Dun da Ghaoithe,Mull.

At long last.....bon temps for the west coast hills :) Scott and I had been waiting all year for a good forecast to go over to Mull for Dun da Ghaoithe.Bob was also keen to get back up here and Gavin and Millie the dug decided to tag along as well.This also meant that we could travel up in a bit of leg stretching luxury in the Bongo.


I picked up Bob at 7.10am and we then headed up to the arranged meeting place at Scott`s house.We were a wee bit early so stopped on the way there to take a few pics.

Early morning mist over Glasgow with the Shaw building in Bearsden prominent on the left...


No answer at the door but it was ok...Scott was having a fag out the back.I joined him and soon the throaty rumble of the Bongo heralded the arrival of the Prince of Darkness and his canine co-driver.We piled in and set off for Oban and the first Sunday ferry at 9.50am.We made it with 20 minutes to spare,found a free car park,booted up and went to pay for our tickets...£7.75 each.It was surprisingly busy given the time of year and this resulted in a delay of almost half an hour.

Who cares about delays on a morning like this anyway....rounding Kerrera with Dun da Ghaoithe in the distance..




Obligatory passing shot of Duart castle from the boat...



A further delay ensued as we queued to get off....we were running late now.Half an hour of tarmac bashing saw us at the start of the track which branches off the A849 and gives access to the hill.The guidebooks and websites mention a sign for "Bird of Prey Centre" at this point but it seems to have fallen victim to the recession and doesn`t exist anymore.It`s a good tarmac road up until Upper Achnacroish.....


....from where it deteriorates to a gravel land rover track.Pic courtesy of Scott.



This leads up to the second of two telecom installations.One for tv and radio coverage and the other for mobile phones.

Gavin curses T-Mobile`s lack of coverage in the highlands...



....while we enjoy the view back to the cloudy mainland.




Millie had been quite restrained up until this point,mainly due to lack of sticks lying around.This was sorted to her satisfaction however when she spotted one in a hill lochan further up and in she went....


Returning with the prize.....



This dog never gets bored with the chasing stick game...




The views were beginning to open out.Here`s a zoomed shot of the Paps of Jura 38.62 miles to the south :)



Jura,Scarba,The Garvellachs and more.....


Myself just before the summit.Pic courtesy of Scott.




We reached the first top followed by two guys who were working on the telecom station and couldn`t resist a trip up to the top on a day like this.They travel all over the UK working on masts but never one with a view like this they said.It really is a grandstand viewpoint.Skye,Rum,Eigg,the whitewashed houses of Armadale on Skye were visible,over to the Uists.Behind Jura and Islay the coast of Ireland at Malin Head was clearly visible 95.47 miles in the distance,Arran too. Guess who`s having fun with Anquet :)


Bob and Gavin with Lismore in the background...



Zoomed shot of Tobermory and Uist in the background over the sea...



Millie patrols the summit area looking for a new stick,her previous one having been...ahem..."lost".



We couldn`t afford to spend a lot of time on the top as we had a ferry to catch at 5pm.An uneventful descent, except for a section of horrendous waist high bracken near the bottom, and we were back on the road just to the west of Scallastle with a two mile walk back to the ferry terminal which we made with half an hour to spare.

Scott descending...pic by Bob.



A flock of Canada geese with the odd Greylag were having a feed at this field at Scallastle.Autumn is here..





A lovely hour watching the scenery on the sail back to Oban.The lighthouse at the tip of Lismore...



Yachts moored at Kerrera.....




It had proved a harder day than we had anticipated. Much harder for some than others it would seem ....



A couple of panoramas from Scott.....