We had another boat trio today, this time we took the short crossing from Fionnphort jetty across the sound to Iona.
We had a quick look at the ruined nunnery before setting of for a ramble on the island.
It is possible to walk a couple of loops on the island which take in the high point at Dun I, in the north , and the beach at the south end of the Island where St Columba was said to have initially landed with 12 companions in AD 653. Apparently he had upset someone in Ireland and did a runner.
There are some rudimentary maps given out which describe the route. Scotland is not like England where ancient footpaths and rights of way are jealously guarded by the Ramblers Association. In Scotland there is a right to roam on any open ground, as long as no damage is done. It sometimes means that footpaths are not clearly defined and we found this out on our route to the south end of the island, the path seemed to disappear and before we knew it we were looking down a cliff face into an old marble quarry, clearly not the way to go. We reappraised our route and scrambled out of the heath, across wild country to eventually find a footpath in the centre of the island. Cutting our loses we decided to head north to try to pick up the footpath on the western side of the island which would take us up to the high point. That too proved fruitless due to lack of direction signs of any indication of where the path may be.
Eventually we returned to the main village where we had a look at the Maclean's Cross and the Abbey. The island was full of people visiting from a cruise ship anchored in the sound, they were returned o the mothership on rubber tenders which looked quite exciting. Not sure how many of them forked out a tenner each for a peek into the Abbey, we certainly didn't.
Returning to Fionnphort we enjoyed a quick drink in the local hotel prior to our walk back to base.Baca lagi