From Seashore to Mountaintops, “Following A Scottish Naturalist Through the Hidden Secrets of the Inner Hebrides,” June 5-21, 1987, “The suddenness of our age makes us long for a place where time stands still.”

The brochure from the North Carolina Botanical Garden got our attention. There were 22 of us counting our leaders: Ken Moore from the Gardens, Mary Howes from Circle Travel, our Scottish naturalist leader Jonathan Williams, and our geologist bus driver Tim Sumner.

Arran: We arrived at the Douglas Hotel in Brodick on Arran June 6, toured Brodick Castle gardens in the rain and had dinner in the hotel, celebrating the 75^th birthday of a member of our group with bagpipes.

The next day was a beautiful day and walk: North end tour of Arran including coastal walk to King’s Cave with picnic lunch. I remember that walk and loved it.

  

I made a note about black slugs so this must be where Shannon took this picture.

The next day was rainy and the walk muddy but not as long, we were back early. Dinner was a special treat. Our guide, Jonathan Williams, lived on Arran and his wife had a restaurant, The Puffin. She treated us to an authentic haggis dinner.

The next day’s walk was on southern Arran, along the beach, with a walk into town where I bought two wonderful pairs of gloves. The deerskin gloves I wore out over the years, but I still have the pair lined with rabbit fur that I wear when it gets really cold.

June 10 (Wednesday), we took the ferry to Kintyre, rode the bus across the island, and took ferries to Islay and then Jura – where we met the midges. Jura (Deer Island) is home to about 200 people and 5,000 deer, and it was covered with blooming foxglove. The Jura Hotel is a lovely hotel and has wonderful food. We had salmon for dinner the first night and venison the next night. The main purpose of the hotel was as a hunting lodge for the owner.

Thursday, we took the bus north, Landrovers took us to the end of the road, and we hiked to Barnhill (where Orvillle wrote 1984). We stopped along the way to visit a weaver, a young woman who lived by herself. There was no electricity that far out toward the end of the island. We walked on toward the Gulf of Corryvreckan, but I don’t think I really saw a whirlpool. Along the way, we saw Lady Astor’s home with its flat roof where Lady Astor indulged her temper by driving golf balls into the sea. Part of our group skipped the walk and came out to the end of the island by boat. We all went back to the bus by boat.

Friday we woke at 6 am to hear a helicopter coming in to pick up the ballot box. I don’t remember what the vote was for. We went by boat through Loch Tarbert and then a hike in the Tarbert area. We had a lovely evening at the home of the local minister who was a wonderful story teller. We learned that many of the families of Jura, the Buies, the Campbells and others, immigrated to America and settled in Harnett and Cumberland Counties, NC. Buies Creek, NC is names for Buies.

Many from our group were fortunate to go back to Jura in 2004 and I’ve posted photos from that trip. There’s also a nice write up on Jura here.

Saturday, we left Jura, took a ferry to Islay, had a bar lunch at Port Askaig, an afternoon walk through estate gardens, and checked into the Machrie Hotel, a golf club outside Port Ellen. Everyone in our group was amused by the manager who was straight out of Faulty Towers.

Sunday, we rode the bus north to  visit the Royal Society for Nature Conservation nature reserve and then Ardvane Point, where we walked the beach and sand dunes, and learned about the gneiss rock of Islay, the oldest in Britain. We also learned about the importance of peat, for heat, for Islay’s eight distilleries, and for feeding fields for barnacle geese, and we learned that the reason we were seeing so many roofless old houses was that people were taxed not on the land or the buildings, but on the roof. So when a building was no longer in use, the roof was taken off.

We started the day Monday at Bowmore distillery, where I got to rake the oats.

Then we visited The Islay Woolen Mill. I bought lovely plaid wool for a skirt. While we were there, the owner got a phone call and rushed out. We learned later that he was part of an emergency lifeboat service. A young man died in a fishing boat accident. The whole town shut down that night.

After lunch, we visited the Kildalton Cross and Parish Church (an old roofless church).

We set out early the next morning to visit a farm that had miniature goats and a peacock, as well as other farm animals before leaving on the 2-hour noon ferry to Kintyre. We stopped to see the Kilmartin Templar grave stones, then went on to Oban.

Shannon bought a waxed jacket in Oban, which he loved and still had when he died. Oban was a lovely place, with a strange tower. We both were fond of the town. We got ferries in and out of Oban several times over the years.

Tuesday and Wednesday we stayed at the Isle of Mull Hotel in Craignure, the least interesting hotel on the trip, it was like a Holiday Inn. Wednesday was a very full day starting with a tour of Duart Castle, then a tour of Torosay Castle and gardens and a presentation on black houses and white houses. Then a drive to Tobermory, a lovely town with colorful houses.

We had a delicious dinner in a theater restaurant and then were treated to a play, “Dear Desperato.” The sun was setting by the time we got back to the hotel, but we still had time for a glass of sherry in a graveyard to celebrate our leader, Ken Moore’s, birthday. We learned that graveyard sherry celebrations were traditional and got to enjoy a few more over the years. Ken’s birthday was also celebrated before dinner with Columba Cream, at the theater.

The best day of the trip was the next day – a boat trip to Lunga and Staffa, sitting amongst puffins on a beautiful day followed by a descent into Fingal’s Cave.

Before we landed on Staffa, the boat took us into Fingal’s Cave with its striking basalt columns.

 

Our next stop was Iona, where Saint Columba settled and started an abbey in AD 563. The island is small, quiet, beautiful, and spiritual. We had a quiet day on our own, with a walk to the abbey and a walk across the island. We had two nights at the Argyle Hotel on Iona. On Saturday, the bus took us up the coastline to Glencoe and then into Glasgow for our flight home the next day.