Mull & Iona Life #47 Autumn 2022

Calls for ‘proper consultation’ on new high school

After its ‘embarrassing U-turn’ on school clusters, Argyll and Bute Council needs to rebuild trust with its consultation on a new Mull school campus, says the convenor of Iona Community Council.

Argyll and Bute Council is asking islanders what a new Mull high school should look like, as part of its funding bid to the Scottish Government. It held a public meeting in Tobermory on Thursday August 11, the same day as the Salen Show, to present its proposals and get feedback.

‘It has long been understood that the facilities and resources at the current Tobermory High School are not up to the required standard,’ the council explained. ‘There is now an opportunity to seek funding to create a new school campus on Mull.

‘At present, what is of fore-

most importance is that the community makes its voice heard on whether we believe a new school on Mull would be a good idea. If it does, this united voice will help drive the project forward.

‘Once this stage has passed, there will be a lot of discussion about the nature of the facilities we want and its preferred location.

‘At this stage, there is no selected or proposed location for a new school. The only question at present is whether we believe a new school is needed. We need consensus to move forward.’ The presentation on the new Mull campus can be found on the council’s website and comments can be sent to mull.campus@argyll-bute. gov.uk

A spokesperson for Tobermory High School Parent Council said: ‘Our school

buildings are category C status, the lowest in Argyll and Bute. We have narrow corridors and very little natural light. We have no social space for our pupils and limited space for staff. We could do with better sporting facilities and better facilities for our support department. Have you tried to park near the school? Then you know how limited the space is.

‘This will impact generations to come, so let’s get moving and let our council know what we think and need for our community.’

Colin Morrison, chairperson of the North West Mull Community Woodland Company, said: ‘Without change, our children’s educational outcomes and ultimately life chances and opportunities will be limited.

‘The community has been keen to see improvements for many years - including a

Without change, our children’s educational outcomes and ultimately life chances and opportunities will be limited “

campaign a few years ago instigated by the older high school pupils themselves.

‘I strongly believe the community needs to get behind the principle that a new school is needed before we have the debate about where it should be situated. Personally I can see pros and cons to both locations.

‘Thursday’s funding meeting was very much setting a context and looking for support in principle. I thought it useful in explaining the process needed and the timeline for the potential development.’

Celia Compton, finance and project manager of South West Mull and Iona Development, said: ‘There is no single view among folk in the communities here.

‘Instead, there is a broad range of opinion from those who are happy with the

current arrangement of young people in the Ross of Mull and Iona travelling to Oban for high school, to those who would prefer there to be a high school in Craignure that is accessible to everyone on the islands.

‘It’s a complex issue, with wider educational and social opportunities, set against children being away from home during the week and the impact of that on individuals, families and the community.

‘We have been instrumental in sharing information, for example about the meeting on Thursday. Everyone I have spoken to has expressed the view that to have a meeting about this issue in Tobermory, rather than a more central location, shows a lack of interest/respect towards the views of those who live

outwith the Tobermory catchment area.

‘There were other issues with the location and date chosen and I understand the meetings were poorly attended. I don’t think this reflects a lack of interest in the issue.

‘There needs to be a proper consultation with meetings in multiple/central locations, not in the school holidays when many folk are away, with transport provided, good communication about the meetings and other well publicised opportunities for people to contribute their views directly to the council.’

Shiona Ruhemann, convenor of Iona Community Council, said: ‘The pre-engagement meeting was held at a location that made it impossible for Iona representatives to participate and no information whatsoever has been provided to us about the content of the proposal/ application.

‘We understand there are sometimes short funding timelines, but it is very easy, and in fact essential, for the council to share clearly and transparently what its current thinking is, what the options may be, which could be significant for Iona, and what their handling/process will be. This is so important in the current context of trust having been so severely damaged by the Collective Leadership Model proposal.’

Unbecoming comes to Mull

Unbecoming is a mesmerising performance about loss and rage, told by a woman and a mother. The rage, at all we become when we don’t have a choice and society dictates who we should be as women. The loss, of all we haven’t become along the way and how we unbecome.

