Isle of Mull

Mull’s dramatic landscape has fluted, bare mountain flanks and volcanic cliffs contrasting with great sweeps of green glen and sheltered pastoral meadow. It wears its geology openly, so much of the land having been eroded over past millions of years, and it is also one of the best places in Scotland to see golden eagles, sea eagles and otters. It was the setting for R. L. Stevenson’s novel Kidnapped.

Samuel Johnson liked his comforts and he considered Mull ‘worse than Skye’, but perhaps it was just a bad day for him when he visited Tobermory with Boswell because he had lost his fine oak walking stick. He certainly had a better time – ‘the most agreeable Sunday I ever passed’ – on the offshore isle of Inchkenneth with Sir Allan Maclean and his two daughters. Ulva Island is larger and was the birthplace of Lachlan Macquarrie, ‘the Father of Australia’, and earlier generations of the family of explorer/missionary David Livingstone.

Tobermory is an Island distillery in the broad Highland malt whisky category.

Top: A watery sunset over the Sound of Mull.

Above: The Isle of Mull is served by a regular ferry.