Isle of Gometra, Ulva Ferry, Isle of Mull, PA73 6NA.
Gometra is a small island community of three households living a low-impact lifestyle. There is no mains electricity, limited telephone coverage, no doctor, and no teacher on the island. Cold and hot running water is available; burn water can be boiled for drinking. Two bothies are bookable via Airbnb — search "Gometra."
Visitors should bring sleeping bags, waterproofs, and torches. Please note there is no Ulva Ferry on Saturdays, and none on Sundays except June, July and August.
The track is signed "Am Bru" or "Gometra." It passes the Boat House Tea Room on Ulva. You will need OS Explorer Sheet 374, a compass, and proper footwear. The terrain is rough in places and can be boggy after rain.
Vodafone and EE work in limited areas on the island. Other networks are unreliable or have no coverage.
Gometra is a naturally dangerous environment, exacerbated by lack of access to a doctor. Visitors must conduct their own risk assessments. The North Harbour pier is in poor condition; an indemnity is required for its use. The causeway between Ulva and Gometra is impassable during rough spring tides.
Use the enquiries form to get in touch (checked once daily when weather permits).
Post: Weekly service with 14–21 day turnaround
Two self-catering accommodations are available on Gometra. Both are of a very basic standard of decoration and are unmodernised, aimed at kayakers and hill-walkers. Reservations are handled through Airbnb — search "Gometra."
Guests must bring sleeping bags and camping cookers. Cutlery, crockery, and pans are supplied. Firewood is available at £13 a bucket. A small honesty shop operates at Baileclaidh on Gometra.
Access is via a 7–8 mile walk from Ulva Ferry (closed Saturdays and most Sundays, plus winter days).
The walk from Ulva Ferry to Gometra covers up to 8 miles. From Ulva Ferry track on Ulva, take the second left, then second right, and climb up the hill beside a small reservoir, before following the main track along the north side of Ulva to the Gometra bridge.
This route is for suitably equipped and experienced walkers only. You will need OS Explorer Sheet 374, a compass, and proper footwear. See the Safety page for more information.
Grid Reference: NM357407 56°29'07"N, 6°16'52"W
Call 999 for life-threatening situations. Identify your location as a "remote island near Staffa, off Mull, in the Inner Hebrides." No NHS ambulance service is available — evacuation is by lifeboat or helicopter.
After-hours calls (6pm–8am) should reach NHS24, which handles triage, GP contact, and ambulance dispatch. Call handlers understand Mull's transport challenges and will coordinate evacuation when necessary.
Private livestock pier with uneven rock surface, variable tidal range (4m), and deep-water risks. Use is permitted on a goodwill basis only, for experienced users at their own risk. Commercial use is prohibited without prior arrangement.
Not maintained and must not be used.
A 10-foot aluminium lifting bridge approximately 10 feet above the seabed. Hazards include falling, slipping, and deep water. The sea ford should only be crossed at low water, and having regard for the slippery nature of the sea bed. A torch is required for nighttime crossing.
Contains enclosures, livestock areas, machinery, and stored materials. Public access is by invitation only, at your own risk.
Rough terrain with deep ruts and slippery sections across open fields. There are no formal rights of way; a goodwill waymarked walk has been provided on an "at own risk" basis. Infrequent foot traffic means that rescue may be delayed.
A quad bike and Land Rover are present on the island. Quads are known to overturn even with experienced operators.
The island is exposed to wind, tides, waves, and extreme weather. Terrain includes cliffs, unprotected drops, steep slopes, and very low ambient lighting at night.
Regular stalking activities occur. Standard access precautions should be observed.
Lyme disease occurs in the Scottish Highlands. Preventive measures include wearing slippery trousers tucked into socks and brushing down after being in long vegetation. Remove ticks promptly and watch for a bullseye rash or fever symptoms.
A chlorinating plant has been installed for EU compliance. Supply often dries during summer months.
Natural cliffs are found throughout the island. Man-made drops include the ha-ha and ramp at Gometra House, stone stairs in the Steading, and cottage attic stairs. The walled garden of Gometra House is unsound and should be strictly avoided.
Rarely encountered but possible. Remain calm, immobilise the affected limb, remove jewellery, and contact emergency services.
Heating is by candles, open fires, and solid fuel stoves — there is no mains electricity or gas. Residents must regularly check smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Salen fire service response times are lengthy.
