Adventures on the Isle of Mull | Van Life at 20 Weeks Pregnant

One restless evening in May, Harvey and I decided we wanted a little getaway in the van. Now that we live in Cumbria, Scotland really isn’t that far away, so we considered how far we wanted to travel for a long weekend. We thought about heading back to Arran, which we had loved from a couple of years before, but instead decided to try somewhere new and settled on the Isle of Mull. It would be a four hour drive from home to Oban, then a one hour ferry across to the island. We booked the ferry for two weeks time and started out planning a few days on the Isle of Mull.

It was late afternoon when we arrived on Mull. We decided to head straight to a park-up at a place called Lochbuie that someone had recommended to me. We arrived, took Oslo for a little wander, cooked dinner and then just enjoyed the quiet calmness of this place before getting an early night in the van.

The next morning, we spent a little bit of time exploring the area around Lochbuie before sampling the tearooms delicious coffee! We then decided to head towards Fionnhport, right in the south west corner of Mull.

On the way to Fionnhport, we stopped at Ardalanish Weavers and had a wander around their beautiful store before heading down to the local beach. The sun started to come out as we explored the hidden coves and admired the turquoise seas. It felt so good to be back on the Scottish Islands.

From Ardalanish Weavers, we headed straight to Fionnhport where we enjoyed a delicious fish burger and some battered scallops from the seafood shack at the port, then took a late afternoon ferry over to the Isle of Iona.

Iona is somewhere that came highly recommended from many of you guys, and we could certainly see why! We wished we had more time there, but just had a couple of hours before the final ferry back so decided to head straight up to the North coast for a dip in the sea. Iona has such a wonderful, calm and quiet feel about it; we hope to head back with the baby one day and spend more time there.

Fionnhport

That evening, we just found a park-up at the side of the road at Loch Na Keal with spectacular views of Mull’s craggy peaks. The next day we kept heading North (we were making our way clockwise around the island) and met up with our friends Sam & Anna at Calgary Bay. the drive to get there was absolutely breathtaking, and we stopped multiple times to take in the views and capture the island.

Once at Calgary Bay, Sam, Anna & Harvey went for a swim (too cold for me!) and then the heaven’s opened so we decided to go for lunch at Am Birlinn, which was delicious though a little pricey! It was so lovely to catch-up with them though that it felt worth the price because of that.

From here, we headed into Tobermory where we needed to be for our boat trip the following day. We had a walk in Aros Park before getting absolutely drenched and then attacked by midges! We decided to go for a pub dinner just so we wouldn’t have to cook outside the van with the midges, then found a nearby park-up for the night.

I booked a wildlife tour with Staffa Tours before the trip, as thought it would be amazing to get to see the puffins when on the island. Setting off from Tobermory at 9.30am, we first headed over to the Isle of Staffa which was a stunning island with the famous Fingal’s Cave and some really interesting rock formations on the coastal cliffs. After feeling quite sick on the ferry over here, it felt amazing to wander the island for an hour or so before heading back on the boat to our next destination.

The Isle of Lunga is where there is an abundance of puffins and other seabirds. The smell is pretty rotten, but seeing the puffins so close is really spectacular. They let you get really close to them as they see us as protection from larger birds, so you can literally sit a few metres from them for a really long time!

After Lunga, the boat whizzed us back to Tobermory where we had a wander around the town and then decided to drive back to Lochbuie for our final day on the island.

We had seen and taken in a lot on our 4 day trip to Mull, so on our final day, we decided to take things a little slower and explore the area around Lochbuie more. The final sunset was beautiful and the following day, the sun was out and so warm. We made coffee and pancakes for breakfast before heading over to the beach at Lagan Sands - just a 5 minute walk from the parking area - where we set up camp for a few hours.

This beach was breathtakingly beautiful - wide, sandy, quiet and surrounded by incredible scenery. It was a wonderful place to relax for a few hours, and I kept thinking how amazing it would be to come back here next summer with the baby.

Later that afternoon, we boarded our ferry home from the Isle of Mull and then made the four hour drive back home. Though brief, I felt like we had done and seen so much on the island while also just seeing a glimpse of what Mull has to offer. We both look forward to coming back and exploring more one day.