A Redeye View: Abandoned Village Of Shiaba And Coastal Walk, Isle Of Mull 19th May 2019

This was a great interesting walk that we did while having a week on the Inner Hebridies Isle Of Mull. Its the second time we have visited this Isle, the other time being in May last year, 2018. A fantastic Island if you are into the outdoors, walking, wildlife spotting or just want to get away from it all for a week. We found a great little bolt hole to stay in, right at the end of a rough farm track in the far southwest of the Isle a stones throw from the beaches around Scoor. A very quiet area with just a few other cottages to rent and coastal walks straight from the front door, perfect.
This walk was to visit the old clearance village of SHIABA and its surroundings, while making our way back along the clifftops and beaches. It did provide us with one or two surprises that certainly made this a walk to remember :-) As our start point was our base, the official start point for non residents of the cottages is a ten minute walk back where there is space for half a dozen cars next to a small information point and abandoned KILVICKEON CHURCH. The path is clear and rough as it passes the other houses be fore heading uphill on to farmland. A few gates to go through before we reached the old sheep pens where the cuckoos were letting everything know that they were about. In fact through the whole week, cuckoos were seen and heard through out this area which was quite pleasant as I don't get to see and hear any in my home town. From the sheep pens, we carried on in an almost straight line when in fact we should of took a slight detour to the left, no real problem, it just meant a bit more damp ground and going up and down a couple of small mounds as apposed to going round them!! It all leads in the right direction but in misty weather it could be somewhat of a longer and wetter way. The weather was kind to us with just a bit of dampness at the start that finally passed over but was still a rather grey day with a cold wind blowing in from the coast.

Our little base for the week, The Pod

Our route for the days walk

Setting out along the track

Looking back to the small group of cottages

Cuckoo

Through the gate and straight on to the small hill instead of bearing left

Off the hill and on to the next one

So a bit more up and down and following sheep tracks and gps got us back on track and heading in the right direction. The murckyness wasn't really good for photo's but it did add a bit of atmosphere to the area, especially with the cuckoos and sheep talking away. The walk to Shiaba took around an hour and we were soon looking round the abandoned buildings with one standing out above the others. The building is reputed to be the old schoolmasters house and has both gables still intact. Quite a few buildings spread over the area and heading to a point where it looks directly down onto the coast where there looks like there was some sort of allotments the way the ground is set out. This is where we had a rest for about 30 minutes :-)

Across the fields we go

Shiaba coming into view

Beek-a-boo

The village schoolmasters house

More dwellings with the coast in the distance

Nature taking over

Lots of old stone walls

Building with a view

As we rested on some boulders over looking the coast, something caught our eye in the water below. One reason for visiting Mull, is for the wildlife, on and around the Island, from the Golden & Sea Eagles, Otters, Seals,Red Deer and various other creatures. We were,on this occasion, rewarded with some Dolphins casually moving up the coast directly below us. To say we were excited was an understatement but unfortunately I didn't manage to get any photos as they were quite a distance away plus we were too busy watching them with the help of binoculars. There was also a couple of seals knocking about as well. Despite the wind and low cloud, the sea seemed fairly calm and we had the pleasure of the dolphins for around 15 minutes before they headed further up the coast in the direction that we were to go. So far, so good :-)

The view we had looking down on the seals & dolphins making their way up the coast

We made our way following sheep tracks as this area dosen't seem to get many human visitors, I'm sure it gets a few but there is no obvious walking track so its a case of finding your own way really. With it being clear and no sheer drops off high cliffs, it was an enjoyable time to be out here and up to now we had only seen on other person at Shiaba and he went back the same way as he came in. There are quite a few beaches along this stretch of coastline and we soon came to one that gave us our second surprise of he day that looked like the remains of a whale. No bones to be seen, just the shape of what was left of, what can only be described as the flesh/blubber. From the approach, it looked like a washed up tree or something but the closer we got to it, it looked a lot like a whale. Now I'm no expert,but the shape certainly looked like a whale so I'll take that for now.

