Tales from the Trail: Isle of Rum
Join Community Engagement Officer, Caroline, as she journeys round the Hebridean Whale Trail in the Tales from the Trail blog series. Feel inspired where the land meets the sea and plan your next adventure on the Hebridean Whale Trail.
Back in March, I set off on my first Hebridean Whale Trail site visit and I was really excited to visit my first island. The Whale Trail is a network of 33 sites based around the Hebrides which are great for low impact, land-based whale, dolphin, and marine wildlife watching, and this week I was lucky enough to be heading to the Isle of Rum!
A group of harbour porpoises ‘waved’ goodbye as I left the Isle of Mull, a great start to my trip with a sighting already submitted to Whale Track. After spending the night in Arasaig otter spotting, it was time to catch the ferry from Mallaig to Rum. I layered up, headed to the Cal Mac deck and was joined by local wildlife spotter, Sean - who’s a bird expert and pointed out countless sea birds during the crossing. It wasn’t long before long we spotted our first porpoise, followed by a couple more, a great example of how important winter watching is to better understand species in our waters, outside of the fair weather months.
A calm Cal Mac ferry crossing to Rum from Mallaig (not pictured: tattie scone bap!).
The Isle of Rum sits cosy in the Small Isles; a small archipelago of islands in the Inner Hebrides, largely volcanic, with internationally important geology. The island is also a national nature reserve and is home to 60,000 breeding pairs of Manx Shearwaters. This beautiful wee bird migrates to the UK to breed and I can absolutely see why they call the Isle of Rum their summer home. Located a small walk from the ferry terminal, I stayed in the Rum Bunkhouse, which proved the perfect base for exploring the island. The hostel has all the provisions you need including a large kitchen and living space, with the most gorgeous log burning stove. This was absolute heaven for my trip as one thing I wasn’t expecting to see was snow!
View from the bunkhouse communal area over Loch Scresort on a snowy March morning.
I held a guided land based watch on Whale Track at our Whale Trail site, the Rum otter hide. Wow, what a spot! To get to this hide you head into the trees just to the left of the ferry terminal upon departing and wind your way along the woodland path to the hide by the shore. I was joined by lots of lovely locals and we didn’t need to wait long before witnessing an otter munching on an octopus! The hide also has spectacular views of common seals, we watched them plop one by one off their rocky perches as the tide gradually came in. Finally, if that wasn’t enough, the bird life also put on a show, with a great northern diver hanging about and a golden eagle hunting above us. In the space of 4 hours, we got to witness some of the UK’s most incredible wildlife species, I felt extremely privileged to have seen them at a distance.
The Hebridean Whale Trail site, the enclosed otter hide, on the Isle of Rum.
Tuesday was a day to remember as I was incredibly fortunate to head out with Beth from Nature Scot into the reserve. Rum has an array of walks to offer, some more level ones around Kinloch and others significantly more challenging out into the hills – it is important to ensure you are prepared if undertaking any of these. I got to cheat a little, as Beth and I ventured out in the Nature Scot 4 x 4 to Harris, which sits to the West of the island. Harris (13 mile round trip from Kinloch) is an incredible vantage spot and I could see the Isle of Mull all the way in the distance, making for an excellent vantage spot to do some land based watching. Here you will find the Maseumlonad and on that Tuesday morning, some hungry highland cows. We then headed across to Kilmory beach, northwest of the coast (9 mile round trip from Kilmory) to feed the Rum ponies!
The Rum ponies at Kilmory beach. Keep an eye on our What’s On page to keep up to date with events and activities run by the Bunkhouse and Nature Scot over the summer!