Sunset at Fidden: episode two.

 Although Fidden on the Ross of Mull is a commercial campsite, in many ways it really is like a a wild camp site with showers. After a nice warm shower we returned to the tents to discover that the wind had dropped and the midges had come out. Ian and I set up our chairs on a little knoll to eat our meal. A little breeze up there mitigated the midges somewhat and the view was excellent.

 After dining we set up a small fire (we had brought logs) below HW mark. While Ian and I opened cans of our favoured Irish sports recovery drink, Alan and Donald were already checking through their numerous sunset photos!!

 Not to be out done, Ian and I soon got snapping too.

As the sun dipped to the horizon it took on first an...

 ...orange glow before turning...

 pinkish red.

Of course living so far from the equator has its advantages. Very often the twilight after sunset is even better than sunset itself and so...

 ...it proved. This was an hour and a half after sunset.

Behind us the white buildings of Fidden were still illuminated with a delicate warm glow and were standing out against the inky black night sky behind.

Hard rock, hard saints, rotting corpses, banished cows (and women) at the Ross of Mull.

On our return from Market Bay on the north coast of the Ross of Mull the wind got up and in truth it was a bit of hard work to get back into the shelter of...

 ...the islands at the north end of the Sound of Iona. From here we entered...

 ...the Bull's Hole a safe but tidal anchorage between the Ross of Mull on the left and Eilean nam Ban on the right. Today the Bull's Hole is the anchorage for many of the tour boats which operate from the Sound of Mull to Staffa and the Treshnish Isles.

Donald had waited for us on a little beach at the  NE of the rocky Eilean nam Ban. Although St. Columba was beatified by the church he was not exactly a saint in terms of modern understanding of the word. Not only had he caused the death of death of 3,000 people (men)  after starting the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne he fled to Iona then banished all cows (and women) to this barren and rocky isle.

The Bull's Hole can be quite a brisk paddle if the tide is running strongly but we only had a slight current to contend with and soon arrived at Tormore Pier at the south end of the Hole. It was here that blocks of pink Ross of Mull granite were exported to build parts of Iona Abbey, University of Glasgow, Ardnamurchan, Heskier. Skerryvore and Dubh Artach lighthouses, the Jamaica and Kirklee bridges in Glasgow and Blackfriars, Holburn Viaduct and Westminster bridges in London, docks in Glasgow Liverpool and New York not to mention buildings and monuments further afield in New Zealand and USA. A tramway leads up from the pier to the quarry at Torr Mor.

Above Alan's head at the base of some low cliffs you can see the dark opening of Uamh nan Marbh, the cave of the dead, where coffins were left before final transport to Iona for burial. The cave is really only big enough for one coffin and has a ventilation window at the back.This was probably quite important as corpses were brought here from all over Scotland and some would undoubtedly be in an advanced state of decomposition by the time they got here.

 Due to the fresh N wind and the building N going tide in the Sound of Iona we decided to leave exploring the Abbey until the following morning but Donald nipped across the Sound of Iona in his F-RIB as we...

 ...continued south to Fionnphort and the ferry terminal. The ferry MV Loch Buie was just about to leave and had already lifted its ramp when two young women tottering on high heels and pulling heavy suitcases on wheels made their way slowly down the slip. The captain clearly thought more of women than St. Columba and lowered the ramp while they sauntered (rather too slowly I thought) down the slipway. Ian gave the captain a quick call on the VHF and he replied that we had plenty of time to cross in front of him before he left.

From Fionnphort  to Fidden the coastline consists of a delightful series of pink granite tors and offshore islands and reefs. Alan enjoyed a try of my Greenland paddle and...

...before long we could see Fidden farm at the end of our long day.

A beach named desire.

We left the dark gneiss rocks of Iona and Eilean Annraidh and dodged the high speed tour boats in the Sound of Iona. This is Staffa Tours MV Ullin of Staffa. In the background you can see The Dutchman's Cap  or Bac Mor in the Treshnish Isles. It is a former volcano and consists of a central volcanic plug surrounded by a sill of basalt.

 On the east side of the Sound of Mull we returned to pink granite bedrock and the delightful village of Kintra which is derived from the gaelic Ceann Traigh or head of the beach. My good friend, colleague and former climbing partner, the late Dr John Tolmie and his partner bought one of these cottages. He hoped I would get him started sea kayaking but sadly he died in a climbing accident in March 2014 before we could get on the water. What a loss, I have no doubt he would have taken to sea kayaking.

 We were headed for Market Bay on the...

 ...north shore of the Ross of Mull.

 We floated in to the eastern most beach of the two beaches that open from the bay.

 The sands here were devoid of visitors though the...

 ...other beach Traigh na Margaidh (market beach) often has walkers. The beach we landed on is more difficult to access and is called Traigh Eilean an t-Santachaidh (beach of the island of lust). Why our ancestors called this remote spot the beach of the island of lust I cannot begin to imagine.

