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Staffa & The Treshnish Isles - Isle of Mull
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Staffa and the Treshnish Isles! Say the names and you hear the rush of the tide into caves and rocky inlets, and the mystery and magic of the islands beckon. Most people associate Staffa with Fingal’s Cave and Mendelssohn’s overture, but there is more to the island than the caves. Eider duck nest there in the spring and puffins flit across the cliffs to their burrows, which they guard fiercely in the nesting season, undeterred by the presence of visitors. The grassland above the rocks provided grazing for cattle and sheep in the past, but is now a nesting place for a multitude of seabirds. The geological structure of the island is truly remarkable, with tall columns of black basalt supporting a cushion of conglomerate. Queen Victoria visited Fingal’s Cave in 1847, and wrote in her journal ‘…the effect was splendid, like a great entrance into a vaulted hall; it looked almost awful as we entered and the barge heaved up and down with the swell of the sea…..The sea is immensely deep in the cave. The rocks, under water, were all colours – pink, blue and green – which had a most beautiful and varied effect.’ There are other extraordinary rock formations to be seen – the Clamshell Cave, in which the columns are curved like the ribs of a ship, is 130 feet deep; the Goat Cave, McKinnon’s Cave, the Boat Cave.and the Buchaille which forms a strange, twisted stack offshore resembling a human shape, and called the Old Herdsman by local people. Many landmarks were named by local people after their appearance, such as Dun Cruit on Lunga, the Harp Rock, called this because of its distinctive shape. The landing places have been made much safer since Victoria’s time, and it is possible to land on most occasions – except of course when there is a dangerous tidal swell.
The most northerly of the Treshnish Isles is Carn a’ Burgh Mor, where stand the ruins of one of the most important castles on the west coast, the fortress of the Lords of the Isles, with which they could control the high seas between Ireland and the Hebrides, together with a smaller castle on the island of Carn a’ Burgh Beag. The larger castle was garrisoned by Redcoat soldiers into the early 1700s. One intriguing legend tells how, when Iona was sacked during the Reformation, the monks brought their priceless library out to Carn a’Burgh Mor for safety. Despite the efforts of eager treasure-hunters spending several weeks digging in the 1950s, nothing was ever found. The other islands forming the archipelago are Fladda, (the flat island) Sgurr a’Chaistell, (the reef of the castle) Lunga, (the long island) Bac Mor (called the Dutchman’s Cap due to its shape) and Bac Beag (the Little Dutchman). No-one lives on these islands now, but the Old Parish Records show an Archibald MacArthur and his wife Margaret Lamont had a daughter baptised on Lunga in 1782. Lunga had a recorded population of several families living on this little hamlet of stone piled on stone facing the Atlantic from 1813 to 1820, and on to the 1850s, all making a precarious living from fishing and rearing cattle and sheep. The islands are now home to many seabirds, including the mysterious Manx shearwater, which fly ashore under cover of darkness to their burrows, and the nocturnal storm petrels which roost in the day in the holes of the walls of the roofless houses. The islands are also the territory of the Atlantic grey seals, this territory being held by them long before man began arguing over ownership of nature. Looking out over these tiny islands it is hard to imagine what life was like in the past for these hardy people who were born, lived, worked and died there so many years ago.
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