Using traditional song, soundscape, myth and movement, Unbecoming becomes a dreamworld - a rich and sublime space where image, memory, desire and fear all reside. Watch as a woman unravels, layer upon layer stripped away, a human, unmasked.

Created and performed by Anna Porubcansky, Unbecoming asks how much of what we are is what we have chosen to be?

Unbecoming will be at Mull Theatre on Wednesday October 5 at 7.30pm. Tickets - pay what you decide. Booking – www.antobarandmulltheatre.co.uk

Mull Music Makers play on

Mull Music Makers has hosted its second Mull Fiddle Week thanks to Covid recovery funding.

Money from Creative Scotland’s Recovery Fund for Cultural Organisations meant the event could bring together around 30 youngsters for fi ve days of musical learning.

Pop-up performances, a concert and a ceilidh during the week raised more than £700 for next year’s event.

The young musicians were in expert hands with a top quality tutor team led by Scottish fi ddle ace and music educator Patsy Reid.

Joining her was colleague and Dalcroze specialist Vanessa Edwards and visiting guest tutor Douglas

Montgomery of Saltfi shforty and The Chair fame, who travelled from Orkney with his family, including his three fi ddle playing children, wife, dad and dog.

Also joining the tutor team was returning trainee from last year, Emily Goan from Inellan, Argyll. Three more students and aspiring fi ddle teachers took part in this year’s mentoring programme, which runs alongside Mull Fiddle Week. They were Blythe Primrose from Stonehaven, Emilia Marienfi eld who is based on

South Uist and Martha Carrdus from Northumberland. Mull Music Maker’s Laura Mandelberg said: ‘The youngsters worked so hard all week learning tunes and parts to new arrangements by ear.

‘They wowed passers-by on Tobermory’s Main Street with their pop-up performances and they played to a full house at the concert and ceilidh at the Aros Hall towards the end of the week, which raised more than £700 for next year’s Mull Music Makers’ workshops.’

The youngsters worked so hard all week learning tunes and parts to new arrangements by ear

“

Fiddle ace patsy Reid led the expert tutor team at this year’s Mull Fiddle Week.

White-tailed  eagle chick dies from bird flu

Concerns are growing over the impact bird flu might have on Scotland’s iconic white-tailed eagle population after a dead chick on Mull tested positive for the disease.

Over the last few weeks, chicks from at least four white-tailed eagle nests on the island have either died on the nest shortly before or after fl edging.

In mid-July, 19 chicks were on the verge of fl edging from nests in Mull which would have been just one fewer than the record number in 2021. But then the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Scotland’s Mull offi cer Dave Sexton started getting unexpected reports of suspected dead chicks from multiple locations.

Mr Sexton said: ‘Late summer is usually an incredible time of year for Mull’s white-tailed eagles as the youngsters fl edge and

learn to fend for themselves; a happy time for those of us monitoring them during their fi rst few months.

‘These past few weeks though have instead been heart-breaking with so many chicks dying. Visiting nest after nest where, instead of hearing young birds calling, there is silence, and where adult birds are ignoring my presence rather than alarming, is awful.

‘At the moment on Mull, it appears to just be the chicks impacted but such a substantial loss of this year’s youngsters is very worrying. My one uplifting moment in all this has been fi nding Skye and Frisa’s 25th chick alive and well and fl ying confi dently. I

can only hope she survives and that adult birds on Mull continue to be unaffected.’

With the seriousness of bird fl u in mind, expert climbers scaled Sitka spruce trees to access two of the nests where it was thought chicks had died to swab the bodies for testing. The bodies at two of the other nests were too decomposed to be tested. The climbers were wearing full personal protective equipment when making the 12-metre climbs and found both chicks dead in the nests.

The swab taken from the most recently deceased chick was positive for bird fl u. The other was negative, but the chick was in an advanced state of decomposition which may have affected the results, according to RSPB Scotland and NatureScot.

