Kinloch Castle on the Isle of Rum and Tobermory on the Isle of Mull
Today we left lovely and remote Inverie to sail to the mysterious island of Rum. Here we visited Kinloch Castle dating back to around 1900. This extravagant Edwardian building was created by George Bullough, whose father had made a fortune in the textile industry in Lancashire in Northern England. George’s grandfather had made the improvements to the mills that led to the wealth his son accumulated and his grandson, George himself, spent.
This castle cost a fortune to build — the equivalent to £15 million today. But it was only used for 6 weeks of the year for deer stalking on the island and to party with his wife Lady Monica and friends. They got here by yacht, as they owned the Rhouma, a 223 ft long luxury yacht. Our guided tour of the castle shows that no expense was spared collecting valuable artefacts from around the world.
After the tour of the castle Ian Bullock our naturalist took some us for a wonderful nature walk on this green and lovely island. Rum is also a designated nature reserve and now belongs to the government and is run by Scottish Natural Heritage that look after important natural areas in Scotland. It was a bit damp and ‘midgie’ (that’s the Scottish No-see-ums), but well worth it.
During lunch the sun came out and brought out all the lovely colours of the sea and islands as we sailed off in the direction of the Isle of Mull, passing Ardnamurchan Point, the most westerly stretch of land on the British mainland. During the sail David Barnes, our expedition leader and historian gave us a very informative and entertaining talk on Celtic Christianity. This set us up for tomorrow’s visit to the island of Iona without which a visit to Scotland’s West Coast wouldn’t be complete.
Tobermory, the capital of the Isle of Mull is a very pretty town of almost one-thousand souls. The place immediately charms you with its multi-coloured houses, nice shops and pubs. After some shopping we had the options of a hike with David and Ian to a waterlily loch, a shopping orientation with Iris or a historical and anecdotal walk of the town with myself.
After another fabulous dinner of the best of Scottish fare we were entertained by Neil Morrison and Alison Brown of Tobermory distillery with a whisky presentation, of the verbal and liquid kind – slàinte mhath – gaelic for cheers or rather ‘good health’!
