Oban Scotland

We left London by train and headed to Glasgow Scotland for one night so that we could catch our first train ride of our "Grand Tour of Scotland by Train" on Monday morning.  The train ride up was pretty and interesting since it was mostly a ride out in the country.  Spring is in its early stages here.  Along the way we saw fields of some plant that has a vibrant yellow flower.  While we were still in England, you could look out the window and just see those fields forever.  As we got further north we started seeing a bush that was blooming with its own version of the vibrant yellow flower.  Towards the end of our trip north, I saw yellow daffodils blooming at a couple of the train stations.  We also got our first glimpses of the North Sea which was fun and the topography changed from flat to rolling meadows to hills that were steep and finally to the sea.  Oban is a seaside town.  In fact it is the seafood capital of the UK. Hmm think I just combined the 2 train rides into one there - oh well.

Oban 

Oban is a small town, but like our home it is a big tourist destination.  However Oban tops out at 24,000 people with its tourists whereas that is the population of Gulf Shores.  So we are in a nice seafront small town.  The train station which we came in on backs up to the ferry terminal and the front street is flat but then you start going up hill.  We are staying in the Heatherfield House which is a 6 room Bed and Breakfast partially up a hill.  Our trip arranged the hotel and the full day tour we took on our second (main) day in town.

Heatherfield House B&B

McCain’S Tower at top of hill above Oban 

Our tour includes a write up for each destination and some recommendations.  One of them for Oban was to eat at a restaurant called Coast and to make reservations.  We followed that advice and had a wonderful dinner our first night in town.  I ate off their light bites menu and had salmon and a salad while Jeff had lamb (I think it was on his brain after all the sheep we saw in the meadows).  We finished it off with some sticky pudding and port wine which was quite good then it was a short walk back up to our BandB.

Next morning after breakfast we got in line for the ferry and found ourselves in the middle of an American church group from Ohio.  They were taking several ferries to get to an island where they were going bicycling while we were going to the Isle of Mull to start our 3 islands tour.  The ferry was a good sized ship with cars in its hull and a couple of levels of seating and eating areas.   It was about a 40 minute ride from Oban to the Isle of Mull.  We passed Duarte Castle which was a  nice looking place from a distance at least.  We arrived in Craignure and caught a bus to Fionnphart.  The bus ride took about an hour and included commentary on local landmarks.  It is a small island so key things were a schoolhouse and a memorial to a man who cared for a family of strangers with small pox or scarlet fever and then when he contracted it no one would care for him so he got a memorial.  They also talked about wildlife of which we saw none.  Oh I should mention that the road is a "single track" which means it is only big enough for  a single vehicle; every so often you will see a widening  off to one side and a note that this is a passing spot as in where 2 cars can easily go in opposite directions.  The bus driver had to be careful to accurately space  the bus in the middle of the narrow bridges.  After the bus ride we hopped on a smaller "rib boat" and headed out to Staffa a pint sized island

Example of “Passing Spot” on single track road

Yes our Double Decker bus drove over that narrow bridge

Duarte Castle

Staffa is famous for Fingals Cave and its hexagonal pillars of basalt.  Looking at it you would swear man had some how cut the exterior of the island into tall pillars rather than mother nature.  Happily our way to Staffa was exciting.  First we saw some common seals and then lucky us - yes really lucky us.  We saw Orca whales.  First all I saw was these 2 tall (say 3 feet) spires pointing our of the water then I was able to get a better viewing spot and started seeing them come up and spout out water and even the tops of their bodies.  It was cool.  After a few minutes we needed to move on as had the Orcas.  Our boat first circled the island so we could see it all.  There are 2 sea caves in the island one quite large which is Fingals cave.  It has been around and impressing people for hundreds of years as in Mendelsohn wrote an opera for the outer Hebrides Islands and there is a piece for Fingals Cave.  The water was very calm the day we were there so we did not hear some of the sounds the cave makes.  Once we docked we had the island to ourselves for an hour.  Like most people Jeff and I headed over to the walkway to the cave and went inside it a little ways.  This not an island with beaches but rather drop offs so we carefully followed the singlefile  walkway to the cave.

Orca Whale

Fingal’s Cave the namesake for Hebrides Overture Op 26 (Fingal’sCave)
I enjoyed performing this piece in High School and was thrilled to see there was such a place.

Note the people on the right to judge the scale of the cave

After the cave, we walked over the center part of the island to an area where puffins are nesting this time of year.  We were within 10 feet or so of some of the nesting birds.  They are as cute in person as they are in pictures with their big orange beaks.  It was interesting to watch them fly.  When they are coming in for a landing it looks like flying is not a natural activity for  them, but then you watch them fly off towards the ocean and they fly quite well.  It is nesting season for them and the island is a favorite spot.  After that it was time to go back to the boat annd go to our final island: Iona.

Hundreds of Puffins

Look behind the center Puffin to see the other coming in for a landing

Iona is also small but it has permanent establishments and a small town on it.  Iona is the birthplace of Christianity in Scotland.  There is an old nunnery and abbey (St Margarets) there and a chapel(St Oran) that is supposedly the final resting place of many Scottish Kings including Macbeth.  The cemetery there is still active and has a recent prime minister's grave (John Smith).   Iona is a special place for religion to this day.  There is a group called The Iona Community.  Then it was time to go back to the Isle of Mull.

Nunnery 

Nunnery 

Abby

This time we went by yet a different ferry.  This one was about the size of those you see on rivers in Missouri or the Fort Morgan Ferry in Alabama.  The distance this ferry took us was quit small as in a 10 minute ride.  So we could hop back on the bus to go to the other ferry terminal.  This time on the drive back we did see some animals.  We saw red deer.  First it was - hey was that a deer or a horse off in the distance then they were up close to the road.  The site that amazed me was a deer in a home's front yard.  The deer was on one side of the front yard and with only a walkway between them was a spaniel dog just laying quietly on his dog bed.  Now I have owned 3 spaniels and I can assure you none of them would have just sat there and watched a deer in their yard!  

At the end of the bus ride, we were back at the larger ferry stop where we all queued  up and got on it.  Jeff and I wandered for a little bit and then saw a server with some fish and chips and it looked good.  We decided to eat on the ferry which turned out to be a good decision as we overheard some other American commenting on how so and so was right the food was good on the ferries.  We got back to Oban at 8:30 - 9:00pm and thus ended our tour of 3 Inner Hebrides Islands.  We walked till we found a spot with a view and some local whiskey  where we got a glass each and drank it watching the sunset.  When we went to bed that night we both felt like we were on a moving vehicle of some sort!

The next morning we had an hour or so to kill before we caught our train to our next stop - Spean Bridge so we walked up the hill all the way to McCaig's tower.  When you first see it you think - oh just the shell of the building is left.  Nope it was always only a shell.  Seems Mr. McCraig had local stone masons build it as a source of work during the depression and as a monument to his family.  Once you get up the hill, there is a great view.  You can see across the island just outside of the harbor and we could see the Isle of Mull.  Then it was time to go catch our next train.