The deaths of these white-tailed eagle chicks

These past few weeks though have instead been heartbreaking with so many chicks dying “

have now made a signifi cant contribution to a large drop in Mull breeding success this year.

As long-lived birds, one year of such chick losses should not impact the species signifi cantly in the long term. However, concerns are that a prolonged outbreak of bird fl u could cause several more summers of chicks dying.

White-tailed eagle chicks always have challenges to overcome surviving their fi rst few months and this year bad weather in the spring and tree collapses were already having an impact on survival rates. Now, with these earlier deaths combined with the more recent ones, just half the number of chicks as survived in 2021 are expected to survive

this year. Dead white-tailed eagle chicks elsewhere on the west coast have also tested positive for Highly Pathogenic Avian Infl uenza (HPAI). The dead chick joins the tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of wild birds that have already died in the UK because of this unprecedented outbreak of HPAI.

The Scottish Government responded to calls for action by setting up a taskforce led by NatureScot which will co-ordinate action to tackle the current outbreak, plan ahead for future outbreaks and take action to help protect and restore bird populations and improve their resilience.

100 new homes planned for Craignure

An application to build 100 homes at Craignure on the Isle of Mull is to be submitted to Argyll and Bute Council.

The applicant, TSL Contractors Ltd based in Oban and Mull, is currently gauging opinion for a residential development comprising a mix of flats, cottage flats, terraced houses, detached and semidetached houses, including

25 per cent affordable housing.

The seven hectare grass and woodland site, north of Craignure, north west of the Isle of Mull Hotel, and south from Mull and Iona Community Hospital, would also contain a commercial unit.

A care home and a children’s nursery are also included in a wider masterplan for the area, due to be phased in via

future planning applications. The architect, Threesixty Architecture based in Glasgow and Inverness, explained in its preapplication consultation with the council: ‘We believe the principle of residential development at this site should be considered acceptable ahead of the approval of the Local Development Plan 2, considering the delay on the approval of the Local Development Plan 2 and the ‘urgent need to reverse static or falling populations in some of our smaller rural communities by making them better places to live

The anticipated date for adoption of Local Development Plan 2 is January 2023 which could again be delayed “

particularly for economically active families’, as stated in the Mull Strategic Housing Review.

‘The anticipated date for adoption of Local Development Plan 2 is January 2023 which could again be delayed, postponing the provision of housing for the island an additional year.

‘The lack of housing available for locals and the slow process to approve new residential developments in the area is negatively affecting population decline in the

area and, as stated in the adopted Local Development Plan, ‘an exceptional case may be argued by developers for larger scales of housing developments provided it involves a deliberate attempt to counter population decline in the area, to help deliver affordable housing, or else meet a particular housing need’.

‘The low density of the proposed development with its robust landscaping strategy, creating radiating green corridors connecting with open green amenity spaces provides the

additional housing provision for the island. The proposal retains the rural feel of the existing community, which has limited growing possibilities due to the constraints of the surrounding topography and proximity to water.’

In the council’s response, planning officers said: ‘We believe that due to the nature, size and location of the proposed development any environmental impacts identified by the aforementioned supporting documentation can be adequately mitigated and dealt with via the planning system, therefore negating the need for an environmental impact assessment.’

MULL GETS FIRST KEY WORKERS’ LETS

A new key workers’ housing partnership will rent out its first two lets to teachers and nurses on Mull.

The strategic partnership between Argyll Community Housing Association (ACHA), NHS Highland and Argyll and Bute Council comes in response to struggles district-wide to fill key posts in teaching, nursing and caring because of a lack of affordable housing, both for rent and to buy.

Before he retired on July 1, ACHA’s Chief Executive Alastair MacGregor said he was delighted the first two lets would be on Mull.

He added: ‘This initiative makes a lot of sense in a number of ways. While we are actively working to

provide new housing in rural Argyll and the islands, at the moment we have both a supply and in many cases affordability challenge for key workers to be able to purchase.

