Day 9: September 21, 2026 (A Tour to the Isle of Staffa)

A Tour to the Isle of Staffa

(by Alexandra & Sophie)

The air is cold and fog settles over  the bay as we walk towards the port of Oban. We’re up a little earlier than yesterday, the ferry leaves at 10AM.

The waiting room of the Ferry is packed, cancelled tours have been moved to today and many have taken the chance to make up for the missed day. We are among them. Americans to our left, Germans to the right, it’s a mix of languages.

We board and settle in a booth to put down our bags. Then, we walk onto the deck, taking in the view as we leave port and go towards our first destination: the island of Mull. The ride there is calm, the breeze smells like salt and wind and even though we can’t see much of the landscapes surrounding us, the low clouds give it that typical look one would expect of Scotland.

We travel by bus, taking in the beautiful sights like mountains, pine trees, cows, sheep, deer and many more. The bus is loud, the AI lady on the speaker talks for the entirety of our ride. Many times, our bus driver interrupts her and takes over the narration instead, which was very much needed and desired. As we arrive at the end of the island of Mull, we take a ferry to Staffa, an island that is made out of giant basalt columns. Sadly, it is way too windy and we couldn’t go onto the island, so we had to take in its beauty from the bouncy boat. As we make our way to the next stop, the swell becomes even greater and many of us look and feel like survivors as we reach the next island, Iona.

 

 

On Iona we take a break, eat our food and explore a little. We get to see the old rocks (Lewisian Gneiss, 2.6 billion years old) Ms Hänggi told us about and we get to take a look at the old Iona Abby.

The way home is quiet. People are tired and most of us are asleep. The evening follows and a few of us split up to do one last shopping trip to the Tesco Superstore. We eat dinner and pack for tomorrow’s trip.