Pour-on livestock preparations are toxic. Only licensed or trained handlers should apply them. Protective clothing is required for contact with treated animals.
Minimum 60 yards square. Flat ground with clear windward access and egress. No overhead hazards (cables, telephone wires). No livestock present. Remove all debris prior to arrival.
Rotor span is approximately 60 feet; aircraft length about 75 feet. Do not approach until instructed. Never approach from the slope side — approach from the starboard forward side (12 o'clock to 3 o'clock). Avoid the tail section.
Mark the landing site with vehicle headlights or a torch formation in a "T" shape. Aircraft will approach and land into the wind.
Military and Coastguard helicopters are equipped with marine radio VHF. Voice communications may be difficult.
Gometra Post Office — Local Carriage Stamps. Launched 1 April 2015.
The stamps facilitate outgoing carriage of letters, postcards, messages and freight from Gometra to Ulva Ferry, and incoming carriage of messages and freight from Ulva Ferry to Gometra. Royal Mail stamps are required for carriage beyond Ulva Ferry.
First day cover form; mini-sheets (one of each four stamps); and large sheets (five copies of each, twenty stamps total). Stamp dimensions: 4.2 cm wide × 4.85 cm high.
Contact spicypa73@yahoo.co.uk or write to Mrs Rhoda Munro, Isle of Gometra, Isle of Mull, Argyll, Scotland, PA73 6NA.
Mini-sheets: £11.50 (UK postage included). First Day Covers: £12.50 (UK postage included). A free cancelled stamp set is included with every order.
Design by Frida Alvinzi. Printed in Berlin by Juergen Schwarz.
The gallery and shop at Baileclaidh sells art, cards, stamps, books and fuel. Seasonal inventory includes tinned produce, dried staples such as pasta and rice, confectionery, and — during summer months — fresh fruits and vegetables.
Contact: Rhoda Munro
We marched up the hill in a procession of flags, wearing our most colourful clothes,
eating ginger cookies we'd made that morning and drinking Savannah's raspberry lemonade.
We sat on the grass together and looked at the sun setting behind the Dutchman's Cap
and then watched the red moon rise.
And then we looked at the stars.
It was a perfect moment.
That warm feeling you get when everyone you love is in the same room.
Gometra is the second largest and second most populous island in the Staffa Archipelago, located in Loch Staffa within the Loch Na Keal National Scenic Area. The island offers views of numerous neighbouring islands and is home to red deer, feral goats, otters, seals, golden and sea eagles, salmon, trout, basking sharks, dolphins, porpoises, and whales.
Gometra — A Local and Family History with Digressions (a work in progress)
"A Scot remembers and cherishes the memory of his forebears, good or bad…" — Robert Louis Stevenson, Weir of Hermiston
Volcanic eruptions 60 million years ago created lava plateaux forming Gometra, similar to formations found in Greenland. Individual lava flows reach 50 feet deep, primarily dark basalt from fissure eruptions. Between eruptions, rivers, lakes, and forests developed. Scorched fossil soil layers — visible as reddish bands — mark the sites of ancient forests from the age of the dinosaurs. Notable fossil remains include a 35-foot coniferous tree at Ardmeanach on Mull and preserved leaves at Ardtun. The island's distinctive "Trapp" landscape results from differential erosion.
The bedrock comprises pre-Cambrian Moine sedimentary rocks, up to a billion years old, deposited along the shore of the ancient Lapetus Ocean.
Raised shorelines 90 feet above the current sea level predate the last glaciation, some 30,000 years ago. Gometra House and Bailiochdrach cottages occupy former beach sites. The last glacial maximum ended approximately 10,000 years ago, with ice sheets sculpting valleys and depositing erratics — including pink Strontian granite boulders.
Ancient peoples venerated rounded pebbles, particularly in groups of nine, placing them in bullán (stone sockets) for determining the gender of offspring through clockwise rotation. These features predate monastic associations and may represent evolved cup-and-ring markings.
Speculation exists regarding a Thing (Norse-Celtic gathering place) at geometrically significant locations on Gometra, possibly represented by a socketed altar near Tórr Mór.
Gometra's pre-Norse name remains lost or unclear. Classical authorities — Pliny, Ptolemy, Diodorus Siculus — reference nearby islands but not Gometra specifically. Homer's Odyssey contains parallels with Hebridean geography. Iron Age dùns (fortified structures) date between Homer's era and Augustine's period, with unsurveyed masonry remains on Eilean Dioghlum and Gometra.
