Terry Marsh - The Isle of Mull: Mull, Ulva, Gometra, Iona and Erraid

Glen Aros and distant view of Loch Frisa (Walk 1.16)

I dont know when I first visited Mull; certainly it was more than 20, or even 25, years ago. I have been visiting the Inner Hebrides, notably Skye, for over 40 years. For sure, it was during the courtship years of my love affair with Scottish islands, a time when I was receptive to a whole litany of moods, impressions, atmospheric nuances (that is, abrupt and unpleasant weather changes), cultural differences and the sort of free-range possibilities that later led to a book about all the Scottish islands. One thing is certain, it was the superb writing of Jim Crumley, first about Skye and then in The Heart of Mull , that was a catalyst, completely changing the way I saw and understood what I was looking at. I met Jim once, on Beinn Ime above Loch Lomond he was coming down as I was going up. We chatted briefly, and it turned out we had friends in common. Little did I know then how much his writing would influence my own way of thinking.

So, after three editions of my guide to walking on Skye, it was time to turn my attention to Mull and its islands. And what a joy it has been. Like Skye, Mull has the full range of walking country. There is clearly less of the craggy stuff that you get in the Cuillin but anyone who loves walking on islands, where the sea is always somewhere in view, will enjoy what Mull has to offer, and be surprised by the diversity and richness of this magnificent landscape.

For the walker, whatever his or her fitness, Mull is a great walking destination, offering easy routes to draw you in and then, on longer but no less enjoyable walks, putting you in your place as you struggle with some of its difficulties. Here you can enjoy long and lonely days among the hills or wandering the coastline, often on splendid raised beaches. Or simply potter along shorter walks, or amble through forests, enjoying the natural history for which Mull is renowned.

This book was written while staying at a former shepherds cottage in Glen Forsa, with Highland cattle frequently grazing at the gate or scratching their heads on the gate posts, red deer passing by the door, hen harriers out for lunch, and, far from city lights, night-time views of the Milky Way as clear as could be. Yesterday the light up the glen was amazing, and the walk to its head below Beinn Talaidh quite superb. Today its all I can do to see the chaffinches feeding on the nuts on the garden. These extremes are what I find so fascinating about Mull. You get them almost anywhere in Britain, but there is something soothing about Mull, something that makes you want to be out, in the heart of Mull, getting beneath its skinits not unusual to see people of all ages standing by the roadside just looking, mesmerised, as if they have never seen a landscape quite this one.

But so changeable is Mull that you can never experience it all in one visit; you will simply have to come back, often and again.

Terry Marsh

With a diversity of land forms unequalled by any other Scottish island, Mull is a place of wild beauty: untamed, rugged and never uninteresting. Great swathes of Mull are approachable only on foot, and while there are roads (240km/150 miles of them), the abiding impression is that they are incidental, in a very minor way, to life on the island.