Lismore Day Trip - 4

After my failure to get to Bernera of the Yew I started the climb to the Barr Mor, the highest point of Lismore. From the settlement of Achinduin, where I would stay at a Guest House eight years later, I made the easy climb to the top. 

Trig Pillar atop the Barr Mor

The Barr Mor stars in one of the chapters of Campbell Steven's wonderful book, The Island Hills; a chapter that had been one of the driving forces that made me want to visit Lismore. Steven has this to say of the climb up the Barr Mor: '...it provides no meal for the mountianeer, not even a boulder problem to whet the cragsman's appetite. It is in fact a real lazy man's paradise, like Iona's Dun I, or Windy Hill on Bute; the way to its cairn, from whichever direction one approaches, is no more than a stroll. Yet your Lismore resident is as proud of his hill as any Chamoniard of Mont Blanc.'

After having walked some four miles, and still having a few more to get back to the ferry, I was glad it was a lazy man's stroll to get to the top of the island. Even though it was overcast, the view was expansive, and just offshore to the east I could see the 60-foot tower-rock on little Eilean na Cloiche. 

The next photo is the same view on a bright spring evening eight years later.

From the Barr Mor I descended to Kilcheren, and then followed the coast north to the ferry. It was difficult terrain: ridges of limestone hidden in tall grass that made for an ankle twisting obstacle course. It took an hour to cross the final mile to the ferry terminal, and I made it there just in time to catch the last ferry to Oban.

I'd had an amazing day afoot, and it remains one of my fondest memories of solo hiking in the islands. For a complete description of my walk on Lismore see chapter 25 of book 1.

MV Bruernish arriving at Lismore

Drying off in MV Bruernish on the way back to Oban