I am thinking about (no puns please) Mull for half of our upcoming Scottish trip. Goal is a campsite (that accepts caravans) that is as close to being on a beach as possible. There are a few candidates on Mull. Looks like the ferry is about £70 ish which is probably acceptable. So a few questions:

1) How busy will it be in August?
2) If the weather’s bad, is there anything to do, any places to visit? On the mainland you can always drive somewhere if you need to but budget won’t stretch to multiple ferry trips.
3) Is there any riding to be had, of the MTB or family variety?

Go to Arran.

here

or

here

Plenty to do if weathers shit, every bit as beautiful as Mull IMO, shorter drive, cheaper ferry, real good MTB and road riding and loads of cracking places to eat.

Good points, except Fidden and Knockvologan are on Mull.

Looking for the minimum facilities. Big ‘holiday park’ type sites are expensive and I don’t really like them.

There is a CL site on Arran but it’s not next to a beach. But the proximity is attractive.

Fidden is awesome.

Get the family interested in Geology.

The wee ferry to Kilchoan gets you to Ardnamurchan cheaply and easily and then you have Sanna Sands too.

Not huge amounts of riding to.be done – I don’t know what level the family are at. Certainly cycle to the Iona ferry and cycle round there.

Get the family interested in Geology.

They already are 🙂

In terms of family cycling they are at the cycle path flat level. Iona would a) be interesting anyway and b) be fun cycling.. presumbaly it’s pretty traffic-free?

Re the riding, I just want to get some miles in to keep the fitness going, hoping to do a big ride when we get back.

Fidden and Knockvologan are exactly what I was hoping for except they are on an island. Of course, I probably haven’t got much chance of getting booked in anyway.

A couple of sites at Arisaig might interest you – or do you already have that covered?

Iona is lovely for cycling round. Most day-trippers leave the car on Mull.

With a very few exceptions the West Coast of Scotland isn’t great for family-level cycling. Geology, innit?

Not trying to divert you but have you considered the Aviemore area? There’s even a beach at Loch Morlich 🙂

By on an island do you mean an island off the coast of Mull? Fidden and Knockvologan are on Mull itself.

Iona’s virtually traffic free, it’s so small and the things that most people go to see are within a couple of hundred metres of the ferry so the only vehicles are those the locals need to have on the island and a few service vehicles.

Not trying to divert you but have you considered the Aviemore area? There’s even a beach at Loch Morlich

As well as a variety of trails round Loch Morlich and a couple of camp sites one of which is right by the beach.

If the weather’s bad

if your there for more than about 3 days, you probably will experience bad weather. otherwise I love Mull, sailed round it, cycled over it, walked its hills, watched the rain fall on it.

I think you either need to be prepared to be mobile on Mull or knuckle down in the bad weather. It can often be pretty bleak on one shore whilst pretty good on another.

I last was there in the Balmory era – Tobermory was a awash with small star stuck people. I guess that phase has gone now.

re Arran – beach – see Seal Shore, very nice, (also Lochranza – huttons unconformity), and Middletons is pretty close to beach.
(Gigha was a LOVELY up down cycle, as was Luing, Carradale(Kintyre) site is nice)

on Mull Salen forest used to be a Foresty route/leaflet – can’t find now.we did a smallish out/back ride up Glen Forsa (very easy till just at bothy)
Mull side Iona ferry port was a coach fest(beware road at ferry times)
Staffa was ok(*I’m not that interested in geology) but a wet windy day I suspect would degrade the experience

Personally I’d say Arran was better and you could nip across and do Crinan canal bimble (which we love, do it to Crinan direction)

Wet weather options are a bit limited, but there’s a cool little catch-and-release aquarium in Tobermory, which does regular handling displays and the like.

There’s a small swimming pool in Craignure; never had to resort to this yet.

Cycling – I’ve attempted to go mountain biking on Mull with limited success – lines on OS maps often don’t translate to anything rideable, but this seems to apply doubly so on Mull. There’s a strong possibility of finding yourself on a bog-strewn death march.

Road riding on the other hand would be great. Loads of fire road stuff too, if you’re into what-I-believe-the-kids-are-calling gravel riding.

