| Cork | Dublin | Holyhead | Portree | Orkney |
Iona, Scotland June 9, 2005
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Today was a different sort of day. We landed at one end of the
Isle of Mull, boarded the boat on the other end of the Isle of Mull, so
needless to say, while we drove from one end to the other, the boat went
around. But it all worked; when we needed her the boat was there.
We started at Iona Abbey, built in the 1200s on the site of St Columba's original abbey from the 500's. St. Columba was an Irish priest who came north to carry the word. The abbey is currently under reconstruction once again, but the walls are the originals. The roof and the spire are not. The cross in the front is dated back to 500 AD. Note the fog; at times you couldn't see the abbey from where I'm standing. |
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The insides of the abbey are typical in design. The chapel (left) is quite austere, but I don't believe the chairs come from the 13th century. The chapter garden is simple, but elegant (in my [not always] humble opinion). |
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When we left the Abbey, we walked back to the landing, boarded a ferry, and traveled from the Island of Iona to the "mainland" of the Isle of Mull. This photo shows the harbor landing and the homes of the fisher folk. |
| Once on Mull, we boarded our busses and drove to the middle of the island stopping at Torosay Castle. It's an 18th century construction attempting to look like a castle. Quite elegant, beautiful gardens, and we got sunshine (while it was raining at the same time). |
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The insides were lovely, and the important rooms looked south onto the Garden. (I wanted to take the office just to the left of the photo on the left home with me). The gardens were of mixed care, nothing as good as Bodnant, but as you can see on the right, some of them were very good. |  |
| Marnie and I walked to the very back (south) of the gardens, crossed this little stream, and across the bay, there was another castle. This one is authentic 13th century, but there was not time for us to visit it. So, I made a quick trip back to the coach, got my long lens, and here's the picture. |
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We ended the day at Tobermory. This is the entire town
(note a set of houses on the top of the hill as well) we walked from one end to
the other, stopped for an ice cream, then Marnie went back to the boat to
journal while I went on the distillery tour. Their single malt was "pretty
good", but I've had better (that of course is personal taste). Tomorrow we
stop at another distillery, and I bought 2 bottles of their single drink size to
bring home - that was good stuff (and in the single drink size, I could afford
it).
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On the way out to the boat, somebody commented on the really neat house you see above on the very right side. So I popped on the long lens and took the picture to the left. It's not visible at this size, but if you see the picture full size, you'll recognize that this is the Westin Hotel in Tobermory. |
| Prince William was said to be on the island with his girlfriend. This looks like proof positive as there's a naval helicopter on the aft deck. Nice boat, eh? |  |
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Our good (we talked a couple of times) friend Prof. Nagy of UCLA was giving his second lecture as we left Tobermory. But I was impolite and ran out in the middle to get the picture of the lighthouse to the left. The one on the right was during dinner, so I had to take a break before dessert to get it. |
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| Cork | Dublin | Holyhead | Portree | Orkney |
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