23 magic moments everyone needs to experience on a Scottish cruise

The Herald Scotland

2 days ago

If you dream of cruising the west coast of Scotland, here are my top tips and 23 moments you need to experience.
Scotland's bottle-nosed dolphins are the biggest in the world (Image: free)1) Dolphin delights: I didn't realise that Scotland's bottle-nosed dolphins are the biggest in the world - growing to 4 metres, which is the same length as a small car. Watching a pod of three as they plough away just feet in front of the boat, diving and jumping for what looks like joy, is priceless. Fun fact: the reason they are so large is due to our cold waters.
2) You've not slept well until you are lulled to sleep by gentle waves in the sheltered anchorage of Loch na Droma Buidhe (cheekily known as Loch Drambuie) after a post-dinner snack of hearty Isle of Mull cheddar cheese.
Canna pale ale goes down a treat (Image: free) 3) Enjoy a pint of Canna pale ale while looking over the bay at the 'garden of the Hebrides'. Café Canna specialises in dishes sourced almost entirely from the island, such as Foraged Kelp Salad or Full Crust Canna Beef.
4) It's fun to say you are going on a cruise and confound those who think you'll be on a mega-floating hotel in the Caribbean. The Elizabeth G takes just 8 guests and four crew, so this is a much more up-close and personal experience.
The chef specialises in the finest Scottish produce (Image: free)
5) The food is fantastic – perfectly cooked fresh scallops and melt-in-the-mouth cod. The fact that chef Sally can produce such wonders in a tiny galley kitchen when the boat is bouncing along is all the more remarkable.
6) The cabins are cosy. They all come ensuite and peeking out the porthole as dawn breaks never gets old.
An inflatable tender ferries folk to the islands (Image: free)7) Each island we stop at is an adventure in itself. Clambering down into the inflatable rib that transports us is an art in itself and a lot of fun. You'll soon develop a healthy sense of how to keep your bum dry.
8) Sea sickness. It's a bit like being drunk but less expensive. The best cure is to go on deck and look at the horizon - the wind will soon bring you round.
The sun sets over Rum (Image: Garry Scott) 9) The Small Isles are all very different. Rum glowers darkly, Canna is a contrast of cliffs and pastoral peace, Muck is surprisingly agricultural, and Eigg stuns with An Sgurr, an imposing rock pinnacle. It looks impossible, but the averagely-fit person can get up and down in around three hours - and the views are sensational.
10) Marvel at the life story of Manx shearwaters. There are 60,000 of the black and white beauties on Rum, which migrate to the coast of South America in July, where they spend the winter, returning to Scotland in early spring. A distance of 6000 miles.
Whether it is breakfast or dessert, the food is superb (Image: free)
11) Breakfast. Each day should start like this - with cereal, fruit, and cooked delights, such as eggs Benedict, or pancakes and bacon.
12) Listen and learn. Our wildlife guide Lynsey really opens up Scotland's flora and fauna for ordinary people. She has the knack of imparting her knowledge without making the amateur feel stupid.
Golden eagles are spectacular (Image: Mark Hamblin) 13) Watch a pair of golden eagles soar above the cliffs of Canna. The birds were in no rush, and we watched them wheel around for 30 minutes as they showed off to each other. The kittiwakes below were less impressed.
14) Some birds are bad. Well, not bad exactly, but the great skua has many detractors. Known as the pirate of the seas, it mainly feeds off fish it steals from other birds - robbing gulls, terns and gannets. They also attack and kill other seabirds, up to the size of herring gulls.
The sad remains of a cleared clachan on Rum (Image: Garry Scott) 15) Spend a quiet moment thinking of those Scots who were cleared off the land to make way for sheep on Rum. There's the sad sight of an abandoned clachan just moments from the pier, on the way to the otter hide, and down by the sea, there are natural rock-hewn pools where the lost children would have played.
16) Spend 15 minutes in the wheelhouse. Ian, our skipper, is a font of knowledge and has been plying the waters of the Hebrides for the last couple of decades. It's fascinating to see how the old-school tech of the wooden wheel and diesel engines marries with today's computer mapping, which shows the depth of the water beneath your hull.
An Sgurr on Eigg is not quite as impossible to walk up as it looks (Image: Garry Scott)17) Wildflowers thrive in the most hostile environments, primroses cling to the banks of burns on Rum, and milk wort, with its bonnie blue flowers, grows on the often wind-blasted hillsides of An Sgurr on Eigg. There's a lesson there for us all.
18) Visit an honesty shop. Rum has Drift, selling handmade upcycled crafts. Canna's sell jams, marmalades (there's a very nice whisky one) salts and preserves from the island.Muck has the The Green Shed selling handmade local crafts
Puffins are almost otherworldly (Image: free) 19) Everyone needs to see the comical sight of puffins taking off from the sea at Canna. They are cheery-looking birds that don't take themselves too seriously, which is just as well as they seem prone to crash landings.
20) Listen to a corncrake's cry on Canna. Once widespread across the British Isles - now restricted to Scotland's Northern and Western Isles. It's an extremely secretive bird hiding and nesting in long grassland which overwinters in Africa.
The abandoned Kinloch Castle (Image: Garry Scott)21) Marvel at Kinloch Castle – the ghostly abandoned sandstone mansion still has its curtains, furniture and objet d'art. It looks like it did when the inhabitants of the luxurious retreat left it. It is up for sale if you fancy it.
22) Savour a pint of Tennent's in Tobermory's new arts centre along the front. The pizzas look good, too.
Seals do look uncannily like dogs (Image: PA) 22) Get up close to seals at Muck. Genuinely curious creatures, they pop up on either side of our tender as he put into the bay.
Hebrides Cruises is a family-run small-ship cruise company which specialises in wildlife cruising out of Oban. They have a range of trips and durations, from three days to 10-day trips. For more information check out www.hebridescruises.co.uk. They were named The Herald's Scottish Family Business of the Year (Micro) in 2023 - so you know you are in good hands. Follow them on Instagram, Facebook and X.