We awoke even earlier the next morning ready to leave for 6.30am. There was a good wind and we made our way around the south side of the island, the mountains emerging from the morning mist from the mainland behind us.
We made good time as we sailed around the west side of Eigg, running parallel to the ridge of An Sgurr until it slid low enough for the high, jagged peaks of Rum to be seen. We rounded the point of Eigg and found ourself skimming speedily over the waves as the wind spun into our favour, fanning us along with Gannets and Cormorants grazing the water along side and dolphins occasionally emerging above.
We sailed into the sheltered mooring of Loch Scresort described by the Scottish poet Robert Williams Buchanan in the book "The Hebrid Isles" where we anchored for the afternoon. At the head of the sea loch, the red sandstone Kinloch Castle still stands despite the ever increasing difficulties it faces.
“As sweet a little nook as ever Ulysses mooned away a day in, during his memorable voyage homeward. Though merely a small bay, about a mile in breadth, and curving inland for a mile and a half, it is quite sheltered from all winds save the east, being flanked to the south and west by Haskeval and Hondeval, and guarded on the northern side by a low range of heathery slopes. In this sunny time, the sheep are bleating from the shores, the yacht lies double, yacht and shadow, and the bay is painted richly with the clear reflection of the mountains.
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Despite being the largest of the Small Isles, Rum has a population of 31 - and interestingly no indigenous population. The National Nature Reserve on the island is run by Scottish Natural Heritage and the community of the island are a mixture of SNH employees and their families, together with a number of researchers and a school teacher. The community own and run a number of business and in 2010 Isle of Rum Community Trust took ownership of large swathes of the island. Rum has previously had a larger population with some 450 people living across the island in 1825 until they were removed to make room for sheep in what is now known as "The Highland Clearances"
The far north of the island is home to Kilmory Bay where a number of ruined homes can still be seen. This also houses a number of buildings used by Edinburgh & Cambridge Universities to study habits of Red Deer - which are seen commonly in this part of the island.
Sadly time was slowing getting the better of us and we were forced to head back to Mallaig and home to return to the monotony of normality until next time...
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”