Remote Self Catering Coll - sleeps 8

A glorious half day's sail from Oban takes me along the sound of Mull, past rugged outcrops, secluded coves and hidden white beaches, the pretty multicoloured houses of Tobermory and the dramatic Ardnamurchan peninsula, jutting out from the mouth of Loch Sunart (now I am beyond the edge of the westernmost point on the British mainland, further west even than Land's End), then out into open sea. My destination is the small hebridean island of Coll, one of the sunniest places in the British Isles and I shall drop anchor in Loch Eatharna and the sheltered harbour of Arinagour. I am not alone on my journey – curious dolphins surf the bow waves for part of the ride and far out I can see the distinctive dark shapes of minke whales, flashing white as they roll in and out of the water. I follow in the wake of many others before me, from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, to Gaels, to pioneering Norsemen, the belligerent McLeans of Duart, come to wrest the island from their cousins and more peacefully, Samuel Boswell and Ben Johnson on their tour of the Hebrides.

Coll has a chequered past, has prospered and struggled. By the middle of the nineteeth century, the island supported some fifteen hundred people, before the potato famine and the Clearances sent the majority of them away to Canada and Australia. The next century or so saw the population drop to almost none and many homes abandoned, but now there is a thriving community of about two hundred living on the island full time and black faced sheep and highland cattle graze in the fields as they have done for ages.

Close to the north west coast of Coll, a once abandoned and derelict, now beautifully restored farm cottage is home for me and my family for the next few days. We plan to spend much of our time on the beach, to take a picnic to the top of Ben Hogh and marvel at the view all the way to the far off Paps of Jura in the south and Uist in the north, to cycle unhindered by traffic all the way around the island and to laze about on the decking sipping cool drinks and just enjoying the peace and quiet. We've come prepared with our high factor sun cream because we know that Coll, like its neighbour Tiree has an inordinate number of sunny days each year, but we are also equipped with wet weather gear, good books to read and a few good films to watch because we know too that the weather can quickly change from one extreme to the other. It won't matter if it does – we are assured of a warm welcome and genial company in the pub or a delicious meal in the hotel and we can enjoy sitting it out, knowing that it won't be long before the sun is shining again.

remote self catering hebrides| coll self catering scotland