The Inner Hebrides

How to get the very best from Planet Earth.
User avatar
Goat Boy
Bogarting the joint
Posts: 32974
Joined: 20 Mar 2007, 12:11
Location: In the perfumed garden

The Inner Hebrides

Postby Goat Boy » 22 Jul 2016, 10:00

Tips? Advice? Thoughts? Stories?

The lass and I are thinking about holidaying there next year and I’d love to hear what BCB has to say.
Griff wrote:The notion that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong vocal proponent of antisemitism, would stand in front of an antisemitic mural and commend it is utterly preposterous.


Copehead wrote:a right wing cretin like Berger....bleating about racism

User avatar
Minnie the Minx
funky thigh collector
Posts: 33546
Joined: 29 Dec 2006, 16:00
Location: In the naughty North and in the sexy South

Re: The Inner Hebrides

Postby Minnie the Minx » 23 Jul 2016, 16:41

I'll get back to this. Some of my best holidays have been on Mull and I would recommend them to anyone.
You come at the Queen, you best not miss.

Dr Markus wrote:
Someone in your line of work usually as their own man cave aka the shed we're they can potter around fixing stuff or something don't they?


Flower wrote:I just did a google search.

User avatar
Jimbly
Posts: 21957
Joined: 21 Jul 2003, 23:17
Location: ????

Re: The Inner Hebrides

Postby Jimbly » 24 Jul 2016, 01:06

Only been Outer
So Long Kid, Take A Bow.

User avatar
trans-chigley express
Posts: 19238
Joined: 11 Nov 2003, 01:50
Location: Asia's WC

Re: The Inner Hebrides

Postby trans-chigley express » 24 Jul 2016, 13:40

Been to Outer and Inner and love them. Skye is my favourite of the Inner Hebrides , especially the southern half and the magical Cuillin Hills (if you're a hiker it is a must), but Mull is beautiful too along with its small neighbour Iona with its gorgeous white sandy beaches and clear (but cold) water. camped a couple of nights on remote Rùm too which was great. Not easy to get to from memory, boats are not frequent but we got one to drop us off and pick us up again a couple days later but it was nice to be so isolated as it has a very small population and lots of wilderness to lose yourself in if that's your thing.

User avatar
Hightea
Posts: 4361
Joined: 16 Apr 2015, 02:18
Location: NY state

Re: The Inner Hebrides

Postby Hightea » 02 Aug 2016, 03:40

Only been to Isle of Skye which I loved. Stayed in a house on the water in downtown Portree. The Cullins are one of the nicest little mountain ranges in the world. Also liked the Quaring and hiking up to the Tables. If you like fine dining Three Chimneys in Dunvegan is a must.

Hiking up to the Tables
Image


Image


The Cullins - Hiked up this one!
Image

Portree
Image

User avatar
hippopotamus
Posts: 950
Joined: 22 Dec 2015, 11:00

Re: The Inner Hebrides

Postby hippopotamus » 07 Sep 2016, 00:22

I've only been to Skye, but I've been about 3 times in the last 2 years. It's hard to go anywhere else, because it's a very special place. I wanted to live in the faerie pools in the sunshine. I've never found it so hard to remove myself from a place.

Image
Diamond Dog wrote:
nev gash wrote:What is point?


Indeed, what is point?

User avatar
Six String
Posts: 23071
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 20:22

Re: The Inner Hebrides

Postby Six String » 07 Sep 2016, 05:04

I stayed on Islay four nights. We stayed at a place that is now part of Bowmore and no longer an independent inn. Not that you can't atill stay there. It's quiet and the restaurant was so good that we never ate anywhere else in town. The room price includes a full breakfast and the best one I had the entire trip. Their list of whiskys must have been near 100 with some offerings from distilleries no longer in business. It was called the Harbour Inn in 2013. It was convenient, quiet and the staff couldn't have been more personable and professional. We felt like family by the time we left. There are plenty of places to hike both on the beach and in the woods. There's a cool Celtic cross within hiking distance of Ardbeg. Public transport is possible, we rented a car for one day only. Bus service is obviously slow on a small island like this. If you are willing to walk and bus you can probably do without a car. It depends on what you want to do. You can get to some distilleries by bus. Ardbeg, Lagavulin and Laphroig are easily accessible by bus.
Everything is broken
B. Dylan

User avatar
Minnie the Minx
funky thigh collector
Posts: 33546
Joined: 29 Dec 2006, 16:00
Location: In the naughty North and in the sexy South

Re: The Inner Hebrides

Postby Minnie the Minx » 24 Sep 2016, 16:00

I went to the Isle of Mull in the late 1990s with my family, for three years on the trot. When my parents first invited us, I was reluctant as I had heard tales of being constantly holiday cottage bound due to appalling weather and I didn't want to spend my holidays sat in a car eating chip butties to the sound of windscreen wipers going back and forth. Fuck, I'm glad we did it.

I wish I still had a photobucket account so I could upload some of the better pics.

I don't know where to start really - I'll just ramble.


