Wednesday 26 & Thursday 27

The weather wasn’t too bad on Wednesday, the odd sprinkle of rain but nothing to put us off walking around the grounds and castle at Duart, ancestral home of the Macleans first thing. Fascinated to find the 20th century restoration was a project started when the then clan chief was over 70 and he lived some thirty years more and saw it finished! The walls are 2.6m thick which means some window spaces have intriguing uses, down in the scullery a draining board runs down the wall in one recess, elsewhere there’s a wooden lounger. The Searoom has the most wonderful views up Loch Linnhe towards Ben Nevis (covered in cloud) with long comfy window seats to enjoy it from. The tea shop is highly recommended for its traybakes and coffee.

From Duart we kept on driving around the island clockwise exploring several roads to nowhere then retracing our steps. The rewards were stunning views of sea and mountain. We picnicked overlooking Loch Spelve, hoped for afternoon tea in Fionnphort but were a bit late arriving and late afternoon enjoyed the drive back to Tobermory. The roads here, even A class ones, make those of County Down seem like motorways. Most are single track with passing/overtaking places, though it has to be said that are far fewer potholes than Northern Ireland’s roads.

As we trudged back down the jetty to the pontoons we spied a familiar figure and her dog Dubhie hanging around by the harbour office waiting for the laundry to finish. Like us Seonaid & Gus had sought shelter from the weather sailing down from Skye. Their boat Hurricane Jack was on a fishing boat mooring over on the town side. We chatted for a while, promising to catch up later.

We reached our berth just as a fishing boat came alongside. Kevin helped the husband and wife crew tie up, as it’s a long way down from the Queensberry’s deck to the dock. Having then exchanged the time of day with the usual boaty chat of where did you come from, what’s the weather like out there, they asked about the facilities. We passed on the door code to get showers as their generator wasn’t functioning properly so they didn’t have sufficient pressure in their onboard hot water system. A few minutes later they gave us a carrier bag of scallops and a handful of crab claws! Tomorrow’s supper sorted. After that we headed off to the Mishnish’s restaurant for tonight’s supper – mussels a la crème for the skipper and a huge portion of fish pie for her.

It rained hard in the night but hardly any wind made its way into Tobermory Harbour. After a late breakfast we set off once more by car. Today’s plan was to cover the roads of north of Mull. First stop was Glendorm Castle’s tea shop and art gallery. It was too wet for the gardens but the traybakes and coffee ensured we didn’t need lunch! Mairi Bowen’s lovely evocative oil paintings of local land and seascapes were wonderful, we were sorely tempted but the two we both really liked were already sold.

Today the views were rapidly obliterated by the rain sweeping in off the Atlantic. It might have been sheltered in the harbour but over the hills it certainly wasn’t. We risked a brief exploration of some standing stones above Dervaig, and stopped to take some pictures at Croig Harbour until the rain sent us scurrying back to the car. Calgary beach with its white sands and dunes was tempting in the drizzle only to me, the skipper deciding the warmth of the car a better option. A few miles later we both got rather damp from the wind blown spray off Eas Fors lower waterfall which we didn’t venture down too as the path looked treacherous. The upper fall hidden in the oak trees was pretty and we were downwind of it.

There’s a newish, teeny marina in Ulva, on the mainland side with good, brand new facilities including a laundry, a place to remember for future cruises. We’d thought of getting the ferry across to the island for a walk but the weather by now was atrocious. Here on the exposed west coast, the wind was driving the rain and it was much colder. Even the appeal of lunch across in the Boathouse wasn’t sufficient. We drove on and eventually devoured bags of crisps and bananas in a parking spot overlooking Loch na Keal opposite the road we drove yesterday. Though today the view was of rain and mist not mountains and loch. A couple of hours later the car was refuelled and returned to Harbour Cars and Temptress’ crew were back onboard with the heater on. We’ve seen every corner of Mull now from the inside, satisfying any curiosity we may have had sailing around its coasts. It’s a remote and isolated place to attempt to make a living and beautiful though the scenery is, it’s not tempting us to stay.