Can’t think of much in the way of flat terrain for family rides – there’s Aros park near Tobermory, but it’s not terribly flat. NB. some of the optional tracks there would be worthy of a quick play around on an MTB.

I’ve made the recommendation on here before, but if you get the chance, go on a whale-watching cruise with Sealife Surveys in Tobermory.

By on an island do you mean an island off the coast of Mull?

No, I mean Mull – in that we cannot just drive 1.5 hour to some tourist attraction on a wet day. Not sure how many ‘attractions’ there are on Mull itself?

Not trying to divert you but have you considered the Aviemore area? There’s even a beach at Loch Morlich

Well we are doing what I believe is known as a ‘two centre’ trip, so one week (ish) in the West and the second week we are visiting a mate in the East. So Aviemore may feature for a few days in the second week.

A couple of sites at Arisaig might interest you

That’s my first choice, giving us more get-out clauses in the event of bad weather, and saving us £80 odd on the ferry which we could use for something else like sea kayaking.

My wife is currently stocking up on board games and activities 🙂

Theres a couple of good kid friendly rides on Mull.

along loch ba parking at Knock, up to the ruins. A couple of stream crossing, ankle deep.

along loch frisa parking at either end, you can cross the road and ride either side of loch torr and up to Glengorm. Lots of other trails around this area heading into dervaig etc.

Otters always on loch na keal. The boathouse on Ulva, langamull/fidden/Knockvologan/laggan/Kilvickeon beach, fidden lots of hares and owls, Carsaig Arches and the fossil tree.

I’ve made it sound like craggy island!

Arisaig (assuming people actually mean Morar) really isn’t much of a get out, Fort William is still an hour away. There is the Skye ferry from Mallaig though that doesn’t work out much better.

I suppose if you take the steam train to Fort William that would be a pretty good experience…

Spent a week on Mull last summer, it’s absolutely beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed it but… A few snippets to share;

– It takes AGES to get anywhere. Completely disregard that it’s only, say, 20 miles from A to B – it’ll take an hour. Singletrack roads almost all of the way around the island.
– The mountain biking is pretty sparse, as above – there’s a whole load of absolutely nothing (much of the appeal), which, rather than equating to paths and trails, simply means fields and bogs.
– Iona is gorgeous, should have gone sooner than the end of our week
– The Aquarium at Tobermoray would be ace with kids (we really enjoyed it as grown ups)
– Depending on time of year (think July is peak time), a boat trip to Staff to see the puffins is great (try not to vom on the way back like I did though…)
– If you like shellfish, you’re in for an absolute treat (me being allergic to them made for a bit of negotiating around menus in places
– Again, as above, road or CX biking would be my 2-wheeled pursuit of choice if I were there again
– If you’re tempted by Ulva/Gometra; Ulva was a bit like a mini but overgrown and very remote-feeling version of Mull (nice, and the Boathouse pub/cafe was good), Gometra was like an overgrown and even more remote feeling of Ulva.
– There’s a wee part-time bike shop at Salen, the owner of which wandered along in his wellys when we rang the bell. Really nice, helpful chap who gave us a rundown of what mtb routes there are on Mull (for the sum of a couple of spare inner tubes). Worth popping your head round the door for some advice.

We found some half-decent mtb around Benmore Estate and some more further South, I think near Tioran (maybe). Decent being, average actual biking, but stunning views etc.

Oh, lastly – food in here was superb – http://www.ambirlinn.com/

Enjoy!

Well predictably, most places are pretty booked up except Fidden Farm doesn’t take bookings and she guaranteed we’d have space. So that looks like a place to go.

A bit concerned about the remoteness as mentioned, since it’s about as far as possible as you can get from what civilisation there is on Mull, but it looks an awesome place to be if you have kids who like to mess around on a beach all day.

Considering taking the backpacking tent and gear so we can camp out on Iona or another one of the associated islands as a bit of an adventure 🙂

Biking wise I’ll have my general purpose rigid 29er which suits road and gravel as much as MTBing. Hopefully I can get my kids inspired to be adventurous.

I’m expecting Iona to be decent for the kids to cycle on.

There’s a beach on the far side of Iona that’s easily cyclable to. Once you get away from the ferry ramp and the monastery Iona’s pretty quiet.