‘This initiative will allow our tenants’ children to be taught and their families to have care and nursing provision in our more remote communities.’

ACHA also has plans to build 20 more homes on Mull, five others are in the offing on Ulva as well as four more in Dervaig.

Argyll and Bute Council’s executive director Douglas Hendry said the new key workers’ housing partnership was an ‘important element’ of responding to housing needs and helping to make

Argyll and Bute the place for people to work.

And Morven McPhillips, local area manager for Oban, Lorn and the Islands at Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership added that is was a welcome incentive for professionals looking to relocate to Mull to work.

Earlier this year, a feasibility study commissioned by Mull and Iona Community Trust revealed accommodation was urgently needed for at least 260 workers across both islands including key workers at schools, in healthcare and other public sector organisations.

Funding will now be sought for an accommodation pilot scheme, working with Argyll and Bute Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, businesses and other stakeholders.

This initiative will allow our tenants’ children to be taught and their families to have care and nursing provision “

MULL RALLY READY FOR THE BIG 5-0

13TH - 16TH OCTOBER 2022

It’s entirely possible Brian Molyneux and his team missed the moment.

On July 21 1969, the Lancastrian 2300 Car Club was likely considering whether a selective from Craignure to Tobermory was cleanable.

When Neil Armstrong nipped out of the Lunar Module Eagle and pondered the size of step he’d just made, plans for the first Mullard Tour of Mull were well and truly under way. Like Apollo 11’s marginally more famous journey, Mull’s maiden event wasn’t the work of a moment.

It was an idea born out of a Molyneux family camping holiday at Glengorm Castle in 1968. While he might have been following the progress of the space race, Brian was, instead, looking at the lanes

surrounding the campsite. To most, they were just a means of getting around the Inner Hebridean island. To him, they represent a blank canvas ready for him to paint what would become one of rallying’s best-loved and most cherished pictures.

That picture has been redrawn 49 times since 1969 and now it’s ready to turn 50.

But what really makes Mull the challenge it is? To understand that, you need to look a little further into history. Like 50 million years ago, when lava flows weathered the island’s basalt mountain areas into terraces. It’s the geology as well as the geography which laid the foundations.

The first Tour of Mull took place nine years after the first ‘closed’ special stage on the RAC Rally and road rallying

was very much the mainstay. Saturday night in country lanes up and down mainland Britain were filled with the throaty roar of Lotus Cortinas and twin-cam Escorts.

Mull offered something different. Yes, there were the exceptional roads, but there was also the sense of adventure. Packing the car, then packing the car onto the boat and heading west out of Oban. It was different. It captured the imagination.

Two years in and rallying royalty from the moment Roger Clark was on the entry list. Sadly his car was damaged in a road accident on the way to the start and he didn’t compete. Twelve months on and Clark ended 11 years of Scandinavian dominance to win the RAC Rally. To put that into context, it would be like Elfyn Evans

Photos courtesy of Lindsay Photo Sport

heading north and bringing his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 with him in October.

Born out of Lancashire, it was six years before the Tour of Mull was won by a Scottish crew when Ian Gemmell and Frew Bryden topped the metaphorical podium with their Avenger. That trend was about to be reversed. When marshals at the end of the ‘The Long One’ saw the times coming from Neil MacKinnon’s RS2000 in 1977, they knew something was on the way.

In 1980, it happened. In the sort of conditions seemingly only Mull can

produce – the sort of pouring rain which leaves the lanes looking like the tide’s come in – MacKinnon edged acknowledged road rally expert Mike Pattison by four seconds to win in his Sunbeam Lotus. That was the first of three in a row – but those three in a row would grow into an astonishing record of 12 wins in the next 27 years. And when, in 2008, the engine cried enough aboard his Subaru at the end of Gribun, guess what? His son Paul was there to pick up the mantle and score win #13 for the MacKinnon family.