A small peninsula called Eilean Columbkille, beneath Tòrr Mòr, may preserve the memory of Columba's visit following his arrival on Iona in 563 A.D. Adomnán's Vitae Columbae describes sixth-century monastic life in ways strikingly similar to modern existence on Gometra.
The Kyle of Bru ("the Brew") between Ulva and Gometra potentially corresponds to descriptions in the Vitae Columbae, though Jura likely represents Hinba more convincingly. The presence of Elecampane (Inula helenium) near Gometra suggests monastic introduction, per County Recorder Lynne Farrell's research.
Viking raids devastated the Columban establishments, beginning at Lindisfarne in 793 and Iona in 795. Multiple subsequent raids (802, 806, 825, 845) caused extensive destruction and martyrdom. By approximately 850, Vikings dominated the west coast.
The name "Gometra" is derived from the Norse Goðr Maðr Ey (God Man's Island), reflecting Viking priestly warrior-lord institutions. A Gaelic back-identification created Gu Mòr Traigh (accessible only at low water), referencing the Ulva crossing.
Somerled conquered islands south of Ardnamurchan in 1156, becoming rí inse Gall (king of the islands of the foreigners). He unified Norsemen with Gaelic-speaking Celts. Genetic analysis reveals Somerled's patrilineal DNA as Norse rather than Celtic. An estimated quarter of a million direct descendants carry his Y-chromosome.
Land passed from Somerled to the MacDougalls of Lorne.
Dugal, Somerled's eldest son, founded Clan MacDougall, controlling Hebridean and mainland territories. During King Alexander II's attempted conquest in 1249, Ewan MacDougall (3rd chief) famously declared: "One man can easily serve two masters if they are not enemies."
Following Alexander III's receipt of the Hebrides by the Treaty of Perth in 1266, the MacDougalls recovered their island possessions. Internal conflicts — particularly with the rising Campbells at the Battle of the Red Ford in 1294 — weakened MacDougall power.
Robert the Bruce's murder of the Red Comyn in 1306 initiated prolonged conflict. A MacDougall ambush nearly captured Bruce at Dalrigh in June 1306, where he was forced to abandon his brooch — the famous Brooch of Lorn. The 1308 defeat at the Pass of Brander devastated MacDougall fortunes. Iain Bacach's ten-year naval opposition to Bruce eventually failed; he died in 1318 during a pilgrimage to Canterbury.
Following the death of Iain Bacach's son Ewan in 1375, the Lordship of Lorn transferred to the Stewart brothers through his daughters' marriages.
Forfeited MacDougall lands passed to the MacDonalds of Islay, Somerled's descendants, who styled themselves Lords of the Isles. Charter evidence from Ardtornish (12 July 1390) documents MacDonald grants of Gometra to MacLean of Duart, along with the mysterious offices of fragramannach and armannach regarding Iona.
The 1493 forfeiture of the MacDonald Lordship marked "the end of the semi-independence of the Western Isles" and accelerated the destruction of Gaelic culture. By 1495, Hector Odhar MacLean received royal charters confirming Gometra and other holdings. The Reformation suppressed traditional entertainments and cultural practices throughout Scotland.
Monro (1549): Gometra described as "two mile lang from the south to the north, with half mile breid, with twa fair Raidis in it…gude land and weill plenishit in corn and girsing."
Monipennie (c. 1612): "Two miles long, and one mile broad…Fruitfull in proportion to the other Isles."
Martin (1703): "A Mile in Circumference, and Fruitful…To the West of Ulva, lies the Isle Gometra."
Lachlan Lubanach MacLean, 1st of Duart (1390), received the Gometra charter from his brother-in-law Donald of the Isles. His son Hector Ruadh served as Constable of Carnaburg (1409) and was allegedly killed at the Battle of Harlaw in 1411.
Hector Og MacLean of Duart (fl. 1539–1575) granted his wife Janet Campbell lands in Gometra in February 1572/3. The MacLeans of Treshnish, cadets of the Ardgour and Duart lines, later received a half-share, with the remains of their residence visible on Dún-Ban.
The Lady's Rock legend tells of Janet MacLean, marooned by her husband Lachlan Cattanach, rescued undetected, with her brother later retaliating — though multiple inconsistent accounts of the story survive.
