Back to Lunga

One of the possible destinations on our upcoming cruise is Lunga of the Treshnish Isles. Lunga is famous for its large puffin colony, and the birds are so used to visitors that they let you sit just feet from their burrows as they go about their business. They are so entrancing that many visitors spend their whole time on the island sitting, and smiling, as they watch the puffins go about their business - and they are very busy birds, indeed.

There are other things to see on Lunga: the village ruins, Fraser Darling's Cave, and the view from atop the island. But the puffins, and the myriad other seabirds that roost near Harp Rock, are sights that you'll never forget. 

Here are a few puffin photos from Lunga.

The Green Flash - Staffa

While looking at beer in the supermarket this weekend I saw something that made me think of the Hebrides. What I saw transported me back to the times I'd stood atop the cliffs of Staffa, looking down to the collonaded face of Fingal's Cave. 

I also recalled being on Staffa (next photo) and looking towards the western horizon, where the green flash was seen by Helena and Oliver in Jules Verne's 'The Green Ray'.

Although I've looked for it many times, I have not seen the green flash that occasionally appears as the sun sinks into the sea. But I look for it every chance I get. So what did I see on a store shelf in Seattle that made me think of Staffa in the far off Hebrides?  It was a bottle of ale with the following label. I'll have to smuggle some of it to Staffa, await sunset, and then try my luck again to see the flash.

Cave View - 6

Here's a view looking out Fraser Darling's Cave on Lunga. That's my name for it, as it is not marked on the OS map. I first read about it in Donald MacCulloch's The Wondrous Isle of Staffa. My second literary encounter with it was in LR Higgins' A Tangle of Islands, where it is described as "dark, mysterious, little known and unsuspected". Then I came across it again in Fraser Darling's Island Years, where he would use the cave as a shortcut to the shore.

All these mentions made me want to see it in person. It's not too difficult to get to, just a short, but steep slide down to the cave entrance, which is in a hole in the centre of the southern half of Lunga (second photo). From there the cave leads to the western shore of the island. The hard part about visiting the cave is that it takes you away from the puffins, which draw tourists in the hundreds to Lunga every year.

Next time we hop to South Rona to see the view from Church Cave.

Cave View - 4

This view from inside Fingal's Cave on Staffa is one many have seen, but getting a photo like this without a horde of tourists showing up in it can be a challenge. I had to wait until the boat was just about scheduled to leave, which allowed for a few solitary minutes in the cave. But that tactic only works when there is only one boatload of tourists on the island. Sometimes there can be two or three, including boats actually inside the cave (second photo). In that case there's little chance you'll have the cave to yourself.

In the first photo Iona can be seen on the horizon, which is where our next cave is to be found.

Lunga Village

I first visited the islands of Scotland in 1989. Mull was the first, followed by Iona on the following day. My wife and I had brought my parents along, and my father became very sick. The entire time we were on Iona he was sick in bed at the Argyll Hotel. He loves cats, and so Fingal, the hotel cat. was a great comfort to him while he recuperated. My wife and I did manage to see some of the sites, and were able to get out on one of the Turas Mara trips to Staffa and Lunga. This photo of my wife Shawna shows her finding some shade in Lunga village, last occupied in 1857.