Mull May 2014

Discussion in 'Scotland' started by paulcalf, Apr 6, 2014.

  1. paulcalf

    paulcalf Supporter

    I've just booked the ferry to Mull for late May 2014 - I can't wait!

    I'll do a review afterwards, but feel free to chip in any recommendations for must do activities and campsites.

    I've read some of the other threads, but they mainly cover Skye.

    Various sources rave about Fidden Farm Campsite in Fionnaphort and Shieling Holidays campsite in Craignure, so I'll be sure to check them out.

    I look forward to any suggestions you have
     
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  2. It's an epic trip up there fella. Look forward to reading and needless to say take some pics.
     
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  3. Is Fidden Farm the one near the Iona ferry port? If so it is worth a visit.
     
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  4. Fidden Farm is amazing if the weather is good - azure sea with pink granite islets and white sands.

    The campsite at Tobermory is pretty good too (although not in the same ball park as Fidden Farm) - it's a short walk into Tobermory and hence one of the best pubs in the world, The Mishnish. If in Tobermory the wildlife cruises are worth a try - we had 2 basking sharks (both bigger than the boat we were in) swimming alongside and under us.
     
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  5. paulcalf

    paulcalf Supporter

    Thanks very much for the replies and advice.

    Please keep them coming

    I hope to do some wildlife cruises. I would love to see some basking sharks close up, i've already been lucky enough to snorkel and dive with their big sisters the whale sharks!

    Fidden Farm is the one near Iona ferry port
     
  6. Beautiful place.....less developed than Skye, even though skye is lovely. Get round to White Sands, Calgary Bay...wild camping on the beach....Sea Eagles soaring above you first thing in the morning....definitely take some good binoculars/camera with you. I watched a pair of adults training their offspring....I can't remember how long for, as I totally lost all sense of time...:thumbsup:
    If you like your cycling tough, Mull is definitely the place.....plenty of hills, windy roads....
    Take a boat trip out to Muck....you might get lucky and spot a whale or bottlenosed dolphins....I saw a humongous Basking shark....looked me straight in the eye...
    The air quality is unbelievable, round these parts...especially on Muck....I thought my eyes were going funny, but it's just the colour of things when there's very little pollution.
    Nice vegge restaurant in Calgary
    Tobermory is great to chill/get lashed....no shortage of pubs around.
    We went up there when the annual Round Mull yacht race was on....can't remeber much of it, bar lots of drinking, singing and red-faced yachtspeople getting leathered...
    Oban, itself is lovely...

    Love the Highlands...there's no where like it...Have fun:D
     
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  7. paulcalf

    paulcalf Supporter

    vanorak thanks very much for the tips, especially veggie restaurant!

    Quality binoculars are definitely on the list of things to take.

    I'm not taking bikes as van will be rammed enough, but i can't wait to drive the beast around those windy rd's

    Fingers crossed for some hardcore wildlife encounters.

     
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  8. paulcalf

    paulcalf Supporter

    Mull trip review

    We have just spent a great week going all the way round Mull. Here are some reviews of campsites we stayed at, plus a few things we saw along the way. Any specific questions please ask and I’ll do my best to answer them.

    Oban Ferry to Craignure to Fioonaphort: amazing roads. A deer ran out on us, we saw birds of prey, beautiful Loch’s and great views. I could have stopped every few minutes on this rd.

    Fidden Farm, Fioonaphort 01681 700427:
    This site has already come in for rave reviews on the site. It is a beautiful location, with sea views and amazing sun sets. It is a good location for trips to Iona and wildlife cruise to Treshnish Islands (Puffins & Sea birds) & Staffa.

