Fionnphort, Fiddon & Salen

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The A849 crosses Mull West / East (or East / West if you fancy!) and we travelled westerly today until we reached Fionnphort which is the Ferry Port for Iona.


The whole route is through stunning landscape and beside a loch - Loch Scridain to be precise. The weather looked threatening as we progressed, but thankfully the rain held off.



Fionnphort was nothing remarkable, but it was of interest to see Iona just a short ferry trip away. The beach looked as if, on a sunny day, it might have been beautiful to picnic or sunbathe on. From here we drove a short distance to Fiddon. Another stunning beach with pink granite outcrops and a large white sandy bay.


Some of the rocks on Fiddon beach.


And a row of camper vans next to Fiddon beach. 

Just off the Fiddon coast is the island of Erraid. It is a tidal island one mile square in area which lies off the south west of Mull. It is connected by a beach at low tide to the Isle of Mull and it is renowned for being one of the driest and sunniest places on the west coast of Scotland. The island has a disused signal station for the lighthouses on Dubh Artach and Skerryvore and a row of cottages built for the lighthouse keepers which is today used by the community of the Findhorn Foundation.
For an hour or two either side of low water, it is linked to the Ross by a broad expanse of sand. 
The author Robert Lewis Stevenson was raised on Erraid, being a member of the great Stevenson Family, renowned for lighthouse engineering. 
In Stevenson’s “Kidnapped”, the hero, David Balfour is shipwrecked and comes ashore on the south coast of Erraid (Balfour Bay) at a sandy bay. In “Treasure Island”, Jack Hawkins chart bears a resemblance to Erraid. 
Erraid is now owned by a family from overseas, but is used by the Findhorn Community for most of the year. This group runs course and “retreats” and grows a large proportion of its soft fruits and vegetables. These gardens have now been expertly managed, on an “organic” basis for years and are of a very high standard indeed. 
Unfortunately for us, we arrived at the wrong tide time!


Loved this pink roadside sign

The following day we travelled north to Salen and had a wander along a Forestry Commission walk. The main attraction of this walk is the old graveyard of Cill an Ailein, housing some graves dating back to the Middle Ages. The earliest legible inscriptions date from the eighteenth century and one small stone commemorates a shoe-maker. On the rear of his gravestone is a hammer and a high-heeled shoe. 


One of the old stones with an interesting moss growth on it. 


It is amazing the number of odd gloves you can see around. This one was on a fence near the graveyard. 


Back at base, this peacock was unperturbed by our presence 


A lovely Harebell nearby on the roadside. 


Our neighbouring village of Iverlussa had a Mussel farm. No action this evening.


Later that evening this Grass Wave (Perconia strigillaria) was spotted on the road.



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