 Traigh Eilean an t-Santachaidh is a truly exceptional beach with...

 ...bold tors of pink granite backed by dunes topped by...

 ...green machair which falls away to a...

 ...beach of perfect pinkish sand which reputedly reflects...

...your heart's desire when wet.

Saint Columba's tears on Iona

On the second day of our trip to the Ross of Mull and Iona we awoke  to a splendid morning at Fidden. Actually we had been awake for some time. There was an order to the ornithological choir that entertained us through the night. The drumming of the snipe had started before we went to bed only to be followed by the rasping repetitive call of the corncrake which was interrupted only by the equally repetitive call of the cuckoo at first light but thankfully dawn brought the more subtle calls of the meadow pipit and skylark. It was wonderful.

 We set off across the Sound of Iona with the Abbey of Iona on the horizon. Iona is a place of pilgrimage for hundreds of thousands each year. Most pilgrims think that it was St Columba (521 to 597) who first brought Christianity to Scotland when he landed in Iona from Ireland in 563. However, this is nonsense as the earliest Christian relic in Scotland is the Latinus stone at Whithorn in Galloway. It dates from about AD 450. Whithorn was established by St Ninian (c.360-c.432) in 395 which predates the introduction of Christianity to Ireland. Columba had been effectively exiled to Scotland after copying St Finian's Latin bible and starting the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne which resulted in  the death of 3,000 people. However, the religious settlement founded by St Columba on Iona went on to serve as a beacon of Christian learning and spread enlightenment through both Scotland and Ireland. Indeed the famous Book of Kells in Ireland which is described as "Ireland's greatest cultural treasure and the world's most famous medieval manuscript" was actually made in here in Iona in Scotland!

Starting in 795 Iona suffered repeated sacking by the Vikings and some monks escaped with the Book to Kells in Ireland. What is less well known is that in 1204 the bishops of Tir Eogain and Tir Connail and the abbots of Derry and Armagh sacked Iona and razed it to the ground as they resented its continuing influence over the church in Ireland and its popularity as a religious shrine for pilgrims. They wanted the pilgrim business for their own shrines so they then spread propaganda that Iona had been a simple satellite of the church in Ireland and this misconception has lasted down the centuries, particularly in Ireland.

Whatever your reasons for visiting Iona you will fall in love with the place as soon as you set foot there. We landed on on this glorious shell sand beach on the SE coast.

We could not resist beachcombing and I was delighted to find two cowries and a small pebble called a "St Columba's tear". It is green translucent serpentine marble. They are quite hard to find these days as every visitor to Iona wants to find a piece.

Ian has the best eye for cowries I know...this was his haul!

It is not just the Iona marble that is green...

...the seas round the dark rocks of Lewisian gneiss are also...

...luminous green.

This pink boulder of Ross of Mull granite is an erratic, brought across the Sound of Iona by ice during the Ice Age. This is not the only place we have encountered an erratic from the Ross of Mull. We recently found one on the Mull of Ross on the Solway coast.

Thy dark grey of the Lewisian gneiss on the...

...south coast of Iona is quite a contrast to the pink granite of the Ross of Mull which is less than 3 miles to the east. We came to a gully where lighter metamorphic rocks have been forced through the surrounding gneiss. This is the Iona marble which was quarried and used in the building of churches across the world. Rusting machinery can still be seen above the rocks.

The complex and varied geology of Scotland...

...is one of the reasons it is so good for sea kayaking.

We had now reached the southernmost point of Iona at Rubha na Carraig-geire (headland of the sharp pinnacle) where...

...we turned to the west and came upon Port na Curaich (port of the coracle). This is where St Columba is reputed to have first set foot with 12 companions on Iona in 563. He reputedly climbed a knoll and looked back towards Ireland. When he had reassured himself that Ireland could no longer be seen he turned his back to that land and settled on Iona where he would atone for his previous sins with a life of piety.

East meets west at Fidden, sheng fui at sunset

 It did not take long to paddle back to Fidden from the maze of the Moai of Mull and...

 ...soon we had both kayaks and F-Rib above the HW mark in good time before...

 ...the sun started to go down.

 It did not take long to get dinner on and Ian shared...

 ...a most delicious venison stew and new potatoes with Donald and myself.

 The sun going down...

 ...beyond the Fidden reefs and...

 ....the Sound of Iona.

Once the sun had set we set about lighting a fire on the beach (we brought our own logs). Just as a few midges began to bite a strong NE wind got up kept them away and helped the fire get going. We were rather pleased with the sheng fui arrangement of our dark sports recovery drinks on the white sands of Fidden..

We swapped tales long into the night as the moon followed the arc already taken by the sun. The drumming call of a snipe echoed round the rocks as it flew overhead.. What a day it had been!