Back from Iona....

...with lovely memories of a tranquil and magical place - also thanks to EasyJet (aka SqueezyJet for the less than human queues at Bristol Airport, even worse than US Immigration or DisneyWorld!) we all got an airplane aircon cold, one after the other.

This is the best view of St Columba's Bay - an hour's walk across the heather and peatbogs to the remote south of the island. Have you ever seen such jewels of pebbles? I had to leap out of the way of an advancing wave to get this glistening shot - you can just see my reflection in a couple of the black stones!


We spent a relaxing time hunting for Mermaid's Tears, before finding our another small hidden bay (The Bay of Ivor's Cornfield apparently)


Then we climbed over the hills and tried to discover the way to the ruins of the Marble Quarry, first used in the 1790s for a few years, and then again in Victorian times. The view across to Mull was lovely. You can see the edge of the quarry on the bottom right where steam tugs would come to collect the cut stone blocks, till it failed again.


Then across the hills and heather, the weather on Iona has been dry but I still managed to find some bog in which to tread up to my calf!! No shot of muddy boots until the ferry home! In lieu of a path, we followed a sheep track back to "civilisation" - a nice cup of tea and the thought of a good meal in the island pub later on in the evening.


PS I am very sorry but I accidentally deleted this post - and so lost the comments! Doh!
Photos are back now too. Double doh!