The 1980s were a decade of transition for the event. The lanes themselves, for a while the domain of icons of road rallying like Pattison and Ron Beecroft, were being taken back by the locals.

But the biggest change came in 1989. For the first year since 1969, the Tour of Mull didn’t happen. Road rallying was going through great change and when the event couldn’t secure a permit for 1988 it ran as a stage rally through the forests and across private estate roads. The only way to bring the event back to the lanes would be to take out an Act of Parliament to close the roads. The 1989 event was lost to this expensive bureaucracy, but the dream was realised at the top of the 1990s when the Act was massed in March 1990.

Mull offered something different. Yes, there were the exceptional roads, but there was also the sense of adventure “

Later that year, rally cars were spotted in the Mull lanes in full flight – in daylight. A capacity entry took up the challenge of 170 competitive miles. Local star Andy Knight won in a Nova and did the same again 12 months later. Chasing a hat-trick in 1992, and with Scotland’s only World Rally Championshipwinning co-driver Robert Reid alongside, Knight was leading, only to drop it on the Lochs.

This was the year Calum Duffy made his debut as a driver. He’d co-driven as a 16-year-old in 1991, but installed his father Hugh into the left-hand seat of a four-door Escort and landed

tenth overall. Duffy’s speed grew through the 1990s, but no-one could challenge five straight wins for Neil MacKinnon. Calum finally put the Duffy name on the trophy in 1998. For the next two decades, only two names: Chris Griffiths (1999) and Daniel Harper (2002 and 2021) would interrupt local success. A big change for the event came in 2010 when Mull Car Club took over the organisation from 2300 Car Club. The name changed to Mull Rally, but the ingredients were the same.

Arguably the biggest moment for the island came in 2021, with inclusion in the prestigious British Rally

Championship calendar. The nation’s best would come and do battle with the locals in a much anticipated rally. In the end, it was neither a local, although he pretty much is, or a BRC runner in Harper who took a dominant win. In half a century, the Beatson’s Building Supplies Mull Rally has failed to happen on just four occasions – three of those for reasons involving the politics of governance and regulation and the other one for the global pandemic – but as the 50th running gets under way, enthusiasm, ambition and appreciation for one of the world’s great events burns as bright as ever.

Mull Mòd returns

The Mod committee said although they were ‘incredibly saddened’ by the news of the Queen’s death, she was an avid supporter of the Mòds and they felt she would have wanted it go ahead as planned

Tobermory has welcomed back Mull’s cultural feast of Gaelic music, song and words.

After an absence of three years because of Covid, Mull Provincial Mòd returned to Tobermory on Friday September 9 and Saturday September 10, bringing together soloists, choirs, fiddlers, pipers and bards, fluent Gaelic speakers and learners.

Organisers got the official go-ahead from the An Comunn Gaìdhealach, the Royal National Mòd, for the long-awaited event to carry on despite the Queen’s passing.

The Mòd committee said although it was ‘incredibly saddened’ by the news of the Queen’s death, she was an avid supporter of the Mòds and felt she would have wanted it go ahead as planned, especially for the sake of the children who had worked so hard.

A Mull Mòd spokesperson said: ‘The Queen loved Scotland and all within it and of course we are part of the Royal National Mod, with winners from our event going on to compete in it in Perth next month.’

Highlights of the two-day event were many, but more than 100 children singing in glorious sunshine on To-

bermory beach watched by spectators from the railings above had to be the most heartwarming. Tobermory High School Pipe band also played.

Friday saw seven primary schools compete with more than 150 youngsters taking part individually. The preschool action song was won by Bun-sgoil Bhun Easain and the primary action song was won by Lochaline Primary School. Còisir Òg Mhuile, conducted by Janet Campbell, won both unison primary choir competitions.

On Friday evening, there was a ceilidh in Aros Hall, with music from Bunessan-based band Treshnish.

There were also performances by many winning soloists, fiddlers and pipers as well as a poem recitation and Mull Music Makers fiddle group.