To start with, you do have to have a car. Public transport is not good and the places you will want to go and see are not well serviced. The journey to Oban, where you get a ferry is beautiful in and of itself and the winding roads that dip down to show flashes of lochs are amazing. Some of the old houses, now hotels, that line that journey are extraordinary. It is quite a time since I was last there, but my parents who go there every year stock up on basics at the Co-op in Oban before they get on the ferry. The food shopping in Mull can be a bit grim, think cold war grim, and you don't want to be fighting with some town planner from Reading over the last soft carrot in the vegetable section. My parents decided not to self cater last year and eat out most of the time, and were not very unsurprised to find that the quality of food in very many places is a bit shit except for the fabulous chippy in Tobermory. A food gourmet holiday it will not be. Unless you like oysters.

There are miles and miles of some of the most glorious beaches you will ever see and when I say that they are unspoilt, you would think a human had never been near them. I can't even remember the names of most of them and this link doesn't do it justice but go and have a look here

http://www.holidaymull.co.uk/mull/beaches

Deep, deep blue beauty and golden beaches and all manner of wildlife. Dolphins etc all just dicking about near you. The most notable thing is the quiet. No road noise, (you'll be driving on a lot of single track roads with passing places) and at night you could be on a planet in space for all anyone knows, with just the sound of seals basking up on shore and the sound of loch water bubbling up and down with an occasional flying fish plop-plop.

If walking is your thing there's more than enough to do, and we did a couple of mountains including Ben More (highest on the Hebrides.) The view from the top is enough to make a grown woman cry. They are not 'hard' though the scree slopes at the top are a bit bad if you don't like heights.

A day trip to Iona is an absolute must and to see the old buildings there and a pilgrimage to John Smith's grave, naturally. The beaches on Iona are gorgeous. It's hard to describe the sense of peace you have on there, as well as Mull itself.

Midges are bastards, are relentless and will make your holiday miserable if you sit outside at the wrong time.

We've only 'hung out' socially in Tobermory at the distillery and the pub there. You probably know that Tobermory's visiting demographic changed after Balamory - that was a couple of years after I first started going and the already taciturn shopkeepers and landlords in that area were none too pleased at the sudden onslaught of children mouth breathing on their shop front windows :D. I really don't know what it's like now, but I know that the whiskey selection in the pub seemed to consist of about 1673 different types and that all my family got mullered and then very ill, except me as I don't like it, and we had some long and hilarious walks back to the cottage we were staying in at midnight and it was still light.

My favourite Mull spot is at the bottom of Ben More (I think) looking out to Inchkenneth. Inchkenneth is a tiny island just off Mull, and the first time I saw it I became obsessed with a house on there and I ended up writing to owner - a pediatrician from London who used it as a holiday home - this was in the days before the internet where I could just Google it. The history of it was more amazing than I could ever imagine and I still today want to live in that house so fucking badly. There is a wonderful video of it here - with an amazing interview

https://vimeo.com/14940958

Anyway, I would be back there in a shot. I can't wait to take Baron.
You come at the Queen, you best not miss.

Dr Markus wrote:
Someone in your line of work usually as their own man cave aka the shed we're they can potter around fixing stuff or something don't they?


Flower wrote:I just did a google search.

User avatar
Goat Boy
Bogarting the joint
Posts: 32974
Joined: 20 Mar 2007, 12:11
Location: In the perfumed garden

Re: The Inner Hebrides

Postby Goat Boy » 26 Sep 2016, 14:11

Thanks folks!
Griff wrote:The notion that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong vocal proponent of antisemitism, would stand in front of an antisemitic mural and commend it is utterly preposterous.


Copehead wrote:a right wing cretin like Berger....bleating about racism

User avatar
Jimbly
Posts: 21957
Joined: 21 Jul 2003, 23:17
Location: ????

Re: The Inner Hebrides

Postby Jimbly » 26 Sep 2016, 19:39

The food on Barra is fab. Cafe Kisimul, cafe during the day, restuarant at night. Plus a well stocked Co-Op for self catering.
So Long Kid, Take A Bow.

User avatar
Jumper K
Posts: 2847
Joined: 22 Oct 2014, 16:25

Re: The Inner Hebrides

Postby Jumper K » 26 Sep 2016, 21:54

I spent 9 months on St Kilda. Outer I know but if you can get out there do. I saw Orcas and Minke whales, was attacked by Skuas and caught fresh pollock from the bay to the BBQ in 20 minutes. I'm still a member of the KGB (the Kilda Generating Board).

User avatar
harvey k-tel
Long Player
Posts: 40893
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 23:20
Location: 1220 on your AM dial

Re: The Inner Hebrides

Postby harvey k-tel » 26 Sep 2016, 21:56

My ancestors are from Skye. I'd like to make it over there one day.
Tempora mutatur et nos mutamur in illis

User avatar
Six String
Posts: 23071
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 20:22

Re: The Inner Hebrides

Postby Six String » 12 Nov 2016, 03:47

I forgot a out the midges! We planned our trip to miss them and we did but you never know since it is weather dependent. I don't think I ever saw or felt one. Everything I read and have been told is they can be horrid and the poisons to keep them away are just as bad. The weather was really fine while we were there in September.
Everything is broken
B. Dylan


Return to “All Around The World”