A lifetime of Islands: Island 259 - Lismore, Inner Hebrides

Lismore is a long thin island located in an area known as the Lynn of Lorn where the Loch Linnhe meets the sea. It is about 10 miles north of Oban. The island is just under 10 miles long and just under a mile wide. There is one road running down the spine of the island with 5 short spurs off it. The highest point on the island is Barr Mor at 127 metres, so it isn't one of the hilliest islands in the Hebrides.

Unusually for this part of the Hebrides Lismore is composed of Dalradian limestone, which has been formed into shallow longitudinal valleys. This makes the soil exceptionally fertile and the name Lismore means Great Garden in Gaelic.

Caledonian MacBrayne runs a vehicle ferry from Oban to Achnacroish halfway down the east coast of Lismore. I had great difficulty at Oban locating the Lismore Ferry departure point, as the main notice had been removed. Having driven round and round I was eventually directed to it. Quite how you are supposed to know where it is when the car park has been closed off and there is no notice, I don't know! Be warned it isn't cheap if you want to take your car for the day - it was £6.60 for me but £55 for the car. However the island is a bit too big to explore on foot if you have only got a day to do it in.

There is also a passenger ferry which operates between Port Appin on the mainland and the northern tip of Lismore. Mine was the only car on the Calmac ferry and there were 2 other foot passengers. However when I drove to where the passenger ferry departs I counted 37 cars parked there, so presumably this is a popular way (and cheaper?) way to get to the mainland. As the population of Lismore in the 2011 Census was only 192 and presumably they don't all have a car each, that was a large proportion of the island's cars parked in one place. The roads on Lismore are all narrow, so I was grateful that most of the residents had left the island for the day, as it meant that I didn't meet too many other vehicles and have to reverse back to a passing place.

This was the last island to which Calmac run a ferry, which I had not visited. I am not sure why it took me so long to get round to it. It is a pleasant island but it doesn't have much to attract tourists, other than walkers. I walked a mile from the end of the road to Achadun Castle on my way to visit the tidal island of Bernera. Achadun Castle was probably built by the MacDougalls in around 1290. It is now ruined. There were a couple of signs showing the way to the castle from the end of the road but I would recommend visitors to Lismore come with an Ordnance Survey map.

As I got back to my car it started to rain and it didn't stop for the rest of the day. If the weather had been better I would have made the effort to visit the ruined broch on the east coast at Tirefour and the other ruined castle on the west coast - Castle Coeffin.

St Moluag, a contemporary of St Columba, founded a monastery on Lismore between 561 and 564 AD.

Lismore was the seat of the Diocese of Argyll from the 13th century until 1507 when it moved to Sadell in Kintyre. A small cathedral was built on the island. It was burned down at the time of the Reformation but the remains of the choir became the walls of the present church in 1749.

There are quite a few trees (e.g. sycamore, ash, hazel, chestnut, birch and hawthorn) on Lismore, particularly in the sheltered valleys and on the east coast but the woodland is not natural. The natural woods were cleared from the 17th century. Red and pink fuchsias have naturalised in the hedgerows.

Hedgehogs were introduced to the island in the late 1980s, possibly for slug control purposes. They are now numerous. I didn’t see any live ones but there was a squashed one on the road.

Achadun Castle

Memorial Cairn to Jozef Kijowski at Achadun Castle
He was an immigrant from Poland who donated the castle and the surrounding land to the people of Lismore as a thank you for the kindness he received from the Scottish people.

Achadun Castle

Ruined mill

Shop and Post Office

in the middle of the island. The shop was well stocked.

Old croft house at the Café and Museum

Lios Beag Cafe and Museum

This is located in the middle of the island. When I visited on a rainy Monday lunchtime in late September most of the other customers seemed to be local. There were 2 other visitors exploring the island on bikes. The man looked keener than the woman to leave the warmth of the café to continue exploring in the rain! I had soup and coffee cake, both of which were delicious. The Museum is well worth a visit. It is free but they welcome donations.

Parable of the Sower Stained Glass Window in the Church

Church

War Memorial

There is a sheltered anchorage at Port Ramsay on the north west coast of Lismore and lime was formerly shipped out from here. The limeburners' cottages still line the waterfront but the lime burners are long gone. Limestone was formerly quarried at An Sailean further down the west coast. Port Ramsay was my favourite place on Lismore.