Turus Mara

Turus Mara (Turas Mara, “sea journey”) runs day-trip cruises out from Ulva Ferry on Mull’s west coast to the islands that lie off it, Staffa, the Treshnish Isles, and occasionally Iona, through the spring and summer season. The boats are small (twelve-metre RIB-style passenger craft), the routes are weather-dependent, and the wildlife is most of the point.

Staffa is the headline destination. The uninhabited island is built of hexagonal basalt columns, the same volcanic structure as the Giant’s Causeway in Antrim, and Fingal’s Cave, cut into the south face of the island, is the natural concert hall that gave Mendelssohn the opening bars of his Hebrides overture in 1829. The boats land at the small jetty on the east side of Staffa, and there is time on shore to walk along the columns and through the cave at sea level.

The Treshnish Isles are the cluster of uninhabited islands further west, Lunga is the headline landing, where the puffin colony on the cliff edge runs to several thousand birds through May, June and early July. Outside the breeding window the focus shifts to whales, dolphins and basking sharks in the surrounding waters.

Sailings leave from Ulva Ferry on the west coast of Mull. The road in is single-track for the last few miles with passing places. Sailings are weather-dependent, the open-water leg out to Staffa runs at the mercy of the swell, and trips do get cancelled. The operator confirms by mid-morning on the day.

Schedules, routes, current bookings at the Turus Mara website.