Alan MacQuarrie of Ulva married Alan MacLean's daughter (4th son of Lachlan Mór of Duart). Hector MacQuarrie established the Ormaig line. The MacQuarries subsequently rented Gometra from Argyll's Campbells after the Campbells' dispossession of the MacLeans.
Lachlan MacQuarrie, the last MacQuarrie chief, sold Ulva in July 1777.
The Campbells purchased the debts of their Duart cousins and foreclosed on their holdings, including Gometra. The Duart refuge shifted to Carnaburg before eventual French exile.
John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll, leased Gometra to Lachlan MacLean, 7th of Torloisk, who built Torloisk House opposite Gometra on Mull's shores.
Lachlan's father Hector (5th of Torloisk) participated in the 1715 Jacobite Rising. Brother Allan fought at Culloden in 1745, escaped to the Continent, and later commanded the Royal Highland Emigrants at the successful defence of Quebec. Sister Alicia, a poet, married Lachlan MacQuarrie, the last Ulva chief.
Johnson and Boswell visited the area; Johnson's Latin poem — translated by Sir Daniel Sandford — praised MacLean hospitality on Inch Kenneth.
Pennant (1776) described Iona's clustered ruins and fertile ground contrasting with Mull's red granite, and noted Loch-in-a-Gall with Ulva and Gometra at its mouth.
Banks & Staffa: Sir Joseph Banks's observation of Staffa's columnar formations as superior to architectural achievements inspired the cave's "discovery" and subsequent famous visitation by Keats, Turner, and Mendelssohn. The cave's original Gaelic name, an Uamh Bhin (Musical Cave), was misinterpreted as "Fingal's Cave" through linguistic confusion. Mendelssohn's 1830 overture cemented this name.
Thomas Garnett, physician and mineral water expert, visited the MacLeans of Torloisk in 1798. He theorised plant intelligence predating Schopenhauer's philosophy, describing carnivorous plants and a universal principle of life.
Garnett's detailed account describes navigating the shallow Sound of Gometra with boat-delivered provisions from Mrs MacLean, visiting Staffa and Iona with Gometra boatmen. His observations of Staffa's wave-driven cavern explosions and Iona's uncomfortable lodgings — crowded with livestock and a leaking roof — provide vivid period documentation.
Garnett's wife died in childbirth at Christmas 1798. His resulting depression prevented academic duties. He practised medicine at the Marylebone Dispensary until dying of typhus in 1802, contracted from a patient, leaving two orphaned infant daughters.
In 1807, Ranald MacDonald of Staffa (1777–1838) purchased Gometra and Burg from foreclosed Campbell estates. This represented the first of only two historical instances of simultaneous Gometra-Ulva ownership. MacDonald married Elizabeth Steuart, hereditable armour bearer to the Queen. Sir Walter Scott composed laudatory verse about him.
Staffa initiated Ulva's clearance by 1813, converting shielings to sheep walks. The 1815 kelp value collapse compromised both Gometra and Ulva residents. Staffa's 1817 bankruptcy was prevented only by his father-in-law's intervention.
Francis Clark, W.S., a Morayshire lawyer, acquired Ulva in 1835, learning Gaelic and recording local customs. During repeated potato crop failures, Clark imported food at personal expense. Facing ruin and unable to sustain relief efforts, Clark and his factor Dugald McColl completed Ulva's clearance, proceeding sunwise from Ormaig.
Duncan McKinnon's oral testimony preserved the memory: "I met old Clark…he was fourteen or fifteen when his father evicted the crofters…He still felt guilty about it."
An 1820 report from the Rev. Neil Maclean documented the school examination on Gometra, praising the students' Bible reading, Shorter Catechism knowledge, and religious learning. The teacher convened scholars on Sabbaths for worship, supplying religious instruction on alternate Sundays from Ulva preaching.
The McDonalds — Staffa's mother and sister Isabella McDonald (1816–1893) — held Gometra during the Great Hunger. No confirmed starvation deaths occurred on Gometra, though the population shrank from 77 in 1841 to 23 in 1861 through emigration. A causeway between Gometra and Ulva was constructed as relief employment.
Catherine Macquarie's Emigration: Via the HIES scheme on the New Zealander (1853), Catherine Macquarie (widow of Donald McDonald) and ten children reached Portland, Victoria, Australia. The ship caught fire in Portland Bay — its remains are visible at low tide. Descendants named their 1861 farm property "Gometra," preserving a firechain (cooking pot suspension device) from the original Gometra black house.
