We cycled to Ulva Ferry for the short boat journey to the island. We weren’t certain that the Boathouse cafe would be open so we’d taken sandwiches but as it was, we kept them for tomorrow and ate there. This is its last week of the season, after which it closes until April. Christine had a seaweed salad with fruit while Rowan and I opted for a ploughman’s with Mull cheese. We all enjoyed the polenta cake.
Sheila’s cottage lies close to the cafe and ferry, named after Sheila MacFadyen, who lived here from about 1900. She worked as a dairy maid at Ulva House, and earned a small additional income collecting winkles. The cottage comprises two main rooms, the family would have lived on one, while their livestock would have been kept in the other. It’s been restored as a heritage centre but was closed for refurbishment.
It was a much warmer day, we walked along the Livingstone trail, with sunny views of the Mull coast. The trail passes the ruined house where grandparents of the famous explorer David Livingstone once lived. The island is more forested than the others we’ve visited this holiday. There’s a hostel, an overnight stay would have given us time to see more, maybe another time.
We returned to the ferry at 16:30, giving us enough time for ginger cake and a cold drink before the last journey of the day. I had to push up the only big hill but I was no slower than the motor traffic as we all had to follow a herd of cattle trudging up. We arrived back at the cottage at 18:00.