pretty good and so that is today’s song.

CalMac loads us on and we settle in for four pleasant hours of scenery going by. Doris wonders if when we get to Oban we might get an earlier ferry to Mull. The connection just might work as the earlier ferry will leave at 13:00.

We dock at 12:42 but unload oh so slowly, finally getting out of the unloading queue at 12:57 – we can see the Mull queuing area 25 yards away.  The ramp has not yet been winched up, so we ask if we might get on. The ticket minder gets on the walkie talkie. There is room for a Mini.

The other cars are budged up, we squeeze in (“Just a couple of inches further forward sir, I’m worried about your rear light”) and they shut the door behind us at 13.01. Hurrah, though an hour seeing Oban would have been no bad outcome either.

So back up the way along the previous ferry route to Craignure. Why are we going to Mull? It is for nostalgia as Catherine navigated on the fearsome Mull Rally three times (twice with the splendidly named Magic McCombie in his Saab). The Mull Rally should have been this weekend – which would have filled every scrap of accommodation on the island – but sadly the rally is cancelled and so happily for us there is room in the hotel that is usually Rally HQ.

First we try to see Duart Castle six miles down a dead end road but the board that says it is shut is only a mile from the gates. Mmmm. Later we stop at a white painted church with a smooth, white painted tapering tower, more like a minaret than a spire. We decide we will find out more on our return.

Because meanwhile Doris wants to drive the fiendish roads, occasionally saying Perhaps that is where we went in the ditch. We delight in passing the hen houses [“Glen Houses” – D.] where we stayed for one event. Doris drives the Dervaig road and then all the north western loop. The road is unguessable and the most regular winner is the island’s postman. Each crest is followed by sumpguard-gouged Tarmac. Meeting a small bus is a bit of a surprise for all.

Looping back to Dervaig a bit of research on the church finds the architect was Peter Chalmers. Built in 1905 the exterior is quite plain with a pencil tower modelled on Irish watchtowers. The inside is Arts and Crafts influenced and more ornate than would have been usual in a Scottish church. The nave is pine panelled. The apse is brightly painted. There is stained glass by Stephen Adam, like Chalmers from Glasgow but having a local connection in that his wife was from Mull. The total cost to build was £1,200. What a shame it was closed.