Robert Dunn: The author's great-great-grandfather drowned piloting logs down a freezing Canadian river, leaving infant son James and $100 (embezzled by an uncle). James's mother worked as a housekeeper to educate him. James Dunn prospered, his art collection — Bronzino, Gainsborough, Goya, Manet — was sold to Henry Clay Frick after his bank's failure. Like Scott, Dunn repaid his creditors before forming a second, more modest collection (Freud, Orpen, Sutherland, Dali, Sickert) now in the Beaverbrook Foundation, Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Donald MacLaine (born 1814) purchased Gometra in 1857 and died in 1871. He rebuilt Gometra House in 1864, allegedly using a wrecked ship's staircase. Described as "very popular."
Peter MacLaine succeeded Donald and died in May 1893. Brother John was a "successful cattle-dealer," tenant of Kinnegharar and Burg. Three Bailiochdrach cottages were built by this family.
In 1874, Duncan MacInnes (50), Lachlan MacInnes (21), and Andrew MacFarlane (21) drowned when their skiff capsized at Rudha Bhrisdeadh-ramh during a gale.
Roderick MacLaine, grandson of John MacLean, purchased Gometra in 1893 after advertisement in major Scottish newspapers. A Dervaig native and Glasgow merchant, with wife Flora Alexandra (Rev. Roderick McDonald's daughter), Roderick employed six men, operating threshing machines, corn-bruisers, and a water-powered sawmill. The S.S. Brenda (115 tons, built 1904) called monthly from Glasgow; weekly fishing smacks from Bunessan delivered messages.
Duncan MacFarlane was appointed Coast Watcher (1 shilling per day, 2 shillings per night). He reported U-boat sightings in September 1914 and suspicious objects. The fleet moved from Scapa Flow to Loch-nan-Cille, near Gometra, until 1915 when defences were strengthened.
MacFarlane's reports documented "a very suspicious block of wood shaped like a fender" and chamber-like structures, uncertain whether they were explosive mines.
Jane Ann MacFarlane's uncles Duncan and Angus fished and transported people to Fingal's Cave until their boat sank in 1927. The paddle steamer Grenadier (launched 1885) sank in Oban on 5 September 1927 after fire; three crew members, trapped in the blazing companionways, drowned.
Margaret Low's Account (c. 1922): Visited Roderick MacLean via motorboat from Torloisk. Remembered the "shian" (fairy hill) with a cave-like "door," and walking eight miles to Ulva House through Francis Clark's estate.
Mina Robertson's Memories: The island had 14 school pupils, regular supply boats, grocery runs to Ulva Ferry, and a wireless radio installation that caused superstition among the children. Every house was occupied; families included MacFarlanes, MacDonalds, MacPhersons, MacKinnons, and MacNeills. The Anna Bhan smack transported the MacNeill family from Ulva; the Smiling Morn (Robertson family lobster boat) provided community ceilidhs. Island life operated without cash wages; boys received annual December clothing gifts.
Duncan MacKinnon's Account: Described Saturday walks to Oskamull for groceries in bare feet, witnessing "every ghost at every ruin." Noted 30 island residents and twelve school pupils. Remembered a ship sinking with apple cargo, creating red-stained waters; a lifeboat from the wreck was salvaged and reused. He also recalled the yacht Ribble sinking on Maesgeir reef (c. 1933) with two survivors initially stranded; one body was found three weeks later on Skye.
Jane Ann MacFarlane's Recollections: Lived at Baileclaidh with her mother Jess, grandmother, and uncles. Remembered fetching water from the Tor Mor spring (which never dries), hearing fairies sing near the fairy hill — "just like fairies" — and stories of a drowned mermaid buried annually with seaweed.
Charlie and Morag MacDonald: Charles's family traced their lineage to James MacDonald (1815–1906, weaver and ferryman). John MacDonald (1779–1859) married Marion Lamont (1782–1870); their son James married Mary MacInnes (1820–1906); their son John (1861–1938) married Flora MacNeill (1873–1940); their son Charles (1907–1984) had siblings born in Gometra. Charles participated in Home Guard wartime meetings at Salen and fished for saithe, cuddies, and mackerel.
