A visit to the Treshnish Isles and the Island of Staffa

Boarding the "Staffa Tours" boat at Tobermory

As part of the EFOG's group visit to the Isle of Mull, where we stayed at Tobermory Youth Hostel, a sub-group elected to do a day-trip from Tobermory to the Treshnish Isles and the island of Staffa. This was on 27th May 2014. Those that went on the trip were Fozie, Jinan, Pam, Fritz, Fred and Paul

The Treshnish Isles are a group of small islands off the west coast of Mull – which is itself west of Oban in Argyll. They are owned by the Hebridean Trust, and are designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. (SSSI). Although uninhabited now, there are remains of chapels, castles and homesteads – proof that this remote and exposed archipelago was once home to a vibrant community.

Lunga

There are apparently no good landing places on the Treshnish Isles, and proof of this was when the “Staffa Tours” boat that had carried us from Mull reached the island that we were to land on: Lunga.

A dark mass of boulders separate the boats from LungaThere are two or three floating pontoons permanently moored adjacent to Lunga. Lunga, by the way, is Viking for “Long Island”. The tour-boats draw up alongside one of these and move it towards the island, so that passengers can step off the boat and onto the multitude of different-sized rounded boulders that constitute the “beach”. Now these boulders really are treacherous, and there is a lot of balancing, mutual hand-holding, unintended sitting-down and trepidation before safe and lovely land is reached.

Once across the boulders, the way is easy...And it really is lovely; short rabbit-cropped grassland with ferns and wild flowers of all sorts including thousands of bluebells. The path works upwards to the flat, grassy top of a low cliff, and below, the rocks and islands of the archipelago are ranged around, with the tour-boats and visiting yachts moored off-shore, In the distance the Small Isles of Rhum, Eigg, Canna and Muck are visible, and beyond them Skye. Nearer is Mull, and in the distance the mainland of Scotland itself, all visible on a beautiful turquoise-sea, blue-sky, fluffy-white-cloud day.

...and this is the traditional Lunga Puffin greetingWe had been warned about the puffins. The puffins were there on the edge of the cliff with their rabbit-stolen burrows. They were waiting for us, seemingly as curious about us as we were about them, but happy to see us because we keep the predators away. And predators there are: Golden Eagles, Sea Eagles, Buzzards, Hooded Crows, Bonxies, probably.

It is almost too nice a day to go on...Loads of photos, of course, and a whole island to see, the heights still enticingly above us – for those of us who like to get to the top. But the weather was too warm, the grass too dry and inviting, and the puffins too intent on us. So we sat down, then laid down, and either closed our eyes against the sunshine or lay with our feet against a puffin and looked out to sea.

Some of the group waiting to board the boat for StaffaSuddenly – a flurry, and all the birds had either disappeared underground or gone over the edge out to sea. I am familiar with this sort of scenario and looked immediately around for the attacker. From behind, from over the heights of Lunga, a big black bird came winging towards us. I believe it was a Hoodie, one of the Hooded Crows which are actually the same species as our familiar all-black Carrion Crows. These hoodies, though, have aspects of grey on them which give them their name.

The attack being unsuccessful, gradually the Puffins returned to do their thing or stand and look at us. (Narrow-boaters would call them Gongoozlers). I made a fast excursion further along and up Lunga, but we needed to return to the boat, to get across the boulder-beach and head for Staffa.

Staffa

Staffa may well be – after Skye – the most famous of the Scottish islands. Even though the name of Staffa isn't very well known, surely Fingal's Cave is? After Mendelssohn visited the island in 1829 he included “Fingal's Cave” in his Hebrides Overture.

First views of StaffaMany years ago I went to the Giant's Causeway in County Antrim, and I have to say I was slightly disappointed. The basalt columns which comprise the Causeway in Northern Ireland and the Island of Staffa in the west of Scotland are similar geological formations. But Staffa is not disappointing; as the island came into view the grandeur of the columns was plain to see. It has an imposing outline, and – drawing closer – the boat hove to and manouvered almost in the mouth of Fingal's Cave for photo opportunities

... and the caves; Fingal's is to the right.I was not surprised that the Overture was played over the boat's speaker system for a moment – that was almost inevitable and humorous – but I was disappointed that already on the island and making their way in and out of the cave was a string of people. We were not the only visitors. Bloody tourists! The boat moored alongside a concrete causeway for easy access to the island, and its tourist cargo disembarked.

The hand-rail leading to Fingal's CaveUnlike Lunga, walking on Staffa – at least at the base of the basalt-columned cliffs – is easy. The hexagonal columns – at this level worn smooth by the sea – are mostly easy to walk upon, like big, flat stepping stones or steps. Hard by the cliff-side, a metal handrail has been set into the rock so as to give grip, safety and comfort to those who may be less happy on the stepping stones, or indeed when the weather is less equable than on this day. So, there tends to be a line of people either going to or returning from the cave and clinging onto the hand-rail. Others, nimbler or younger, don't bother with that.

The mouth of the cave, from the interiorAt the very mouth of the cave the way narrows to a ledge, and it is necessary to wait as if at a “Single Track Road with Passing Places” as others come out before you go in. The cave is huge, a grand opening cut by the sea – so large that artificial light is not required because of the daylight through the entrance. The ledge continues narrow, with the columns towering above and the sea rolling in below. The light and the sounds are wonderful;  no wonder that it is called in Gaelic as An Uamh Binn or “The Cave of Melody”. Eventually, a rope is reached, stretched across the ledge/path to indicate a less-safe beyond. But this was certainly no barrier, as some were already beyond and I decided to join them.

...and the spectacular interiorWhen I turned round to look back towards the entrance, there was Pam, also getting as much from Fingal as any giant may be prepared to give. The cave was emptying of people as they made their way back to their boats, and we enjoyed the sights, sounds and atmosphere without other people's hassle and chatter. There was one last possibility:  my earlier disappointment at all the tourists had been abated by the magnificense of the setting. I suggested to Pam that she went ahead, out of the cave, and as she disappeared I stopped. I stopped and I stood and I looked and I listened – and I felt. I was in Fingal's Cave - all by myself.

I liked the Tresnish Islands, and the visit to Staffa and Fingal's Cave is an experience that will remain with me for ever.

Paul Ferris,   16th July 2014