There are a lot of different Mull wildlife tours available on the island, and several of them are based reasonably close to Treshnish.
I am hoping that we might get a chance next week to go out to the Treshnish Isles with Turus Mara, who are based at Ulva Ferry. A great family enterprise, they have been running trips to the islands for 40 years, so have a wealth of experience. We aren’t too worried about going to Staffa this time so we will probably choose a trip that ‘only’ goes to Lunga. I feel like I have been missing out on puffin therapy so I want to sit in the sun and watch the puffins! And who knows what else we mights see – for whilst not describing their trips as whale watching trips, you never know what we might encounter between Ulva Ferry and the islands – they often see basking shark, porpoise, dolphins and minke whales. Fingers crossed!
The land based tour, Discover Mull, are based in Dervaig. Pam and Arthur are often seen on the roads up our way, particularly near Calgary beach, stopping to look out for the otters that live along the shore. There is another land based trip relatively nearby at Ulva Ferry called Isle of Mull Expeditions, which are also good. We don’t see their minibus around here that often, so I imagine they go along Loch na Keal and further south.
There is a new land-based ‘kid on the block’ too – just started up this month. I would like to go out with them, as I think there might be a slightly different slant to their trips. They do a trip on the ferry from Tobermory to Ardnamurchan, another place I love, and I would love to do one of their evening trips as well. (I am secretly very envious of Ewan’s wonderful night photographs too!) They are called InspireWild.
In Tobermory also, you can catch the Sealife Surveys trips, another long established wildlife tour operator and member of the GTBS scheme. At Ulva Ferry also you can do the White Tailed eagle trips with Mull Charters, who take you into Loch na Keal to look for the resident sea eagles. I havent been on one of their trips but many of our guests have, and have really enjoyed it.
These are but a few of the Mull wildlife tours available on the island – and I apologise to anyone I have missed out. There are other tour operators on the Holiday Mull website so please do have a look there too.
PS I cannot forget Mull Magic, who do walking tours – Ruth and Stuart are both extremely knowledgable and one of their best walks is right here at Treshnish! (I’m not biased..) They call it the Eighteen Island Odyssey, because you can see 18 islands as you walk round. I haven’t been on one of their day walking tours, but I did go on a Dawn Chorus walk 2 years ago at this time of year with them, which was fascinating.
