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:
The clan system, however, was always important, and following the end of the 15th century, virtually all the inhabitants lived within the clan system, a complex social hierarchy within which the clan chief held the land in trust for his clansmen, who were in turn bound to him in ties of kinship. This way of life was largely pastoral, founded on breeding cattle, which was the only form of wealth that could be liquidated by export to the mainland. Many of the routes taken by the cattle drovers across the island can still be followed today, virtually all of them leading to the lovely setting of Grasspoint near Craignure from where the beasts were taken to the island of Kerrera and onward to the mainland.
As with many of the Scottish islands, Mull suffered its share of grief under the so-called Highland Clearances, and it would be temptingly incorrect to assume that all the houses found derelict by the roadside are the by-product of the Clearances; in fact, many of the houses were still inhabited in the 20th century. Evidence of the Clearances is, however, found all over the islands. Twenty crofters and three townships were cleared in Mishnish in the north of the island in 1842. Glengorm suffered hugely at the hands of James Forsyth, with wholesale clearances of crofts and townships. Four centres were cleared in Calgary in 1822, while in Treshnish three townships were cleared in 1862. Ulva and Gometra saw arguably the most extensive destruction when 100 people were evicted between 1846 and 1851, and were soon followed by the remaining inhabitants of the islands.
River Bellart and Loch a’ Chumhainn, Dervaig
The main settlement on Mull today is Tobermory, which in 1788 was built by the British Fisheries Society, as a planned settlement. Over the centuries Mull’s population increased, reaching 10,638 in 1831, but the potato famine and then the Clearances rapidly reduced this number. By the 20th century much of the population had emigrated and there were more sheep on Mull than people.
Today Mull and its neighbouring islands have a population of fewer than 3000. Farming, fishing and forestry used to be the economic mainstays of the island, but increasingly, tourism is responsible for much of the island economy.
Geology
If the history of Mull is not very well documented, the island’s geology is quite the opposite, and its geological pedigree is such that it has for many years attracted geologists in large numbers, who come to marvel at the landscape and its secrets. Common to most accounts is the imagery that Mull is constructed like a multi-tiered wedding cake, with thick layers of basalt lava sitting on top of a complicated basement of much older rocks which poke out around the edges of Mull. Geologists love Mull because it has such a long and interesting history (the oldest rocks, found on Iona, are about 2000 million years old), and it has unique structures and rocks found nowhere else in the world.
Basalt columns, Ulva (Walk 4.1)
Like much of Britain, Mull has not always been in its present position, and geological time has seen it affected by enormous changes. Mull’s oldest rocks were formed in the southern hemisphere, and, in common with the rest of the British Isles, Mull has gradually drifted northwards. A study of its rocks, even by the non-specialist, shows that they have preserved details of the climatic zones that they passed through on their northward journey. One particularly fine example of this will be found if you stand on the shoreline opposite Inch Kenneth at Gribun. Here, you will be standing on sandstones deposited in a desert region at the same sort of latitude as the Persian Gulf.
Even the untrained eye can see that most of Mull is made of lava; the tell-tale flows ripple across the landscape virtually everywhere. The lava poured from volcanoes at a time when the north Atlantic was forming, and Mull was torn apart from its then neighbour Greenland as the vast super-continent which once joined North America and Europe divided. The molten lava that erupted 50–60 million years ago, at intervals of thousands of years, forms Mull’s stepped tablelands. Into these, intrusions of other rocks, all formed by fire, later took place, creating the mountains of Mull’s central igneous complex, of which the Geological Survey of Scotland in 1924, said: ‘Mull includes the most complicated igneous centre as yet accorded detailed examination anywhere in the world.’ Volcanic explosions and intense earthquakes shook Mull throughout its formative years, and one of the old fault lines, the Great Glen Fault, which touches upon the southern part of Mull, is still occasionally active.
As with the rest of Britain, Mull’s final shape was carved by glaciers that melted only 10,000 years ago, leaving behind deep U-shaped valleys between the mountains and long glaciated lochs. Of these, Glen Clachaig is a supreme example. It is a wild and fascinating landscape, made all the more intriguing by even a superficial understanding of what you are looking at. That glaciers were a part of Mull’s geological profile is evidenced by the presence of isolated boulders, or erratics, that litter the landscape. Elsewhere, as at the head of Loch Scridain and Loch na Keal, you find the rocks have been heavily scored by the passage of ice-borne rocks. Once the glaciers were gone, the landscape that remained was little different from what you see today; in a sense it remains quite primeval, boasting a geological antiquity that is quite tangible and endlessly absorbing.
Glen Clachaig (Walk 2.6)
Plants and Wildlife
For such a small island, Mull is amazingly diverse in its plant life, with more than 4000 different plant species. There are no less than 800 flowering plants and conifers, almost 250 different seaweeds, 56 ferns, 556 mosses and liverworts, almost 700 lichens and just under 1800 fungi…enough to keep even amateur botanists enthralled on every walk in this book, and for years to come.
Heather in bloom in Tireragan reserve (Walk 3.6)
First impressions are often misleading, for at times there is a prevailing sense of great swathes of bracken and heather. But that is only part of the story, and each season brings its own varieties, from the wild daffodils, bluebells, primroses and violets of spring to the winter deep greens; from the swaying foxgloves, orchids and harebells of summer to the gold of autumn. Wherever plants can grow, they do: Grass of Parnassus, tormentil, asphodel, scabious and cotton grass brighten the moorland bogs, while even the mountain peaks yield gentians and alpines.
There is much commercial forest on Mull, mainly featuring Sitka spruce, Japanese larch and lodgepole pine, but there is also an abundance of deciduous trees like birch, oak, rowan and wild cherry.
Nor is it all about the plants; the wildlife of these islands is every bit as varied. Red deer are seen almost anywhere and everywhere, with fallow deer populating the woodlands around Loch na Keal and Loch Ba. There are even wild goats, which keep very much to themselves among the coastal cliffs. Mull and Ulva have adders and slow worms, although neither are present on Iona.
Black highland bull
Around the coast, you frequently see common seals and grey seals; dolphins, too, and whales are also often spotted, especially minke whales, harbour porpoises and bottlenose dolphins; on rare occasions you may be fortunate enough to spot killer whales (orca) and basking sharks. But perhaps more than any other form of wildlife, it is the otter that attracts most attention. Far СКАЧАТЬ