Saturday was for the adult competitors. Although numbers were lower this year than in previous years, there was a wonderful atmosphere as soloists moved between Aros Hall, the Free Church and the Masonic Hall, where the morning’s competitions were held.

There were only three mixed choirs this year, as well as ladies’ and men’s choirs, but the audience enjoyed a wide range of performances throughout the afternoon.

The mixed choir competition was won by Taynuilt

Gaelic Choir, conducted by Audrey Paterson, with Oban Gaelic Choir second and Mull Gaelic Choir third.

Ceann an Tuirc, conducted by Joy Dunlop, won their competition and Oban Gaelic Choir, conducted by Sileas Sinclair, won the ladies’ competition and the puirta-beul event. Mull Gaelic Choir, conducted by Donna Dugdale, came second in the puirt-a-beul and ladies’ competitions and Taynuilt Gaelic Choir were third in the puirt-a-beul.

After the adjudications were read and trophies presented, choristers enjoyed informal singing in the sun at Macgochans Bar Beag before many of them caught the bus to the last ferry home.

The Mimi Ceilidh Band played at Saturday evening’s ceilidh, in between many performances from the day’s competitors, as well as from a few adjudicators.

Oban Gaelic Choir carried on singing on Sunday when they crossed to Iona to give a free concert in the abbey as part of its 130th anniversary celebrating musical friendship.

The Mòd committee thanks its sponsors and the almost 40 volunteers from the community who helped run the event. To sponsor a Mull Provincial Mòd 2023 competition or support us by joining our 100 Club draw, please email enquiries@mullmod.org.uk.

The Queen loved Scotland and all within it, and of course we are part of the Royal National Mod

MULL HIGHLAND GAMES

A WINNER

Mull Highland Games returning in their full glory to Tobermory was a winner.

Crowds of spectators covered the grassy grandstand above the games ground at Erray Park to watch competitors from bagpies to long jump, caber tossing to sailors hornpipe dancing and running races vie for prizes.

Chief of the Clan MacLean, the Honourable Sir Lachlan Maclean of Duart and Morvern, had the honour of handing out trophies to the champions

Tributes were paid to games stalwarts Archie MacDonald and Douglas MacNeilage - gone but not forgotten. Tobermory Pipe Major Calum MacLean poignantly played Sunset

On Sunart in their memory. Earlier pipers marched with officials to the games up from the Main Street, joined by a visiting scout troop from Brussels in Belgium.

The Belgian scouts were allowed a lap of honour of the race track, cheered on by the big crowd and there was plenty of opportunities for other international visitors, from as far as Texas to the Netherlands, France and Glasgow, to join in the games - including the kiltie dash.

Jude Mezger, 69, from Winchester took home a half bottle of whisky for being first over the finishing line in one of the open sprints. Her 73-year-old husband Theo also competed in a race.

The only woman competitor in the light and heavy events was Karina Benish Alexander who only took up the sport in her early 50s while living in California.

Karina, who first visited Scotland with friends fell in love with the country, its Highland Games and her future husband here in 2017 and now lives in Tobermory.

Now she is on a mission to encourage other women and girls to flex their power and take up eventing, just like her.

‘I want to show other women and girls that they can do it too. At some events I’m the only woman. It would be great to see more take up the sport,’ she said.

Czech athlete Vlad Tulacek was just one of the heavyweights making their mark at the games.

He smashed his own 2019, 16ft 7ins record for throwing

It’s great to be back at square one again after Covid and have the games in their full glory “

a 56lbs weight over the bar - higher than a doubledecker bus.

This year, the Games hosted the Scottish Highland Games Association Jumps championship which attracted some of the country’s best athletes.

Mull Highland Games Honorary Chairman Willie Hume said: ‘It’s great to be back at square one again after Covid and have the games in

all its full glory. We’ve had a spectacular day. Thank you to everyone for their support and see you all again next year.’

