Marie Brown gives us a rundown of her family island-hopping adventure in Mull and Iona, with lots of recommendations for what to see and do there if you have children.
Last year we went on our first ever trip to Mull. As we were booked onto the midday ferry from Oban, I set off from Glasgow early on the Friday morning to manage the two-and-a-half-hour drive up the A82 with my children. My husband was driving up later after work and we were also meeting friends there. The A82 follows a spectacularly beautiful route which can be enticing to pull over and enjoy the views but we had a schedule to stick to and managed only one comfort break. As such, we arrived in plenty time for our ferry!
The sailing was just under an hour so we managed to get to the restaurant and order some fish and chips for lunch which went down a treat. By the time we had eaten and had a walk around the boat it was time to get off. An uneventful and fairly steady crossing. Our accommodation for the weekend was to be one of the shielings from Shieling Holidays, just a 5-10 minute stroll from the ferry terminal at Craignure.
Our shieling was one of the larger available and comprised of a large white tent with two bedrooms each containing camp beds, a shower and toilet, a kitchen with gas cooker and washing up facilities and even some living space with a gas fire. As seasoned campers we were suitably impressed with our surroundings and the available facilities within the shieling and so took the rest of the day to enjoy the views from the campsite and nearby harbour.
Much to my delight there was a day-room type shieling with TV and wood burning stove. The perfect place to catch up with friends and share some wine while the kids ran about and/or watched TV. At around 7pm we walked down to the harbour to meet my husband. With a fair breeze building and some heavy clouds we checked the forecast – rain. All weekend. Ach well, they say there's no such thing as bad weather, just unsuitable clothing, and as we holiday in Scotland a fair bit we came prepared for all seasons.
Saturday's plan saw the menfolk drive up to Tobermory for a game of rugby being shown in a pub while the women and children drove to Fionnphort (pronounce Fin-i-furt) to catch the ferry to the small island of Iona. It seems like I underestimated the journey time down the winding and often single-track road to the ferry terminal – I hadn’t thought to consult anyone or anything, I just assumed looking at the map it's about the distance of Tobermory so should take the same time.
Turns out not to be the case (please check journey times especially if you have a ferry to catch! Google maps seems to offer realistic journey times I’ve found). It took about 1 hour and 15 minutes to travel to Fionnphort and it’s worth every minute. A slow and beautiful drive allowing you to see vast expanse of land with rising mountains all around.
We lucked out and found a ferry waiting at the pier to go (I imagined the short crossing would be going every 15 minutes or so but unfortunately that's not the case – please check crossing times) and rushed to get our tickets and board our second CalMac ferry of the trip. The crossing, though short at 22 minutes, was pretty wild. Dark clouds rolled towards us and we were lashed by wind and waves as we rolled on over the short space of sea. When we alighted on Iona we made for the pub for some lunch and figured that due to the weather we couldn’t do much except spend the day in the pub – never a bad idea! However as the boys traveled over an hour or so later the clouds cleared and we were rewarded with beautiful blue skies and incredible views of the island.
We walked to the abbey and strolled round the ruins and gardens in the area. It was most certainly one of my personal highlights and I long for the day when I can go back. We all felt much richer having experienced Iona in all her glory and traveled home to our shieling later that day very slowly and very happy with our day trip.
Sunday arrived and an excursion to Tobermory for everyone was next. We had plans to go to the cheese factory, view the coloured houses on the sea front that were filmed for the CBeebies programme Balamory and I’d heard that the aquarium was worth a visit too. Unfortunately the cheese factory wasn’t fully open (being Sunday) but we got to roam in the closed café and stroll about the farm.
Within Tobermory we went to the pier for some lunch and could see the beautifully colourful seafront houses from here. A great treat for my young CBeebies fans! But the highlight of our day was Mull Aquarium. An unassuming building with no pomp or ceremony gave us an amazing hands-on experience with many incredible sea creatures. At one of the talks we were allowed to hold urchins, many varieties of starfish, plus others I can't even remember. There were interactive sand displays for the kids and equipment available to play with – a real learning experience for them. Our ticket meant we could come and go all day if we wanted to so we were in there twice that day and the kids loved it as much as I did.
We drove back to Craignure for our late ferry back to Oban and a long drive home. We were all pretty shattered after a fantastic, blustery and honest experience on Mull and Iona.
If you fancy an island-hopping adventure to the Isle of Mull, simply check the CalMac ferry timetable - there's regular ferries from Oban all year round.
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