Making our way towards the coast

Heading to the beach

Heading to the beach and the "whale" on the grass to the right

Is it or isn't it??

The beach

As we wanted to see a bit more wildlife, we walked a long the rocks to get a good position to see if we could spot anything other than the few seabirds that were flying around. We had hoped to see the dolphins or the elusive otter but nothing to be seen or heard so we headed up a gully that bought us out on the broad grassy tops above. We followed this round to where we had our third and best surprise of the day...........

Clambering about the rocks

Looking back on the beach

More rocks to mess about on

Looking back on the rocky coastline

On our way up to more solid ground

It was at this point where we were stopped in our tracks by a large bird flying about. We had seen a few buzzards flying around and thought it was another one but a closer look through the binoculars showed us it was a Golden Eagle, to our great surprise :-) We were hoping to see one as well as a Sea Eagle so this was a great bonus for the day. What made it better was that it was being mobbed by a couple of Ravens so I'm not too sure that they noticed us as we made ourselves comfortable amongst some rocks while we watched it for a bit. It did land on some rocks ahead of us and stayed there for a while until we moved off to get a better look. It didn't seemed fazed by us but soon moved off when the Ravens appeared again and this is where we had quite a show for twenty minutes watching it get mobbed and harassed every time it flew or landed. All this happened over another cove and beach area and was a real treat to see and they just seemed to be oblivious to our presence. As I had to use full zoom on my camera and it was still rather grey and windy, it was difficult to get any decent photo's but it was still a brilliant encounter :-)

The point where we spotted the Eagle

Zoomed in shot

We moved on a bit for a closer look

A zoomed in shot

The beach area where the Eagle was getting harassed

Another zoomed in shot

I did manage to get a decent video of the dog fight :-)

After the show, we made our way along the sheep tracks through the grassy area's to the Scoor Beach that lies just near to our base. The path gets a bit more easy going around here as quite a few more people seem to use this area to get to and from the beaches so a little more easy going. A really nice beach that we saw in all it's glory the day we arrived when the sun was shining and it was like being abroad on some idyllic faraway island. Today was a little bit different with it being grey and overcast but still a great place to be. All the time we were keeping a lookout for the Dolphins, Otters and Seals but didn't manage to spot anymore.

Following the coastline

The rocky coastline below

Under the hills where our base is. there is a trig point just visible from here right of centre

On the rocky sandy path to the beach

The lovely beach

Looking back down on the beach

It is a fairly steep path that comes up from the beach and from here we made our way to KILVICKEON BEACH which is the biggest beach near to our base. There are more defined paths here as well as sheep tracks so a bit more easy going. Another fantastic area and again, in good sunny warm weather, you could be anywhere exotic as the sand is white and the sea is two different colours, fabulous.

Along more easy paths

Looking back along the coast

Looking back down towards Scoor beach with the farmhouse on the left

On the Approach to Kilvickeon Beach

Above Kilvickeon Beach

Looking down on Kilvickeon Beach

On the beach

It had got a bit warmer and clearer now just as we were on the last leg to base. We headed up the track that brings us out at the small car parking area and information boards on the walk to the beach and the old Cementry which we paid a visit to. KILVICKEON PARISH CHURCH (clickhere) built in the late 12th or early 13th century, and dedicated to Ernan, son of Eoghan, nephew of St Columba. Another reminder of times gone by when this area had a bigger population than now. A good look round before we headed back up the rough track and back to base.

Making our way off the beach

Looking back down on Kilvickeon Beach

On the path to the Kilvickeon Church

Kilvickeon Church

At the car park and the short walk back to base

The road back to base

A great day looking around this quiet corner of Mull with the fantastic coastline, great beaches, wildlife and the history of the clearance village and old church. Below are some photo's of the beach on the first day we got here when the sun was shining and it was quite warm. I also came across SCOOR CAVE (click here) on the last day while having a quick look round and there are markings on the walls that apparently go way back in time. Just wished there was more time to do more things