The invitation is out to join them for the next special games on Thursday July 2023, marking the 100th anniversary of the games restarting after the First World War, as well as the 150th anniversary of a record games in Tobermory.

Lochdonhead Primary School gains gold

A Mull primary school has achieved gold status with UNICEF UK’s respecting rights programme.

Lochdonhead Primary School has been celebrating receiving the award given to schools that show commitment to promoting and realising children’s rights and encouraging adults, children and young people to respect the rights of others in school.

UNICEF is the world’s leading organisation working

for children and their rights. Argyll and Bute Council’s Policy Lead for Education Councillor Yvonne McNeilly said: ‘The Rights Respecting Schools Award is a prestigious title and Lochdonhead’s accreditation shows the importance the school places on ensuring pupils see themselves as rights respecting global citizens and are advocates for social justice, fairness and children’s rights at home

and abroad. This is a great achievement for everyone involved.’

Lochdonhead head teacher Susie Carmichael added: ‘We are delighted. The feedback we received from UNICEF stated ‘it was evident that children’s rights are embedded across the school and underpin every facet of school life’.

‘We started our Rights Respecting School journey in 2018 and I am so proud of all the pupils, parents and staff - past and present - as well as our wonderful community, who were instrumental in our quest to gold. Thank you.’

It was evident that children’s rights are embedded across the school and underpin every facet of school life

“

Scottish women’s team bag Munro relay first on Mull

A group of women claimed a Scottish mountains first on Ben More on Mull.

The team – all aged over 40 – bagged the final summit in a list of 282 of the country’s tallest peaks on Thursday June 30.

It took the Veteran Women’s Munro Relay just 26 days to complete the continuous, self-propelled journey which started on Beinn Sgritheall in the north-west Highlands on June 4. It is believed the feat has never before been completed by an all-female team.

The core of 10 women, with others joining for shorter spells, ran, walked, cycled and kayaked to all the Munros, defined as mountains in Scotland with a summit of

at least 3,000ft (914.4m). In total, the women have journeyed more than 1,750 miles (2,800km) by land and on water and climbed 482,300ft (147,000m) - more than 16 times the height of Mount Everest.

They have reached mountains as far afield as Ben Hope in the north of Scotland, Ben Lomond in the southern Highlands, Mount Keen to the east and Sgurr na Banachdich, on the island of Skye, in the west.

The team ticked off famously airy ridges, including the Cuillin on Skye and Aonach Eagach in Glen Coe.

The women faced weather extremes, from one of the hottest days of the year in early June to windchill

temperatures of -4C, and many days of torrential rain and low cloud. Bad weather halted the relay for threeand-a-half days in total.

The relay has been raising awareness and funds for the charity Free to Run - freetorun.org - which aims to empower women and girls through sport.

Fran Loots, of Comrie, Perth and Kinross, came up with the idea as a way to ‘celebrate what women can do’.

The summit of the final Munro, Ben More on the Isle of Mull, was reached at 9.53pm on Thursday June 30 by a dozen women. The total time for the Munro relay was 26 days, 18 hours and three minutes.

In Pinn was one of several Munros bagged on the Isle of Skye.

Mullman happy to be home

Outdoors columnist Daniel Brooks is a wildlife guide, adventure seeker, conservation campaigner, forager, bushcrafter, rewilder and father of four. His website is mullman.co.uk

When I was growing up on Mull, I would disappear into the wild all day making my poor mum worry sick.

Now I have four children of my own, I realise what she must have gone through.

I was always keen on nature, possibly inherited from my grandparents who were keen bird watchers and used to take me off to volunteer at Royal Society for the

Protection of Birds reserves.

I acquired a lifelong passion for otters while growing up here and spent hundreds of hours watching, photographing, recording dive times and prey items, mapping all their holts and lie up places.

They became an obsession for me and because during my teenage years I grew up about as far from friends that I could possibly be, the otters became my best friends while at home at weekends. During the week, I went to school in Oban, boarding at the boys’ hostel at Kilbowie. I started to get quite a reputation locally. Well-

known for my love of otters, tourists used to get sent to find ‘Danny the otter boy’ if they wanted to encounter these wonderful, entertaining creatures.

