Most visitors to Mull arrive on the M.V. Isle of Mull, a modern
roll-on-roll-off car ferry which sails from Oban and can bring 1,000
passengers per trip to the island as well as cars, coaches and lorries.
The forty-minute crossing provides those on board with an enjoyable
opportunity of seeing both shorelines of the Firth of Lorn, as well
as that of the island of Lismore, as the coast of Mull draws closer.
Lady Rock, the tiny reef between the Lismore lighthouse and the
Mull shore, was the scene of a famous attempted murder by one of
the chiefs of Clan Maclean, who inhabited Duart Castle on the promontory
opposite. He bound up and left his wife to drown on rocks that he
knew would be flooded by the incoming tide. However, unbeknown to
Maclean, she was rescued by passing fishermen and taken to her father,
a great nobleman. When Maclean went to his father-in-law's castle
to tell him the sad news, she was presented to him alive and well.
Shortly afterwards Maclean himself suffered a violent death. The
island's romantic atmosphere fosters countless stories such as this,
many endowed with a kernel of truth.
Certainly the approach to Craignure pier is dramatic, the slopes
of Dun da Ghaoithe (2,512 ft) dwarfing the sheltered, richly wooded
bay. Opposite Craignure village is the mouth of Loch Linnhe, which
extends north-eastwards for more that forty miles, its upper reach
overlooked by the highest mountain in Great Britain - Ben Nevis
at 4,406 ft. On a clear day the mountain's massive shape can be
seen from many places on the east coast of Mull.
Leaving the jetty at Craignure, turn westwards to take the romantic
road that strikes across southern Mull to Iona in the extreme west.
A little more than a mile out of the village is Torosay Castle,
an imposing Victorian building set in beautiful grounds. Both the
castle and its grounds are open to visitors who may care to travel
the short distance from Craignure jetty by steam railway.
A
little further on from Craignure is the turning that leads to Duart
Castle, home of the Chief of Clan Maclean. Its commanding position,
as well as the aura of history that radiates from it, attracts many
visitors to its doors. The thirteenth-century keep has walls 14
ft thick, and the cannon mounted on them commanded the passage of
the Sound of Mull at its narrowest point.
Duart has had a stormy past: in 1691 it was sacked by the Duke
of Argyll, and after Clan Maclean's support of the Stuarts in 1715
and 1745 the castle was left in ruins until 1912, when it was restored
by the present chief's great-grandfather. Duart is open to the public
in the summer months; many fascinating relics of the clan's history
are on display, as well as a famous exhibition of Scouting.
The
Craignure-Fionnphort road next skirts the head of Loch Spelve, a
great sea loch unusual in having its access to the sea on its longer
eastern shore, so that in effect it is T-shaped. Its origins derive
from the cataclysmic earth movements that created Loch Linnhe, the
Great Glen and Loch Ness further to the north-east. If time allows,
pause here for a moment by the head of Loch Spelve. The small island
that you see to the south is Eilean Armalaig, where evidence remains
of fortifications built by the Macleans of Duart to protect the
slipways for their galleys, still to be seen on the loch shore opposite.
Legend tells how Lachlan Maclean, a sixteenth-century chief of the
clan, was warned that should he ever take his galleys anti-clockwise
round Eilean Armalaig he would suffer evil consequences. A proud
and haughty man, Lachlan took little heed of the warning and shortly
afterwards met his death during one of the periodic feuds with the
Chief of Islay. As he was about to lay the coup de grace on the
opposing chief, Lachlan was shot in the back by a hunchback that
he had scorned to have in his troop.
If you would like to visit Mull, most
of our trips go through Mull or you may wish to book the trip
below:
If you wish to make your own arrangements and want to include a cruise to Staffa or the Treshnish Isles travelling from Fionnphort, click here for timetables.
A
little further on from Craignure is the turning that leads to Duart
Castle, home of the Chief of Clan Maclean. Its commanding position,
as well as the aura of history that radiates from it, attracts many
visitors to its doors. The thirteenth-century keep has walls 14
ft thick, and the cannon mounted on them commanded the passage of
the Sound of Mull at its narrowest point.
The
Craignure-Fionnphort road next skirts the head of Loch Spelve, a
great sea loch unusual in having its access to the sea on its longer
eastern shore, so that in effect it is T-shaped. Its origins derive
from the cataclysmic earth movements that created Loch Linnhe, the
Great Glen and Loch Ness further to the north-east. If time allows,
pause here for a moment by the head of Loch Spelve. The small island
that you see to the south is Eilean Armalaig, where evidence remains
of fortifications built by the Macleans of Duart to protect the
slipways for their galleys, still to be seen on the loch shore opposite.
Legend tells how Lachlan Maclean, a sixteenth-century chief of the
clan, was warned that should he ever take his galleys anti-clockwise
round Eilean Armalaig he would suffer evil consequences. A proud
and haughty man, Lachlan took little heed of the warning and shortly
afterwards met his death during one of the periodic feuds with the
Chief of Islay. As he was about to lay the coup de grace on the
opposing chief, Lachlan was shot in the back by a hunchback that
he had scorned to have in his troop.