19-Jul-2014 Erraid

We wanted to go for a ride to another island- Tidal Erraid which is only 1 mile square and reputed as being one of the driest and sunniest places on west coast of Scotland.

We hoped to be back at Fionnphort before the rain promised for 4 clock and we set off past the free car park on a single track road through rocky outcrops bordered by cotton grass. At the bottom of the hill we came to a farm with a camp site. Everywhere roamed the lovely black faced sheep we’ve been seeing since this part of Mull. They looked clean enough to take inside. The lanes wind and climb quite a lot without much vegetation to obscure views. It looks like there may have been iris earlier though judging by the leaves left.

 Erraid was the site for a signal station for the lighthouses on Dubh Artah and Sherryvore built by Stevenson and his son, Robert Louis based some of his” Kidnapped “story on this island as he was familiar with it. The lighthouse- keepers’ cottages now house followers of the Findhorn foundation.

   

After walking up a few hills we came to a dead end at a farm gate where we passed through until at the farmhouse we had to walk down a very stony steep track of small boulders. Bob pushed the bike down and I was very aware that we had to push the bike back up again later. In the farmyard somewhere a dog barked and I felt as if we were trespassing even though Bob assured me we weren’t. Eventually we came to a derelict boat where Bob tucked the bike out of sight and we continued without its encumbrance towards the beach. After a bit we came out at a causeway, a wide stretch of sand and we followed the hoof marks of sheep and cows. A herd were scattered across the extent of sand between Mull and Erraig, with a huge bull amongst them. On the ride over, from a distance the cattle had looked like seals. The size of the beasts and the fact that mothers were with their calves made me more than a little wary. There was nowhere to run only rock but as we rounded a bend we were able to climb off the sand and onto a grassy bank. We were on Erraid.

 

 

In my little book of walks around Mull it said to head for the white cottage with a statue looking seawards on our right. We sank into the sand and boggy bits. Close to you could see the statue was made roughly from bits of driftwood like a downgrade of the Angel of the North looking out to sea.

The island is inhabited mainly by people from the Findhorn Foundation and we passed their cottages later on our left and their walled vegetable plots. The path went through a gate, up and left towards the white gate of the cottages, passing buildings being renovated. A steep climb on the right before the white gate took us to a quarry with plenty of pink granite around and people have been building cairns. Past a ruined building we turned left up a rocky and peaty path until we reached stone steps on the right. We climbed up to the old observation tower, not locked but bolted and rusted up. There was a good view but cloud was closing in. We had to move if we didn’t want to get wet. We retraced our steps back to the cows in the causeway where it started to rain 45 minutes early! The bike was worse to push up the rocky hill in the rain but at least we rode up all the road hills on the 3 miles back.