What an amazing day this was! We headed out around 7 AM from Oban and drove for 2 hours to the small port town of Mallaig to meet up with Billy Simmonds, the founder of Minch Adventures. We boarded his boat, the Cyfish, and headed to the Isle of Eigg located in Lochaber, Highland, Scotland. His wife, Eileen, also came along and was a most gracious hostess! My main reason for going to Eigg was to visit Kildonan, the site where upon the death of John of Islay, first Lord of the Isles, his son Donald by Princess Margaret of Scotland, Ranald’s half-brother, was named The Macdonald, Donald of Islay, and Lord of the Isles in 1387. This was an important site for the project to follow in the footsteps of the Lords of the Isles. It came with the bonus of just being on Eigg and experiencing this jewel of the Scottish Highlands. Since you cannot bring a vehicle on Eigg we relied on the island taxi service, run by Charlie Galli. The Isle of Eigg is community owned boasting a diversity of coastal land, farmland, willow and hazel scrub, native woodland, raised bog and moorland. The most stunning feature of this island is the Sgurr. An Sgùrr is the highest hill on this Inner Hebridean island. It was formed 58.72 ± 0.07 million years ago; the result of one of the last eruptions of a volcano, the core of which now forms the Isle of Rùm. We also got a great view of Rum from the boat and the difference in terrain on these two adjacent islands was pronounced. As always, the sky over the islands was remarkable.
