Tobermory to Fort William (along the Sound of Mull and Loch Linnhe)

After 2 hectic days in the Western Isles, it was a pleasure to rise late, stroll into Tobermory for last chocolate and postcards, then dawdle on deck as we pulled out of this most sheltered of harbours. We were soon butting southwest down the Sound of Mull, gazing from the sea at the road we had followed yesterday along the shoreline to Iona. Prof. Jim Russell gave us a splendid introduction to the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, and how it was that an Italian expatriate (Bonito Princio Carlos) came to lead an army of Highlanders into the last (and bloodiest) of battles on British soil. At this point we came into the wide passage off Craignure, where 3 bodies of water collide, and our sea-watching suddenly went into overdrive. We could see from the whirlpools, upwellings and current streams, that the sea had entered a vigorous rinse and spin cycle. First we spotted feeding porpoise, their backs sparkling in the sun, then a minke whale, then strings of feeding guillemot and common gull as we passed under the dramatic silhouette of Duart Castle. Across the tide race past Lady Rock with its common seals, and the clean white finger of Lismore lighthouse, built by the famous Stevenson family (whose most famous son Robert Louis gave it all up, to his father’s disgust, to become a writer). We hugged the eastern shore of Lismore, the fertile limestone island (which once supported 1,800 crofters but now has only 180 inhabitants) then back out into Loch Linnhe. The water here was so calm that we could see surfacing porpoise, feeding terns and strings of moon jellyfish drifting like lost souls in the dark water. We made a brief foray into Loch Leven while Ian Bullock gave an illustrated talk on Scottish wildlife, which included leg of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and hair of dog. The last excitement was threading the Corran Narrows as we bird watched from the bow, with gannets up and eiders down. To our delight as we passed Fort William, the entire massif of Ben Nevis was clear all the 4,406’ to the top. Here we entered the bottom end of the Caledonian Canal at Corpach, a first loch in from the sea, then two more to moor at the bottom of Neptune’s staircase. There was time for a canal side stroll before supper (fresh local venison and a tasty tiramisu). Scottish folk music rounded off a day full of vivid Highland images: mountains and moorland, ruins and rocks, gannet and guillemot, lighthouse and lochs……… But I must away, from the pipes and pibrochs, though it’s late in the day, I must still wash some socks.