Isle of Eigg

Friday July 5, 2019

After 10 hours of blissful sleep, we were up and at it just before 6. We needed to catch a ferry at 11 and it was a 3 hour drive. We’ve had enough experience to know that things generally take longer than the GPS would have you believe. Once out of the city, the countryside was beautiful. Lots of green fields. It was sunny; rainy; cloudy; sunny and rainy. We got it all on the way up here.

Most of the drive was through the Loch Lombard and Trossachs National Park. (Loch means lake.) Spectacular scenery! Very old mountains covered in grass with rock outcroppings here and there. Narrow winding roads. Very few cars and almost no houses. Sheep once in while. The clouds were very low and looked like mist at the top of some of the mountains. I took some pictures, mostly while driving since rarely is there a place to pull off the road, but I know they won’t do the beauty justice.

We arrived at the ferry with 20 minutes to spare. The ferry was smaller than we thought it would be.  The 11 mile trip took an hour over some rather rough water. Thankfully, I took something for nausea before getting on the boat. A mum with two little ones was busy with them throwing up. I gave her some anti-nausea pills for the trip back. Dave chatted with Alister Kirk for most of the trip. He lives on the island and shared lots of interesting tidbits with us. (There are times you can see whales while on the ferry, but not today. Hopefully on the way back tomorrow.)

The Isle of Eigg (pronounced egg) is 6 miles by 3 miles with about 100 residents. It’s located in the Inner Hebrides on the west side of middle Scotland. Why did we go there? Because we saw this amazing stone cottage and wanted to stay there. After it was booked, we did our research - backwards  I know. That’s when we found out it was a bit of drive and we had to catch a ferry to get there. No, we didn’t know it was on an island when we booked it. This is how we travel. A bit crazy, but adventurous!

After docking, we walked up the road to the small store/restaurant and got some tea. There were about 7 men sitting outside on the bench. Locals who must do this all the time. It made for a great picture. Sue, the owner of the bothy (the cottage we were to stay) was suppose to meet us, but wasn’t there yet. One of the guys asked us if we needed a ride and we said Sue was going to get us. “Which Sue? There are two on the island.” We got that figured out and someone called her. In the meantime, Dave made a reservation for supper. If you saw this small place, you’d wonder about the need for reservations.

Sue arrived and took us to her house and the bothy (a small cottage for use as a mountain refuge). Turns out the bothy is a very small stone building that used to be a barn for cattle. It’s about 15’ by 20’ and cozy as all get out! It was raining when we arrived and chilly inside so Dave got the teeny tiny wood stove going. We were as snug as a bug while we napped and read the afternoon away. Too wet to be outside.

We booked a taxi to pick us up for supper. It’s about a 75 minute/3 mile walk to “town”/the restaurant-store. The taxi driver, Charlie, had a blue toque with Scotland on it, a longish beard, and loved to talk. He chatted and told stories for the 10 minute drive. We caught about half of what he said. When he laughed, we laughed. It was fun just to listen to his voice.

The restaurant was humming with all but one of the six tables full. Some locals were standing just outside. They have a tight community here. The atmosphere was great! We enjoyed supper and then headed out - on foot. We decided to walk back. There’s one road on the island and you’d think it’d be easy to find the way back to the bothy. We got lost. Twice. On the same “road”. The problem was that we couldn’t see the road from where we were standing and so took a rather long driveway. After deciding it wasn’t right, we went back to the restaurant. It was still the only road we could see so thought we just hadn’t gone far enough. After the second attempt, we saw the road below us tucked under an overhang. The walk was spectacular. Words can’t begin to describe the beauty here.

The 75 minute walk took us 2 hours - arriving at the bothy at 9:30. After reading for a bit we climbed into bed - sleeping where cows have slept for many years.

One thing I learned today: The shoes I brought aren’t the best for long distances. Two blisters. Thankfully I have other shoes back in the car.
One new thing I experienced today: Goats trying to climb on the roof at midnight. First, “What’s that?!” Followed by thinking it’s funny. Then, “Enough is enough. Knock it off!”
Most powerful moment of the day: The beauty of this isle. Words can’t begin to describe it.
One pleasurable experience: Seeing a guy, in his 20s, changing a tire on the side of the road in his kilt.