Check out Erraid, it’s a tidal island a little further on from Fidden Farm, lots of white beaches and inlets and bays

There’s a decent cafe at Pennyghael on the way out to Fionnphort run by a completely bonkers Geordie woman!

Civalisation? These are the Scottish islands, they are much more civilised than any town or city I’ve visited.

My wife doesn’t like peeing in the wilderness though. Guessing there should be toilets on Iona, what about Ulva?

Not at the beach 🙂
There is a fairly basic campsite on Iona – with toilets

what about Ulva?

Only at the boathouse

In general you’re unlikely to find toilets anywhere you can “wild” camp.

In general you’re unlikely to find toilets anywhere you can “wild” camp.

Don’t I know it. My wife suffers the same affliction. Weirdo.

Better to have toilets on the right side of the ferry though. She’d probably accept that.

In general you’re unlikely to find toilets anywhere you can “wild” camp.

Yeah I know, it’s more about being able to incorporate toilets into the trip somewhere.

Let us know how you get on, we were thinking of going there doing similar (CC’s).

CCs?

If you’re thinking of staying on Iona, I would steer you away from the campsite. We spent £16 last year to camp in a tussock riddled marshland with no views. The toilet is a whitewashed ex-sheep pen with a toilet in it. Not much better than peeing wild really.

However 100m further on the road is a beautiful west facing beach / bay which would have great views of the sunset. I was gutted that we slept where we did. Live an learn & all that.

As for Mull it’s self, it’s a beautiful island. Out from Tobermory I did a 22km run, mostly off road and would be ride able out and around the headland to the North of Tobermory bay past bloody bay and the abandoned village on the North Coast of the island.

Can’t help with many places to stay on land, most times I’ve been by yacht…

If you like outdoor stuff, you’ll have plenty to do. Just pack plenty Smidge and waterproofs…

^^ Thanks for that info.

Well, Mull was indeed beautiful but a bit tough in terms of walking. Hardly any trails or paths to walk on the Ross of Mull at least, and it takes bloody hours to drive around by car which you don’t really fancy after having driven two days to get up there.

Fidden Farm was cool though. Snorkelling was incredible, also bring a boat.

I’d say it’s not a good place for a family general outdoor trip. It would be brilliant for a week’s wild backpacking with grownups; and also brilliant with a boat or sea kayak or something. Should probably have listened and gone to a different island.

when you have named your daughter Iona you have no option but pay it a brief visit. :-).

I’d say it’s not a good place for a family general outdoor trip.

Depends on the family I guess. I know many kids that love it but it’s certainly not a particularly kid-friendly place.

Are you hitting Arisaig and/or Aviemore next? I can certainly help with suggestions for the latter, including an optional visit to the Old Bridge Inn….

Are you hitting Arisaig and/or Aviemore next? I can certainly help with suggestions for the latter, including an optional visit to the Old Bridge Inn….

A visit to Aviemore IS[/i] a visit to the OBI , there is no option 😉 , especially after an all day ride in the hills

Depends on the family I guess. I know many kids that love it but it’s certainly not a particularly kid-friendly place.

Well I’m not thinking in terms of water sports, because I don’t generally do them. But of course if you were into your paddleboarding/kayaking etc it would be great. Also Fidden Farm itself is fantastic for staying around the campsite, which is quite popular also. So I could revise that statement, I agree.

As for the next trip – not sure. Probably go somewhere hot in France next year 🙂

A visit to Aviemore IS a visit to the OBI

He is right you know.

We’ve had a couple of cracking trips to Mull now with the kids. They were never bored, even with the odd spell of wet weather.

We’ve done:

Snorkelling
Boat trip to Ulva – hike around, climb on basalt columns
Boat trip to Staffa/Huishnish Isles (puffin watching)
Rock climbing on a beach near Scoor
Fly fishing (from the bank and from a little rowing boat)
White-tailed eagle watching trip
Walked up Ben More
Beach, beach, beach…
Tobermory Aquarium (wet morning activity)
Crabbing

And so on. There’s tons to do!

ps. I’ve only done a little riding there (at a CX race last summer) and wouldn’t bother taking a MTB unless someone knows of good riding somewhere.