We’d been mulling over a trip to Mull for some time. Hebridean adventures have been a mixed bag; the Outer being outstanding, the Inner, not so much.

After a sudden spurt of holiday booking for the summer, prices were checked for a crossing for Spring Bank week to Mull and Caledonian MacBrayne were found to be asking a reasonable 60ish earth pounds each way from Oban to Craignure and back again. Campsites were investigated, and found to be unsurprisingly pricey, but right by the water. One full already, one with vacancies, and we were in.

The van was packed to bursting and we were away.

Oban was a tad too far to comfortably do in one go from the South Yorkshire Technology Corridor, and upsettingly our fave spot at Lettershaws was booked up, so we chanced our second ever Brit Stop for night one.

Not too far from our original planned stop, we arrived just before closing time on to the large gravel, mostly level car park and immediately acquired ice creams.

We discovered the on-site restaurant which was where the water and toilet facilities were, and even better we snagged one of the 5 tables for a right good feed.

What could have been a cheap stay over with minimal outlay and minimal facilities, turned in to a £100+ feast and leisurely evening in the sunshine.

It was a quiet night, lots of bird life to Merlin and a handful of neighbours, including a couple of tentboxers, which I thought was a bit weird. They are not exactly self contained. But any disturbance they may have caused was far away from us and they were gone really early.

We left in good time for our ferry, 3 more hours drive from Abington, so no time to stop and look around Oban once we got there, but given the opportunity we definitely will if we get chance on another trip.

The ferry was medium sized – bigger than the Isle of Wight scenario, but not in the same league as the cross-channel big boys. One hour across the waters and we were practically on the doorstep of the campsite.

The drive took all of 15 minutes, along green 2-lane roads with barely a sign of human life. Except the rugby club which was quickly noted.

Roadside stuffed with bluebells and gorse in flower, and typically I don’t think I have a single photo.

I kind of got the impression that Mull is the kind of place that you can’t whizz through and will take some slow-paced exploring to appreciate.

Pennygown Farm Campsite cost us 46 nicker per neet – quite pricey, but these are the times we live in.  Mother would appreciate the cleanliness and general state of the facilities – not sure she would be so keen on the rather militant warnings about the building being out of bounds during the 4 daily cleaning sessions.  However, they were generally clean and tidy.  The mistress  got a telling off from the cleaner one day  for daring to still have wet hair 10 minutes before cleaning time.  I’m proud of her for not starting a fight.  Although we didn’t hear the end of it for hours!

The plan was to take the week easy and see what we felt like doing.  The campsite had a lot of info on the local birds of prey and we spent a good few hours binocularising over a beverage or two and adding to our respective Merlin lists.

From our pitch we had a good view of the Sound and enjoyed watching the birds and planes coming in and going out again.  We were a short walk to Glenforsa Farm Shop, and Glenforsa Hotel and Airfield, which was just next door.

The google reviews for the farm shop were good, so we planned to brunch there, but they were closed on Bank Holiday Monday, so we headed next door to the hotel, and what an auspicious decision that was!

A shortcut from the main road through the woodland had the mistress quoting Lord of the Rings and the boy child panicking in case we got lost, and it brought us out on the back lawn of the hotel.  Not a big place, like a large Scandinavian Log Cabin with a bar, restaurant, and garden with an airfield in it.

We had a very leisurely lunch of 4 x main courses, desserts, a good few drinks and realised that eating out like this every day was going to bankrupt us!

Tuesday was Tobermory day.  We had clearly been lulled into a false sense of security by the drive from Craignure, because the majority of the road to Tobermory was single track.  As it was the main road, there were all sorts of vehicles scooting about, including buses and lorries who didn’t care for the oncoming traffic, or the precipitous drops just centimetres away from the edge of the tarmac.

I had researched parking previously, and was a bit perturbed about the reviews saying aggressive locals used agricultural machinery to remove tourist vehicles parked wrongly.  It looked like parking on the harbour would have some spaces suitable for the Big Red Van.  We had to do 2 circuits of the whole place to actually get in one though.

So, what’s the story in Tobermory?  A short one!  The harbourside is the main attraction with little touristy shops interspersed in with the actually useful ones. 

We bought books, fridge magnets, soap and decided to have lunch outside the Gallery – a restaurant set in an old church with a terrace in front.  It is pertinent to note that most of the rest of the UK was struggling under a 30+ degree heatwave at this point, and Mull, although warm was not in that bracket.  We did still retreat inside though!

We had pizzas and fresh seafood and paid dearly for it – only discovering afterwards that they added a hefty 12% service charge to the bill. What was much more reasonable was the ice creams from the little hut next to the sea.

4 x single scoops, made on the premises for £13.20 was much more like it!

Clearly we weren’t going to leave without visiting the distillery, so we sent the anklebiterz onto the sand whilst we purchased a collection of miniatures (and one very large, very limited edition) for tasting on our return to camp.

The short walk to the gravelly beach at the camp was great for wildlife spotting and was fresh and breezy at the end of a warm day watching the sun go down.

The tasting was enilightening, who knew that Gordon Buchanan was so delicious?  The conclusion of the evening was that we needed to taste a bit more of Gordon, preferably against the Eddu Breton whisky.

We decided to adventure into the wilds of the north, past Tobermory and out to Calgary Bay.  The other Calgary was named after it apparently, so we could judge which one we prefer.  We had to bypass Tobermory, so did a quick stop at the Tobermory stores for sausage rolls, which seeped grease all over my favourite seashell shopping bag en route. Bleurgh.

We passed a campsite top side of Tobermory, but quickly the road narrowed and the views opened up to some impressive views.  Loch Peallach, which we passed along the way was stunning, and we climbed up over the top and down to Dervaig to similarly impressive counryside.

It seemed like a long way, mainly because we had to keep reversing when a bus or other blundering vehicle came belting along with no intention of stopping at any of the passing points.

After some manoevring, we managed to park in the walled section of the beach car park at Calgary Bay.  It was busy as it was a a warm, sunny day, and once we were shoehorned into the corner of the car park we were in no rush to have to get out again.

But the trip was worth it.  This one was definitely my favourite Calgary,  We ate our greasy sausage rolls, had a couple of hours messing about on the beach, spotted an eagle, ate some ice creams and headed back to camp via the spar for refreshment supplies to see us through the evening.

The weather took a turn towards the end of the week, with the wind picking up, and rain coming in.  We had thought of getting the ferry over to Iona, but with it being a bit gusty we headed down to Duart Castle near Craignure for a bit of history.

I am absolutely kicking myself that I didn’t take photos of the silver candlesticks mounted on the hooves of significant horses that died after fighting bravely in various conflicts, they really were a sight to behold.  As were the artefacts relating to the prisoners taken from Spanish ships which had sheltered in the Sound of Mull after scarpering from the Armada’s defeat.

We did have fun in the dungeons, as  you do.  KB made the most menacing prisoner, obvs.

On our last day we had a lazy morning, followed by brunch at the farm shop and a bit of hanging about in Craignure before getting the ferry at 5 and driving on to By The Way at Tyndrum, which has changed a bit since our last stay during covid.

It was much more midgey in Tyndrum than it had been on Mull, so we adjourned to Ben Lui indian restaurant for tea and an early night, before a looong drive home.

I haven’t dared to try to add up everything we spent on this trip – with being in the UK we spent money from a variety of accounts with no penalty for exchange rates, and besides it would make for a horrific total with all the eating out we did.

Next stop is summer in the Dordogne…

#campervancapers