    Facilities: There are two flushing toilets in the main camping field and then a block by the farm house with showers, washing up room freezer for ice blocks. The farmer told us his facilities would be pushed with so many people, but we found it fine by showering in evening. £7pppn

    Most people want to camp with a sea view, by the time we arrived, on a Sunday Evening during half term; these spots had all long gone. We got a nice spot at the back of the field with plenty of space around us. There were approx 100 vehicles in the field when we were there, but plenty of space. We didn’t feel crowded until the last night when some more modern VW’s decided to park on our doorstep despite there being plenty of space! Some people were on this site for a week or two’s holiday. We stayed 3 nights and would definitely return. Mobile phone signal was non existent on Orange & 3, which meant booking the wildlife trip was a hassle, pay phone didn’t work, but the lady in the pub let us use her phone. It is 1.25 miles from the Farm to Fioonaphort, which can be a pain if you have already spent all day walking. We walked it quite a few times, no fxxer stopped to give us a lift, when we drove up the massive lane we made sure we stopped and asked every walker, we gave a few lifts.

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    Fionnphort to Loch Na Keal
    Wow, amazing scenery and tiny roads. Drove through a Forest saw a sign saying Forestry Commission/RSPB Eagle Watch (Booking Essential). I stopped to ask how we could book (no phone), some people had just seen a White Tailed Eagle (Sea Eagle), so we wondered up to the hide, wardens were just leaving but pointed us in the right direction of the Eagle! We bumped into an old couple as we were leaving, so I walked back up with them to show them the Eagle.

    Stopped off for a meal with family & friends who had hired a cottage, which meant we didn’t set off to our campsite til v late, by which time loads of sheep & lambs had started sleeping on the tiny rd! Loads of people were wild camping just off the road all around Loch Na Keal.

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    Killiechronan Camping. Killiechronan. Loch Na Keal. PA72 6JU 01680 300284

    I’d rung from my dads cottage to let them know we would be there late, which was no problem. The campsite is a strip of grass off the rd, it is no different to the Wild camping around Loch Na Keal, except they have basic toilets 300 yds down the road at the House / scrap car place. £4pppn.

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    Some wildlife photos specifically for rickyroo, paradox & paul weeding
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    I asked the mechanic if he wanted to swap my fully restored camper for one of his scrap Land Rovers and he laughed, the news has even made it to Mull.

    Loch Na Keal camper van wildlife safari
    Loch Na Keal is an amazing spot for Wildlife - we saw, Golden Eagle, Sea Eagles, Buzzards dive bombing a Sea Eagle, plus we even saw an Otter. Wildlife tip: Stop when you see loads of people with binoculars and scopes, get chatting and look through their expensive professional equipment! Our binoculars are quite good, but some of the stuff these proper people have was like close ups in HD! The Eagles seem to nest in the same area, so if you are going to Mull I can happily point you to some good spotting places. We nipped across the Island at Salen, it’s narrowest point to see some seals and to grab a meal. We then went back to Loch Na Keal to continue our circular route around the Island.
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    continued below
     
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  9. paulcalf

    paulcalf Supporter

    Loch Na Keal to Calgary Bay wild camping
    Again it was another amazing and beautiful drive to our destination. This road has some good climbs and some serious twists and turns.
    It stays light til late on Mull in May, we parked up on hard standing above the bay, next to other motorhomes. At first I felt we were a bit close to other vans, but soon didn’t notice them when we shut the door and took in the amazing view. Public toilets were 500 yds down the road where other people were camped, but there were more midges down there! At 10pm it was still light and we had the fine white sand of the beach all to ourselves, my photos don't do the light or the beach justice. £0pppn
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    Calgary Bay to Tobermory
    I Started the day with a dip in the sea, I can’t even call it a swim. It was fffffreezing, I ran in, submerged myself, swore, stood up, swore some more, then dived under again before more swearing and then a well deserved cup of tea. Unfortunately didn’t get chance to check out the Veggie restaurant in Calgary Bay.

    Tobermory is a nice little village/town. They have a good Coop, this isn’t the sort of thing I’d usually mention, but there are very few places which you can restock supplies on the West side of the Island, where we had spent most of our time. We couldn’t get on a whale watching trip as they were all booked, I was a bit disappointed, but I’ll be going back to Mull as this trip has been so good. My girlfriend had been recommended the chip van in Tobermory she was well happy with her scallops, my chips were fine but not the best in the World as I’ve heard claimed. There is a distillery & gift shops for those who like that sort of thing.
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    Tobermory to Salen to Craignure
    We drove from Tobermory to Salen to meet up with family & friends for a meal at the Mediterranea restaurant. The food was lovely. When we left the retauraunt there was a massive cloud of midges waiting for us outside. We ran back to the van and continued to Craignure. We were glad we had decided to do all our camping on costal sites with a breeze.

