First site was Duart Castle (under repairs) from the ferry:
We also passed by our sheiling tent site where we camped in the pouring rain for two nights years ago.
Once on the island, the sunlight made amazing scenes with the landscapes:
Cross the narrow little humpbacked bridge in the town of Pennyghael:
Our first destination was Carsaig--firs tthe story. Years ago, we were over here and found a black and white movie on TV called "I Know Where I'm Going," a 1945 romance filmstarring Wendy Hiller as a young middle-class Englishwoman with an ambitious, independent spirit. She knows where she's going, or at least she thinks she does. She travels from her home in Manchester, England, to the Hebrides to marry Sir Robert Bellinger, a wealthy, much older industrialist, on the (fictitious) Isle of Kiloran--the island in mind was Colonsay with its Kiloran Bay..
When bad weather postpones the final leg of her journey - a boat trip to Kiloran - she is forced to wait it out on the Isle of Mull, among a community of people whose values are quite different from hers. There she meets Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livesey), a naval officer trying to go home to Kiloran for some shore leave. They are sheltered for the night in the nearby home of Torquil's friend, Catriona Potts.
The next day, on their way to catch a bus into town, they come upon the ruins of Moy Castle. Joan wants to take a look inside, but Torquil refuses to go in. When she reminds him that the terrible curse associated with it only applies to the laird of Kiloran, Torquil introduces himself: he is the laird, and Bellinger has only leased his island. As the bad weather worsens into a full-scale gale, Torquil takes advantage of the delay to woo Joan, who becomes increasingly torn between her ambition and her growing attraction to him.
Desperate to salvage her carefully laid plans, Joan tries to persuade Ruairidh Mhór to take her across to the island immediately, but the experienced sailor knows conditions are far too dangerous. Joan manages to bribe young Kenny into attempting it by offering him enough money to buy a half-share in Ruairidh's boat and marry Ruairidh's daughter Bridie.. Torquil learns of the scheme and tries to talk Joan out of it, but she proves adamant. After Joan has gone down to the boat, Catriona tells MacNeil that Joan is actually running away from him. He races to the quayside and invites himself aboard. En route, the boat's engine gets flooded and they are caught in the Corryvreckan whirlpool--a real whirlpool caused by tidal conditions between the Iklses of Jura and Scarba-- but Torquil is able to restart the motor just in time and they return safely to Mull.
At last the weather clears. Joan asks Torquil for a parting kiss before they go their separate ways. Torquil enters Moy Castle, and the curse takes effect almost immediately. Centuries earlier, Torquil's ancestor had stormed the castle to capture his unfaithful wife and her lover. He had them bound together and cast into a water-filled dungeon with only a small stone to stand on. When their strength gave out, they dragged each other into the water, but not before she placed a curse on the lairds of Kiloran. Any who dared to step over the threshold would be chained to a woman to the end of his days. From the battlements, Torquil sees Joan, accompanied by three bagpipers, marching resolutely toward him. They embrace. The end. Such a cute and quirky film based in my beloved Scottish Hebrides islands that I was hooked. Some of the scenes were filmed in Carsaig and the most famous scene, where Joan is trying to talk to her fiance from the Call Box--telephone booth--but the sound of the waterfall interferes--was filmed in a real phone booth just above the city.
So I wanted to find this phone booth. I tracked it down on Google EArt and on there, it looked like a harmless little road only 4 miles long. So I will now take you on this journey.
This is the turn off for Carsaig. We were already on single track roads....
then it changed to deeply rutted single track...
then narrower and narrower and with blind summits and VERY FEW passing places...here is where I began sincerely apologizing to Ray for bringing us on this harrowing adventure...
out to the shore side where the road became more and more rutted...and narrower...and I was silently praying to the road gods for there NOT to be another car coming the other way and making us BACK UP...
then a cliff on one side and no passing places...
then cliff on the side of the road...
until we finally found it!!! I was so happy to see it and so anxious to get back out to what I would now consider super-wide single-track roads, that I forgot to do my planned video pretending I coulnd't hear while making a call! I just knew at any moment a tractor-trailer truck would show up!
So we went down the super steep tiny road into the small village and turned around and high-tailed it out of there. And thankfully when the big delivery truck was coming our way, we both happened to hit the very rare passing place at the same time and it went very well.
Sunlight does amazing things to the heather covered hills here:
It's not enough that you have to negotiate the single-track roads; you also hace to dodge the sheep and the Heilin' Coos (Highland Cows) in the road.
waiting area for the ferry:
Ferry:
Iona Chapel is across the bay on the shores of IOna:
Scenes from Mull:
Scarecrow Contest and everyone puts their entries where they can be seen from the road--this one--a skeleton riding a bike.
Beautifully curvy single-track roads:
Bird watchers along the road:
Heading towards Tobermory:
In Tobermory, our favorite restaurant, MacGochan's, had a fire and was closed!
So we walked to the other end of the town and ate burgers at Mishnish Bar, along with a busload of German tourists!
Tobermory:
One of the galleons of the Spanish Armada, the Florencia, sheltered in Tobermory Bay in Oct 1588. According to documents in the possession of the Duke of Argyll, in whom is vested the ownership of the wreck, she carried pay chests of the Spanish army which was to have invaded England. On the point of departure from the bay, the ship was damaged by an explosion and sank 300 yds off what is now the New Pier. Attempts to salvage the treasure have been made from time to time, though Sacheverell, Governor of the Isle of Man is reported to have recovered much of the lost bullion on the first salvage expedition in 1688.
A Womble from Wimbledon, back at home in Tobermory:
post office:
Tobermory Waterfront:
Drive to Dervaig and my Kilmore Church where there is the mysterious Stained Glass done by
Tight squeeze through town in Dervaig:
Kilmore Church with its 63 ft tower that looks like a rocket:
Inside the church:
The absolutely beautiful window by Stephen Adam (1848-1910), showing Jesus with a quite pregnant Mary Magdalene:
tiny model of the church:
from outside:
boat ruins on the way back to the ferry:
We had 7:00 reservations, but squeezed in as the last car on the 3:25:
Eilean Musdile Lighthouse just off Lismore Island from our ferry:
Even cloudy views are beautiful from our window:
