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The Herald Scotland
03-06-2025
- The Herald Scotland
23 magic moments everyone needs to experience on a Scottish cruise
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 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 They were named The Herald's Scottish Family Business of the Year (Micro) in 2023 - so you know you are in good hands. 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The Herald Scotland
02-06-2025
- The Herald Scotland
The 23 moments everyone needs to experience on a Scottish cruise
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 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. Form more information check out They were named The Herald's Scottish Family Business of the Year (Micro) in 2023 - so you know you are in good hands.
Sunday Post
12-05-2025
- Sunday Post
Cruises around the Hebrides with majestic wildlife for company
Get a weekly round-up of stories from The Sunday Post: Thank you for signing up to our Sunday Post newsletter. Something went wrong - please try again later. Sign Up A shout goes up from the front of the ship. 'Dolphins!'. We hurry forward to the bow just in time to see six bottlenose dolphins cruising below the surface, slipping in and out of formation in the ink-blue water. We watch as they roll belly-side up to reveal a shimmering white underside. One or two drop down into the depths, before, moments later, rocketing out of the water in an explosive, somersaulting display, twisting and turning in midair. © Thomas Hawkins/DCT Media Off to our left, the coastline of Mull floats by, a mixture of golden-sand beaches, rocky archipelagos and steep, bird-covered cliffs, chiselled into painterly perfection by the low afternoon sun. It would be the highlight of any trip, but this is just another day, another moment onboard our ship, the Elizabeth G, part of the family-run Hebrides Cruises cruise ship company. On our six-day journey we will spot otters as they slide into the water, explore hauntingly beautiful islands, shoo a Highland cow blocking our path, sip coffee on white-sand beaches and spy sea eagles soaring above Mull's only Munro, Ben More. The fact that I haven't even mentioned picnicking with puffins, staring in awe at thousands of razorbills on a sea stack and wild swimming off Iona's turquoise waters, tells you everything you need to know about this cruise. We pick up the boat in Oban, a bustling hub of daytrippers, locals and international tourists heading to the islands on wildlife tours. I am carrying two giant bags full of everything from shorts, caps and sun cream to thermals, gloves and storm proof trousers. This is spring time in Scotland and it pays to come prepared. © Thomas Hawkins/DCT Media As we putter out into the Sound of Mull, we quickly settle into a daily routine. It involves alternating between spotting wildlife from the top deck, diving back into the saloon for hot tea, coffee and cake, and short excursions to the many islands dotted around Mull. As we sail by the tourist scrum on Tobermory and set foot on deserted islands, it quickly becomes clear that this is the only way to see the Hebrides. The sea is serene as we pass Duart Castle on the Sound of Mull, an imposing citadel perched on a rocky peninsula and backdropped by sweeping mountain views. Soon, with the help of Hebrides Cruises wildlife expert Becca Tanner, we spot harbour porpoises lolloping past the ship and a small group of Manx shearwaters skimming the top of the rippling waves. At night, our skippers, Hebrides Cruises owner Rob Barlow and fellow skipper Iain Malcolm, plot a plan for the next day before finding us a suitably sheltered location to anchor for the evening. Our first port is a gorgeous rock-protected loch called Loch na Droma Buidhe, which is almost completely enclosed by the surrounding shores of Oronsay on the remote Morvern Peninsula. © Thomas Hawkins/DCT Media Cruising into the loch via a tiny, steep-sided entrance, the setting sun casts an ethereal purple light across the landscape. Bathed in that heathery sunset, we sit down to a five-course dinner prepared by chef Sally Williams. Sally is a magician. Throughout the cruise she is seen disappearing from her miniscule galley and into the fridge or diving headlong into one of her covert hidey holes – which are all rammed full of jars, ramekins and glass bottles of secret ingredients from which she creates her potions. At one point, we see her swaying from foot to foot as she scrunches up tinfoil to help balance her handmade quiche against the rocking boat – ensuring a perfectly level bake. Each morning at 8am, we are called to breakfast by the bosun, New Zealander Craig Robinson, who has been with Hebrides Cruises for eight seasons. © Thomas Hawkins/DCT Media Craig's quick-witted Kiwi charm wins us all over throughout the trip and he offers us hot porridge, cereals and cheeses before a main course of smoked salmon or eggs benedict, all washed down with endless supplies of tea. Pretty soon we are steaming out into the sea again but before long it is time for elevenses of tea, coffee and chocolate, quickly followed by a three-course lunch of soups, charcuterie and more sweet treats. The food doesn't end there as, after a daily excursion to one of the islands, it's back on board for prosecco and cake… then it is a momentary respite before a five-course dinner. On our trip we have hand-dived scallops, fresh cod and handmade choux pastry – all prepared by hand in the teeny kitchen. The food is so good that it is impossible to exercise constraint – but hey, who needs whale spotting when you are slowly turning into one? It's the wildlife, however, that makes this trip so magical and, just like the food, there is no shortage of it. Skipper Iain skilfully guides us on the inflatable tender to the shore, where we hop onto dry land and explore the many islands around Mull. © Thomas Hawkins/DCT Media On Ulva we are transported to a woodland wonder, where red deer dart between the trees and golden eagles soar overhead, while lizards and toads scurry in the long grass. Then we watch as a bride and her family on Iona are given an escort by a pod of bottlenose dolphin for their small boat crossing from Mull. As far as wedding days go, it is surely hard to top. On Gometra, which is my favourite, we are welcomed by a white-tailed sea eagle, who swoops in close for a look. The island is completely deserted, lush and green but without many trees and instantly puts me in mind of Shetland, with its golden white-sand beaches, cliffs and rolling landscape. At Lunga on the Treshnish Isles, we unwrap chocolate and have a little picnic beside an enormous colony of curious puffins before jumping back on the Elizabeth G and doing a driveby of Fingal's Cave on Staffa. Then at the hauntingly beautiful Inch Kenneth (a privately-owned island that was once the home of the infamous Mitford sisters, the socialites famed for Unity Mitford's closeness to Adolf Hitler), we wander into a 13th-Century church and graveyard. A soft rain starts to fall when we are on Inch Kenneth, while at the same time the sun splits through the clouds and illuminates the distant hills. The contrasting weather perhaps sums up the beauty of Mull best of all. A place that is many things all at once, from woodland haven to windswept bird colony. And as rain pelts down between the sun's rays, proving that you can indeed get hypothermia and sunburn at the same time, it raises the only real problem of the trip… knowing what to pack. Factfile Hebrides Cruises offer 17 different cruises to the Inner and Outer Hebrides from April to October. Cruises range from three to 10 nights. Prices start at £1,700pp. For more information and to book, visit or email info@
