Luing
Monday 6th June
The ferry leaves from Cuan for Luing(pronounced Ling) every
half hour. We had been surprised by the large dumper trucks heading towards the
ferry as we cycled from the B and B. The roads were on steep hills. We were
stopping to let them pass and the dusty contents spilled over, getting in our
eyes. The red and blue ferry was quite small and we were really surprised when
one of these overfilled monsters was waived onto the deck. The cars had to wait
for the next boat as it sat in the middle of the space and only us and some
walkers were allowed with it. Balance must have been an issue. We could see
eddies which caught at the boat and stopped it from going in a straight line-or
so it seemed to us. We were crossing the Cuan Sound which only took a few
minutes.
We rode every road on Luing but
unfortunately we couldn’t travel below Tobernochy as there were only footpaths in
the hills, but no more than 300 feet up.
Luing seems full of wild flowers
and we heard cuckoos several times. The island is 6 miles by 1½ miles wide. We took the road south passing the
little primary school and island church. At the ruined Kilchattan chapel we
walked round the grave stones noticing the different designs with some in the
thin slate that the land is made from. It was good to have some edifying
notices telling us about the Luing cattle and things to look out for in the cemetery.
I was really pleased to find the graffiti boat, Scandinavian in design, that is
etched in the south wall of the ruin. One thought is that the several graffiti
drawings were done by children over 300 years ago. The chapel is recorded as in
use from 1589. At the museum we visited later it suggested they were made by the
boatmen themselves because of the detail.
Alexander Campbell, a founder of
a strict sect who expelled all other members for not adhering to the set
beliefs, carved 4 grave stones for himself on which he denounced play actors,
men with whiskers and pictures…. There is plenty to read at this site.
A board also describes the Luing
Cattle which we pass several times today with their calves. They seem placid
enough. Even large bulls were free to roam we noticed! This breed has been
recognised since the 1960s and is a cross between Highland and shorthorn
cattle. Beside the graveyard wall is a pile of thick red hair, quite furry,
that must have come from one of the beasts using the stone as a scratching
post.
In Tobernochry there were
beautiful rows of white terraced cottages, striking against the dark slate.
Someone was sunbathing on a towel on the black gravel beach which looked rather
like coal dust. This is the site of an old slate quarry. Across the water we
could see another small island called Shuna at the end of which was a fish
farm.
We had to retrace our route to
the chapel and then turn left for Blackmill Bay where the sheep were right down
to the sea with lambs hiding behind their mothers. Spikes of rotten wood that
once was the steamer pier echoed the past. There was nothing much here except a
few houses and the only B and b we have seen on the island.
It was most of the way back to
the ferry until we turned left to Cullipool. We found the shop cum post office and
bought a meat pie and a sandwich. This is the only shop on the island.
Continuing on we came to the
village hall or rather the Altantic islands Centre that only opened in 2015,
where we thought there might be toilets. It is a lovely modern light building
that still smells new! There are information areas with displays , upstairs and
down and a good café which tempted us to
ditch our supplies from the shop which were no way as tempting as food on offer
here. Wasteful I know!
We could only have a beer if we
drank it inside- not so on Seil. We’d been in the sun a while so we didn’t mind
sitting in. We discovered Colonsay bitter which we both liked and looked
forward to when we visit that island later on.
There is a tasteful gift shop and
a slate festival here starting Friday sounded interesting.
We were the only ones on the
ferry back.
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