Ecosse and Beyond: 30 May Tiree Part 1

Tiree is a very different island to Coll, much more fertile and more population. I hadn’t managed to pick up any information on where I could stay before I got there so had a look around on the pier when I arrived. I spoke to Steve who announced himself as “access officer” and he told me that wild camping is not allowed (I think there has been some pollution caused by wild campers), about Willie’s camp site and about the “croft camping”, a number of places allow camping in their grounds for £10 a night. He’s a Geordie who, before he moved to Tiree, used to come as often as he could for long weekends to windsurf, which Tiree is famous for. His day job is an electrician and he has plenty of work.

I went to Willie’s at the west end of the island. I’m been doing a study of camp sites and what their owners think is important. Willie is still developing his campsite and it is more than a bit rough around the edges (as are some of the other campers). Willie’s day job is teaching wind surfing so a lot of his clientele in the campsite he has during the day to0. But his WiFi signal was spectacularly good. He said, from his travelling in Oz, that that’s the most important thing for a camp site to have.

Tiree is very flat. The highest point in Ben Hynish at 141 feet and this is topped with a golf ball (seen on the way to Treshnish Isles) which is an Atlantic civil aviation radar station.

Tiree still has a lot of its traditional houses. There are two sorts, the thatched and the spotty.

New spotty

Old spotty

Thatched and spotty – this settlement made me think of Thomas Hardy.

The thatched are very unusual as one side had a deeply inset doorway and windows but the thatch doesn’t cover the shelf (Wide wall head) that’s created and grass, flowers and even rhubarb grew on the shelf, when the dog wasn’t asleep up there.