This is an extract from my new book “Travels through History : 10 Scottish Islands” available here.

The Treshnish Islands and Staffa are a wonderful day trip from Tobermory on Mull. If you like seabirds, especially puffins, then a trip to Lunga, one of the Treshnish Islands, is probably the best place for you to visit. Before you go, look at the map of the area and you’ll see that to go on this trip, you’ll have to go on the open sea for about an hour in each direction. The sea can be choppy. On my trip, there was a northerly breeze, so the outward trip was fairly smooth, but coming back, the sturdy boat moved from side to side regularly, but without going up and down at the same time. I’m not a good sailor, but I suffered no ill effects standing on the top deck with my hands holding onto the handrail. A waterproof might be a good idea, as the occasional wave went over the boat when we changed direction. 

My understanding is that each party that lands on Lunga is accompanied by a warden from the National Trust for Scotland who makes sure that visitors respect the island and all its non-human inhabitants.   

Staffa lies about 10 kilometres (6 mi) west of Mull, and 9 km northeast of Iona. It is oriented north–south, and is a kilometre long by about half a kilometre wide. The Vikings gave it this name supposedly as its columnar basalt reminded them of their houses, which were built from vertically placed tree-logs.  

Staffa is famous for two reasons. The first is Fingal’s Cave, a sea cave known for its natural acoustics. The National Trust for Scotland owns the cave as part of a National Nature Reserve. It became known as Fingal’s Cave after the eponymous hero of an epic poem by 18th-century Scots poet-historian James Macpherson. In Irish mythology, the hero Fingal is known as Fionn mac Cumhaill, and Macpherson rendered the name as Fingal (meaning “white stranger”). The legend of the Giant’s Causeway has Fionn building the causeway between Ireland and Scotland.

Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn visited Staffa in 1829 and wrote an overture, The Hebrides, Op. 26, (also known as the Fingal’s Cave Overture), that was said to be inspired by the weird echoes in the cave. Mendelssohn’s overture popularized the cave as a tourist destination, and soon poets and painters such as William Wordsworth, John Keats, and JMW Turner were visiting.