Calgary Bay (Walk 1.9)
Geologically, Mull’s origins are violently volcanic, but dramatised in such a complex evolution that the island is the stuff of dreams for geologists. The visiting walker soon comes to realise that it is this underlying foundation, the bones of the island, that provides a landscape both varied and demanding, blessed with considerable beauty and diversity. High (and not-so-high) mountains, remote glens, coastal paths along raised beaches, forest walks and island treks make Mull one of the most resource-full of the Scottish islands for the walker. Although a great deal of the coastline is rugged and rocky, in the south-west there are splendid beaches of glistening shell sand set against machair lands and sheltered crofting communities.
Like much of western Scotland, especially the islands, Mull has seen its share of that shadowy period in Scottish history known as ‘the Clearances’, but on Mull, the story of depopulation is not as clear-cut as elsewhere. Surprisingly, perhaps, for an island so close to mainland Scotland, Mull is relatively undeveloped, with few of the ‘town’ facilities and services of Oban. You come to Mull to escape and to enjoy its fundamental simplicity, for that is its charm. And the exploration of the winding narrow roads, all of them feeding into heathered and loch-filled glens, is the island’s greatest pleasure.
As the eagle flies, Mull stretches 44.5km (28 miles) from Ardmore Point in the north to Rudh’ Ardalanish in the south, and 49km (30 miles) from Duart Point in the east to the coast overlooking Iona in the west. But such statistics are meaningless in this contorted landscape. At its narrowest, Mull is a mere 4.25km (2½ miles) from Salen Bay to Killiechronan. Around the coast lie numerous islands, for Mull is not so much one island as an island group; some – Ulva, Gometra, Erraid and Iona – have interest for walkers. Others – Treshnish Isles and Staffa – are the stuff of legend, and popular on the tourist and wildlife trails. But Mull and its islands are not a place to be consumed in haste. Even visitors with the most basic interest in matters of natural history will find themselves stopping by the roadside to peer at seals, otters, deer, and the birds of the air.
It is a far cry from the scene that greeted Dr Johnson, who visited the island in October 1773, admittedly on a drab day, and remarked that Mull was ‘a dreary country, much worse than Sky…a most dolorous country!’. His companion Boswell, however, seems to have been rather more discerning, describing the island as ‘a hilly country, diversified with heath and grass, and many rivulets’.
Such opposing views of Mull may well be typical; much depends on the eye of the beholder. But even on the gloomiest of days, the beauty of Mull will out, and the rewards for patience and persistence are memories that will last a lifetime and a joy that will make the heart ache.
History
The history of Mull is not well documented, and there has been no attempt by anyone to write a full history of the island, except for a two-volume work by J P Maclean, published in America in 1922. Those volumes were essentially anthological, based on published works at the time and not on research in original material. Jo Currie’s book Mull: The Island and its People, published in 2000, is excellent for detailed information about the history of the families and clans of the island (and its islands), but is not an authoritative treatise on island history. Numerous lesser publications and information on the internet give potted histories of Mull, but a definitive work by a professional historian is long overdue.
Standing stones, Glen Gorm (Walk 1.4)
It is generally believed that Mull was first inhabited about 8000–10,000 years ago, following the last Ice Age. Hunter-gatherers lived in caves, such as the so-called Livingston’s Cave on Ulva, and roamed freely across the island group. Then came the great transition, when the nomadic people started to settle down and become farmers, as they did throughout Britain and much of Europe, anything up to 6000 years ago. These Neolithic people, and the Bronze Age people that followed them, were responsible for many of the burial cairns that still dot the islands. Their presence is attested by a wealth of such cairns, cists, standing stones, stone circles, beaker pottery and knife blades. The Iron Age people who lived on Mull from around 2500–1500 years ago built forts, brochs, duns and crannogs, and a great many defensive settlements across the islands.
Christianity is believed to have come to the islands in the sixth century, when Columba landed from Ireland on the southernmost point of Iona, and set up a monastery on the island. But within a century, the island of Iona was sacked by Vikings, who continued to raid the islands of Mull for several centuries before becoming settlers.
In the 14th century, Mull became part of the Lordship of the Isles, but after the collapse of the Lordship in 1493, the island was taken over by the Clan MacLean, who were to suffer for their support of the Royalist cause during the Commonwealth and later for their Jacobite tendencies. Their dispossessed lands were awarded to the Campbells, the Dukes of Argyll, and although they tried to encourage industry in Mull, without much success, financial problems forced them to part with their Mull lands by the mid-19th century.
The clan system, however, was always important, and following the end of the 15th century, virtually all the inhabitants lived within the clan system, a complex social hierarchy within which the clan chief held the land in trust for his clansmen, who were in turn bound to him in ties of kinship. This way of life was largely pastoral, founded on breeding cattle, which was the only form of wealth that could be liquidated by export to the mainland. Many of the routes taken by the cattle drovers across the island can still be followed today, virtually all of them leading to the lovely setting of Grasspoint near Craignure from where the beasts were taken to the island of Kerrera and onward to the mainland.
As with many of the Scottish islands, Mull suffered its share of grief under the so-called Highland Clearances, and it would be temptingly incorrect to assume that all the houses found derelict by the roadside are the by-product of the Clearances; in fact, many of the houses were still inhabited in the 20th century. Evidence of the Clearances is, however, found all over the islands. Twenty crofters and three townships were cleared in Mishnish in the north of the island in 1842. Glengorm suffered hugely at the hands of James Forsyth, with wholesale clearances of crofts and townships. Four centres were cleared in Calgary in 1822, while in Treshnish three townships were cleared in 1862. Ulva and Gometra saw arguably the most extensive destruction when 100 people were evicted between 1846 and 1851, and were soon followed by the remaining inhabitants of the islands.
River Bellart and Loch a’ Chumhainn, Dervaig
The main settlement on Mull today is Tobermory, which in 1788 was built by the British Fisheries Society, as a planned settlement. Over the centuries Mull’s population increased, reaching 10,638 in 1831, but the potato famine and then the Clearances rapidly reduced this number. By the 20th century much of the population had emigrated and there were more sheep on Mull than people.
Today Mull and its neighbouring islands have a population of fewer than 3000. Farming, fishing and forestry used to be the economic mainstays of the island, but increasingly, tourism is responsible for much of the island economy.
Geology
If the history of Mull is not very well documented, the island’s geology is quite the opposite, and its geological pedigree is such that it has for many years attracted geologists in large numbers, who come to marvel at the landscape and its secrets. Common to most accounts is the imagery that Mull is constructed like a multi-tiered wedding cake, with thick layers of basalt lava sitting on top of a complicated basement of much older rocks which poke out around the edges of Mull. Geologists love