Tobermory/Isle of Mull Scotland 15 June 2024 - pictures soon!

 OK last night made it on the boat after touring Glasgow museum,cathedral, bonus organ concert in the museum and lots of good food and wine on the boat after the emergency drill training in our life jackets. Heading to the Isle of Mull and Duarte castle tomorrow..bedtime in Scotland sailing on the water !! And another full day today on Saturday 15 June.  Left our passenger boat 153 passengers and took tenders which are small boats to get us off the ship to the dock of Tobermory on the Isle of Mull Scotland.  Tobermory is known for it's colorful buildings, fishing port and we drove along the wastern coastline to Duart Castle originally a fortress guarding the sea cliffs of the southern tip of Mull.  Restored in 1911, it holds 800 years of Maclean clan history with tales of battles and love - and yes some killed their wives or husbands - lots of stories.  Our castle tour guide was a McClean and 81 years old and it's been in the family for many generations.  Tobermory, population 3,000, is the largest city on Mull.  We saw lots of cows or they say "coos" here, sheep, birds, otters,  heron, corncrake, and you may also spot dolphins, sharks, haddock and other fish.  The Spanish shipwreck galleon is sunk somewhere and was part of the defeated Armada of 1588.  And again we totally lucked out with beautiful weather which apparently is unusual here.

Mommy cow feeding the little kid!

A friend of ours called this a "pothole" - good name for it as everything runs way down to who knows where!

You do have to be in pretty good shape to do the tours we do and we can still do it - one step at a time:)

Not too many in a group of 36 took the trek all the way to the top but I did it and every flight up the castle steps got a little narrower with skinnier well used stairs.

The Royal bedroom and I must say I like my own home bedroom better but they did have servants to do everything.

Not sure what this little place in the corner is for - a place to read your book?  Does not look comfortable to me.

Lots of kilts and each clan has their own plaid.

Queen Elizabeth II and  not sure how old she was .

The room with crystal and silver for the royal family and guests.

They do have very good statues and sometimes I would think they were real people until I looked up at their stone faces.

Yes the castle did have jail cells, dungeons and other not so fun places for the "bad people" - Ross was able to get out on bail:):):)

Our boat stopped off at Tobermory Scotland and of course there is a whiskey distillery - all over the place there are many and it's a big export item.

Since our even small ship of 153 passengers can't get into the small ports we have to get on what is called a tender to get us to shore.  They hang from the side of the ship until they need to be used and we use them quite often.  They do have big floating things in case we had an emergency evacuation and of course we have life jackets in our room.

Front of our "little ship" and we continued with beautiful weather but always prepared for rain as it is Scotland!