Today, after spending large parts of the last three decades away from the island, working, travelling and exploring, tourists are sent to me once more if they wish to find wild otters.

I am taking them to many of the places I used to watch otters as a child. I have been watching the great, great, great, great, great grandchildren of the otters that used to be my friends and spending time with them again has brought back countless loving memories.

I found a female with three large cubs recently in territory I used to watch most. It

I consider myself extremely lucky to have grown up on Mull, which is why I returned to bring my own children up here “

has always been an extremely productive territory, with the female holding it regularly having and rearing three cubs. I lay on the beach there with clients recently, watching as the cubs played a game of chase after stuffing themselves full of eels.

They chased each other round and round a large rock hanging with bladder wrack and hid behind the curtain of weed, jumping out on their brethren as they passed and rolled together play fighting, yikkering in delight.

Mum came ashore with a large rockling and one of the cubs ran to try and steal it from her. But she snapped aggressively to make sure the cub knew this one was for her.

The mother otter ate quickly and within a few minutes was running around on the rocks with her cubs sharing

a bit of play time before all curling up together for a snooze in the sea weed.

We lay patiently for 40 minutes until they woke up and entered the water again to fish. We then saw something I have never seen before in all my years watching otters.

A line of lobster pots were

She then sat on the pot and ate it, returning for the other half when she was done.

Otters can get stuck and drown in lobster pots so I was a bit concerned, but this old mum knew exactly what she was doing.

half exposed in the shallows as a result of the very low tide. The mother otter went from one pot to the next looking for prey.

She found a large fish in one and attacked the pot, biting it, pulling it and tipping it around until she got hold of what was inside and ripped it in half pulling through the netting.

I consider myself extremely lucky to have grown up on Mull, which is why I returned to bring my own children up here. We were lucky and are grateful to have received one of four new community houses built by Mull and Iona Community Trust to house local families and help keep the tiny school open.

The view from our home is a dream come true for me. I have long since dreamt of watching otters and dolphins from my home and I can sit and watch both and a lot more from here. I am so happy to be home.

MULL DESIGNER JOINS SCOTLAND’S HOME OF THE YEAR AS GUEST JUDGE

Isle of Mull interior designer Banjo Beale – recently crowned winner of BBC One’s Interior Design Masters – will join Scotland’s Home of the Year as a guest judge alongside series stalwarts Anna Campbell-Jones and Michael Angus.

An IWC Media (a Banijay UK company) production for BBC One Scotland, filming on the new seven-part series begins recently as Banjo, Anna and Michael hit the road in search of outstanding homes across Scotland.

Lifestyle blogger Kate Spiers will take a break from filming to welcome her first child.

Australian-born Banjo - who lives on Mull with his partner Ro - describes himself as ‘an Antipodean Hebridean’ who

settled in Tobermory in 2014 after backpacking around the world.

Banjo joins Anna and Michael as they go in search of property perfection from bijou properties to grand conversions, traditional to modern and city dwellings to rural havens.

The new guest judge is looking forward to taking a peek at Scotland’s pads and said: ‘What an honour to be joining Scotland’s Home of the Year.

‘I’m always inventing reasons to snoop through people’s homes – now I get to peek into the best homes in Scotland.

‘I had a fabulous time designing homes on Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr and now I get to be the judge.

I have opinions and I ain’t afraid to use them. I can’t wait to uncover the spaces and the people behind them.

‘I think as a nation we’re seriously underestimated for our design, heart and bravery which we show in our houses and I’m chuffed to showcase the best of the best.’

Since its launch in 2019, Scotland’s Home of the Year has fast become one of BBC Scotland’s most successful brands, captivating audiences on TV and online.

Converted croft house New Tolsta in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis won the coveted title of Scotland’s Home of the Year 2022, beating off stiff competition from across the country.