The Isle of Mull. Terry Marsh
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Название: The Isle of Mull
Автор: Terry Marsh
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Книги о Путешествиях
isbn: 9781783625604
isbn:
But so changeable is Mull that you can never experience it all in one visit; you will simply have to come back, often and again.
Terry Marsh
Glen Aros and distant view of Loch Frisa (Walk 1.16)
INTRODUCTION
An t-Eilean Muileach, an t-eilean aghmhor,
An t-Eilean grianach mu’n iath an saile,
Eilean buadhmhor nam fuar bheann arda,
Nan coilltean uaine, ‘s cluaintean fasail.
The Isle of Mull, of Isles the fairest,
Of ocean’s gems ‘tis the first and rarest;
Green grassy island of sparkling fountains,
Of dark green woods and tow’ring mountains.
Dugald MacPhail (An t’Eilean Muileach)
With a diversity of land forms unequalled by any other Scottish island, Mull is a place of wild beauty: untamed, rugged and never uninteresting. Great swathes of Mull are approachable only on foot, and while there are roads (240km/150 miles of them), the abiding impression is that they are incidental, in a very minor way, to life on the island.
Separated from the Scottish mainland by the Sound of Mull and the Firth of Lorn, Mull, with an area of just under 90,000 hectares, is the third largest of the Hebridean islands (unless you want to play the pedant and claim that the larger Skye is no longer an island because someone built a bridge linking it with the mainland). With a coastline deeply penetrated by a ragged 480km (300 miles) of sea lochs and inlets that reward the visitor with constantly changing views, Mull is an island of delight and considerable variety. Indeed, it is the coastline that vies with the mountain heartlands as the island’s most outstanding feature, offering towering cliffs and sandy bays, basalt columns and pink granite crags.
Calgary Bay (Walk 1.9)
Geologically, Mull’s origins are violently volcanic, but dramatised in such a complex evolution that the island is the stuff of dreams for geologists. The visiting walker soon comes to realise that it is this underlying foundation, the bones of the island, that provides a landscape both varied and demanding, blessed with considerable beauty and diversity. High (and not-so-high) mountains, remote glens, coastal paths along raised beaches, forest walks and island treks make Mull one of the most resource-full of the Scottish islands for the walker. Although a great deal of the coastline is rugged and rocky, in the south-west there are splendid beaches of glistening shell sand set against machair lands and sheltered crofting communities.
Like much of western Scotland, especially the islands, Mull has seen its share of that shadowy period in Scottish history known as ‘the Clearances’, but on Mull, the story of depopulation is not as clear-cut as elsewhere. Surprisingly, perhaps, for an island so close to mainland Scotland, Mull is relatively undeveloped, with few of the ‘town’ facilities and services of Oban. You come to Mull to escape and to enjoy its fundamental simplicity, for that is its charm. And the exploration of the winding narrow roads, all of them feeding into heathered and loch-filled glens, is the island’s greatest pleasure.
As the eagle flies, Mull stretches 44.5km (28 miles) from Ardmore Point in the north to Rudh’ Ardalanish in the south, and 49km (30 miles) from Duart Point in the east to the coast overlooking Iona in the west. But such statistics are meaningless in this contorted landscape. At its narrowest, Mull is a mere 4.25km (2½ miles) from Salen Bay to Killiechronan. Around the coast lie numerous islands, for Mull is not so much one island as an island group; some – Ulva, Gometra, Erraid and Iona – have interest for walkers. Others – Treshnish Isles and Staffa – are the stuff of legend, and popular on the tourist and wildlife trails. But Mull and its islands are not a place to be consumed in haste. Even visitors with the most basic interest in matters of natural history will find themselves stopping by the roadside to peer at seals, otters, deer, and the birds of the air.
It is a far cry from the scene that greeted Dr Johnson, who visited the island in October 1773, admittedly on a drab day, and remarked that Mull was ‘a dreary country, much worse than Sky…a most dolorous country!’. His companion Boswell, however, seems to have been rather more discerning, describing the island as ‘a hilly country, diversified with heath and grass, and many rivulets’.
Such opposing views of Mull may well be typical; much depends on the eye of the beholder. But even on the gloomiest of days, the beauty of Mull will out, and the rewards for patience and persistence are memories that will last a lifetime and a joy that will make the heart ache.
History
The history of Mull is not well documented, and there has been no attempt by anyone to write a full history of the island, except for a two-volume work by J P Maclean, published in America in 1922. Those volumes were essentially anthological, based on published works at the time and not on research in original material. Jo Currie’s book Mull: The Island and its People, published in 2000, is excellent for detailed information about the history of the families and clans of the island (and its islands), but is not an authoritative treatise on island history. Numerous lesser publications and information on the internet give potted histories of Mull, but a definitive work by a professional historian is long overdue.
Standing stones, Glen Gorm (Walk 1.4)
It is generally believed that Mull was first inhabited about 8000–10,000 years ago, following the last Ice Age. Hunter-gatherers lived in caves, such as the so-called Livingston’s Cave on Ulva, and roamed freely across the island group. Then came the great transition, when the nomadic people started to settle down and become farmers, as they did throughout Britain and much of Europe, anything up to 6000 years ago. These Neolithic people, and the Bronze Age people that followed them, were responsible for many of the burial cairns that still dot the islands. Their presence is attested by a wealth of such cairns, cists, standing stones, stone circles, beaker pottery and knife blades. The Iron Age people who lived on Mull from around 2500–1500 years ago built forts, brochs, duns and crannogs, and a great many defensive settlements across the islands.
Christianity is believed to have come to the islands in the sixth century, when Columba landed from Ireland on the southernmost point of Iona, and set up a monastery on the island. But within a century, the island of Iona was sacked by Vikings, who continued to raid the islands of Mull for several centuries before becoming settlers.
In the 14th century, Mull became part of the Lordship of the Isles, but after the collapse of the Lordship in 1493, the island was taken over by the Clan MacLean, who were to suffer for their support of the Royalist СКАЧАТЬ