This morning we left Oban on the ferry for the Isle of Mull. It took about 50 minutes. From there we drove about 1 1/2 hour on a single track road with pull over area to the end of the island. There we took another ferry for a few minutes to Iona in the Atlantic Ocean. These islands are part of the Inner Hebrides.
Along the way we had nice sunny weather. One of the beautiful sights was the lush pastures and contented sheep. Another was the heather growing along the roadside — the heather on the hill. In Brigadoon, one of the songs goes like this:
Can’t we two go walkin’ together, out beyond the valley of trees?
Out where there’s a hillside of heather, curtsyin’ gently in the breeze.
That’s what I’d like to do: see the heather–but with you.
The mist of May is in the gloamin’, and all the clouds are holdin’ still.
So take my hand and let’s go roamin’ through the heather on the hill.
When we reached Iona it was windy and a bit chilly. In 597 A.D. Saint Columba came from Ireland to Iona to spread Christianity. From here Columba prepared the famous Book of Kells, an illuminated Gospels, now displayed in the Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland. It is not certain that anything remains on the island from the time of Columba, but there are numerous medieval ruins. Here is a photo of the ruins of the Iona Nunnery.
By the time we left the island the rain had begun. This is the way it looked when our ferry arrived at the Isle of Mull to take us back to Oban.
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