After 3 days on the Isle of Tiree we decamped (literally) to the adjacent island of Coll. Accommodation was in short supply, so we slept for 2 nights ‘under canvas’, at the lovely Garden House campsite, before spending 4 nights at the fabulous Coll Hotel*.

The campsite is surrounded by an RSPB reserve, where you will almost certainly hear, if never see, the elusive and endangered corncrake. We were treated to an all night chorus by at least two of them (& a cuckoo) on our first night there. If you’ve never heard the call of a corncrake, please listen to this recording on Wiki and you’ll get a feel for our experience. The campsite does provide free ear plugs!

Positioned as it was at the western end of the island, it was a no-brainer for me to do an 8 mile / 13km circuit along the coastal path to the far tip of the island, before returning across country to Crossapol Bay. One of my targets was to ‘bag’ what must be one of the lowest trig points in the whole of Scotland, if not the UK, at Calgary Point, which stands at the magnificent height of 59ft or 18 metres. (See pic 13).

*Note that I shamelessly give the Coll Hotel a plug (indeed 2 now) as it’s owned and run by some family member’s of my cousin, Ron. 👍👍 😊