06/20/2026: Tobermory, Isle of Mull

Last night, Christine was looking out our porthole. It was almost 10:00 pm and still light. She said, “there’s fish jumping.” She said it a couple of times. I couldn’t image what she was seeing, so I got up and looked out the porthole. Sure enough, there was a dolphin jumping through the wake of the ship. It seemed to be having a wonderful time. It kept up with the ship for several minutes and then disappeared. It was so much fun watching our dolphin friend.

Today we anchored near the little village of Tobermory, the capital of the Isle of Mull, Scotland. Mull is the island that is circled below.

It’s the 4th largest island in Scotland, covering about 330 square miles. Population is just a little over 3,000. Most of the population lives around the capital of Tobermory so the rest of the island is nearly unpopulated. Tobermory is a stunning village.

Our excursion today was called Aros Coastal Walk. I don’t know why I signed us up because Christine doesn’t do too well walking out in challenging terrain. And after we started the hike, it became apparent that she shouldn’t be doing the walk. She was pretty frightened at the start because the trail was narrow, muddy and very close to a steep drop off. She nearly had a panic attack, but the women in our group gave her a lot of verbal support and offered hands and foot placement cues. The Olivia escort, Erica, was really nice, shepherding us along as we brought up the rear of the group. Eventually, Christine’s anxiety lessened. Every time the terrain changed, though, she kept saying, “oh, God.” I had to eventually laugh every time she said that. But, I was proud of her for doing this challenging 3.5 mile hike, up and down muddy trails. And she survived relatively unscathed, except for a very muddy shoe that sank in a big puddle.

Aros park is a beautiful woodland and temperate rainforest area. It is a very popular park for both tourists and locals. It even has a disc golf range within the park, which we saw several of the baskets in the woods. In addition to great vegetation, wonderful old growth cedar trees, and lots of small streams, the park has a few waterfalls. Our guide gave a lot of information about the flora and fauna. Unfortunately, we missed a lot of her talk because we lagged behind the group while dealing with the terrain. But what we did hear was valuable information. She pointed out wild garlic, showed us a peat bog and talked about how these bogs are significant carbon catchment areas. She talked about the native trees and the invasive plants that are doing damage. I really enjoyed the hike, but I am sorry that it was so stressful for Christine.

At one point, we came across this lovely cottage.

Tobermory is basically a one street village. All the shops are along Main Street. It’s a busy area as it is a tourism draw because it is picture postcard perfect. I was very surprised to see a whole bunch of sailboats. I guess sailing around the Hebrides is a popular activity. We saw lots of sailboats out on the ocean and moored in the harbor.

Tobermory was built as a fishing port in the late 1700s by the British to bring fish into primarily London and other major cities, but the area has been inhabited for thousands of years. Archeologists have found standing stones, kind of like Stonehenge, in the area. Before the creation of the village, there were only tall cliffs, so builders had to blast away some of the cliffs in order to have flat land on which to build the town. As such, there really is only one street running through the town where the harbor lies and where all the shops, hotels and restaurants are. There is also a distillery, founded in 1798, located on the main street. You might notice that there are houses and a big, old hotel up on the cliff edge over the main street. Getting up to that level involves quite a climb, even for cars.

It really is a lovely, picturesque town with its brightly colored storefronts along the main street. After our Aros park walk, Christine sat in town and listened to some local musicians while I walked from one end of Main Street to the other and back again.

We went back to the ship by tender and had lunch. Then we rested for a bit. Then we went to the Olivia presentation on all the trips they are doing for 2026-2027. This is a popular presentation because they always raffle off a couple of trips, 2 fares for the price of 1. Wouldn’t you know it, I won a Caribbean trip next February, a Valentine’s trip. I’m not sure we’ll take it because we were thinking of going to Australia in January and part of February. This cruise starts February 13 and departs from Fort Lauderdale. We’ll try to figure something out. We have to buy the trip before we leave this ship in order to get the 2 for the price of 1 deal. We’ll think it over for a bit and make a decision.

We then attend the port talk about our next stop, Portree, on the Isle of Skye. Our excursion tomorrow is to a castle and a drive through the Highlands.

Then on to dinner. Since we had a late lunch, we didn’t want to have a big dinner. We checked out the Star Grill, which is on deck. It was a bit brisk sitting outside, so we had the brilliant idea of getting a plate of food and going to the nearby Yacht Club. We found a lovely seating area right next to a sunny window and enjoyed a light dinner in a beautiful spot.

We’re forgoing the show tonight. It’s a singer named Angie K. I think after the traumatic day Christine had, it’s best to have an early, restful night. It’ really tiring to be on the go so much! We did a lot of walking today.

This area is so incredibly beautiful. Since we were at anchor, we had 360 degree views of gorgeous scenery.