    Craignure
    vwww.shielingholidays.co.uk Campsite near the ferry port. PA65 6AY 01680 812496
    Our ferry on Saturday wasn’t until 5.30pm and we wanted an earlier one so we stayed here. A Modern site with pitches for tourers, nice views & not noisy despite being near the ferry port. Very clean shower block, the owner likes making things out of white vinyl tent material, he was selling clothes driers for £350! Otters were spotted Saturday morning, but not by us! £19.50 for 2 adults in van, no electric hook up.

    Summary
    This 900 mile road trip was fantastic, great weather (most of the time), amazing wildlife, scenery, views and roads. I would definitely go again. Petrol cost £262.40 and the van achieved over 20mpg. I've got a massive engine and drive hard and fast! The van ate up the miles and loved being driven so far. I would recommend going to Mull.

    We broke up the trip which made it feel less far. Sheffield to Settle 2hrs (Friday overnight with family), big lunch in Penrith (meant I needed a kip before we had even reached Scotland), Saturday night at Loch Lomond Holiday Park (a modern site with great views), then 1hr 30 over to Oban before the ferry. Sunday to Saturday camping in Mull on the sites described above. On the journey home we drove from Oban via Loch Lomond to Penrith(stayed at gf’s family), 4hrs? with a quick fuel stop at Dumbarton. Penrith to Sheffield on Sunday 3hrs.

    I’m bored writing now and you are probably bored reading, but I will start another thread about being the only bay in the Village. On the 900 mile trip we only saw one split screen van in Salen (30 seconds) and one bay window van when I got back to Sheffield. The modern campers are taking over!
     
  10. bernjb56

    bernjb56 Supporter

    Stunning scenery - thanks for posting :thumbsup:
     
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  11. rickyrooo1

    rickyrooo1 Hanging round like a bad smell

    nice post, the H reg landy is interesting it's a very late series 2a which was the 1st to have headlights in the wings (pesky americans) these originally had a galvanised wire mesh grille which could be used to barby on.
     
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  12. paulcalf

    paulcalf Supporter

    Plus it has a great Reg number. He had loads of them rotting away!
     
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  13. rickyrooo1

    rickyrooo1 Hanging round like a bad smell

    and the series 3 is one of the last leaf sprung landies, by 84 they were already trialling coils on the stage 1 110 although still not called defender yet, you do see the odd B reg series but it's usually a left over job By B and C reg the 88 inch was dead and gone to be replaced by the Ninety which became the defender.

    wake up!
     
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  14. rickyrooo1

    rickyrooo1 Hanging round like a bad smell

    is tobermory ballamory off the telly?
     
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  15. Awesome pics and adventure thanks very much for sharing it with us
     
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  16. paulcalf

    paulcalf Supporter

    Yes ballamory was mainly filmed in Tobermory. Ballamory is not a real place!
     
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  17. MorkC68

    MorkC68 Administrator

    superb pics, cheers for sharing them!
     
  18. Excellent write up, thanks for sharing your experience.

    I am going to the Isle of Mull early October for the Mull Rally and hopefully after the midges have gone on their holidays.

    I don't know how much of the isle I will see due to the rally road restriction but I would like to wake up to some of the views in your pictures.

    I will be staying mainly just outside Tobermory at the Tobermory Campsite. There is a night stage through the middle of the town and promises of a festival type atmosphere during the entire duration of the rally.

    All this providing the government don't have a knee jerk reaction to some of the unfortunate recent events at the Jim Clark, TT & Shelsey Walsh hillclimb portraying motorsport as a dangerous thing, yes was news to me too.

    Again thanks for sharing.
     
    paulcalf likes this.
  19. Great review and pictures. I love Mull although I wouldn't fancy doing the roads from Calgary round the west side in a camper, certainly not in ours so kudos to you
     
  20. There's a ballamory shop there too
     

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