Following Roderick MacLean's death, his widow Flora Alexandrina relocated to Druimard, Dervaig, Mull. Gometra sold for £1,750 to mountaineer Hugh Ruttledge, a retired Indian Civil Servant chosen to lead the 1933 Everest expedition despite a limp and no previous Himalayan climbing experience.
Ruttledge's mountaineering interest began after meeting Edward Whymper in 1906 — the Matterhorn's first ascender, who remained haunted by the deaths of four companions on the descent.
Sir Charles Bell obtained Tibetan permission via the Dalai Lama. Innovative expedition preparations included gas piping proposals and windlass designs. Lamas blessed the team at Ghoom monastery. Ruttledge's innovations included proper acclimatisation through six diminishing camps on the North Face.
Two climbers discovered an ice-axe — marked "Willisch, Täsch, Zermatt valley" — believed to mark the fatal accident site of George Leigh Mallory and Andrew Irvine on 8 June 1924. Noel Odell had spotted them near the second step, but Ruttledge's climber Shipton theorised optical illusion: two rocks on a nearby slope resembled moving figures when stared at. Norton's 1924 Camp VI, where Mallory and Irvine spent their final night, was discovered with a surprisingly preserved tent, a functional torch, and a candle-lantern after nine years' exposure.
Smyth's solitary second attempt produced the sensation of a companion: "All the time…I had a strong feeling that I was accompanied by a second person…This feeling was so strong that it completely eliminated all loneliness…Once…I carefully divided [mint cake] and turned round with one half in my hand."
Ruttledge returned with no expedition deaths. The family remained only two years on Gometra before relocating to Dartmoor. Alice Ruttledge remembered barefoot daily school walks; sent rabbit carcasses decomposed en route, concerning the game dealers.
The author's maternal grandmother Mary St Clair Erskine's father was Harry Rosslyn. As a child, he lived at Holyrood Palace (his father serving as Convenor of the Church of Scotland). His father was Victoria's favoured poet, destined for the Poet Laureateship until his unexpected death two years before Tennyson's.
Harry Rosslyn authored Twice Captured (an account of Boer War experiences) and devised the "Rosslyn System" for breaking roulette banks. Winston Churchill, captured once by the Boers, remarked the book should be titled Twice Bankrupt.
The Roslins became "island magnates" through marriage with Isabel, daughter of Malise II (40th Orkney jarl), bringing Norse heritage and mythical Frost-Snow lineage. Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel claims Roslins were buried in armour; the author's great-grandfather lifted four grave slabs at Roslin Chapel, revealing contrary evidence.
Dr Ralls notes the Apprentice Pillar at Roslin Chapel represents the Norse "world tree" Yggdrasil, with the "Dread Biter" serpent at its base, representing the perpetual conflict of light and darkness.
Mary Torloisk (1886–1957): Married to Alwyne Compton (MacLean of Torloisk), she brought Newby Hall into the Compton family. Local lore describes her keeping a motorised vehicle behind Gometra House, allegedly driven daily to bathe from the beach. Jane Ann remembered her as "likeable."
Vera Rosslyn, the author's grandmother's mother, was remembered for arraigning Sacred Heart Convent nuns for allegedly poisoning her cats. She was the lover of Robert Bruce Lockhart, who allegedly failed to rescue Tsar Nicholas II and was imprisoned in the Kremlin for plotting Lenin's assassination.
Lockhart was exchanged for Litvinov (later Stalin's Foreign Minister) and attended the U.S. Ambassador's 1935 spring ball at Spaso House in Moscow — inspiring Bulgakov's Satan's Spring Ball in The Master and Margarita.
The author's grandmother's brother Loughie, wounded at the Dardanelles, married Australian nurse Sheila Chisholm. His friend Eddie's brother George's affair with Sheila led George V to marry George to Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, who became Queen Elizabeth (The Queen Mother) when George VI ascended after Edward VIII's abdication.
Sheila remarried Dmitri Alexandrovich Romanov (the Tsar's nephew, liberated by Germans from Bolshevik Crimean custody), escaping with his mother and grandmother (the Dowager Tsarina) on HMS Marlborough.
Hamish Erskine, the author's grandmother's brother, was engaged to Nancy Mitford, an Inch Kenneth island resident. The marriage dissolved. Nancy later attempted suicide by switching on an unlit gas fire, describing it as "a lovely sensation, just like taking anaesthetic."
Resources for a geography of Gometra and its dependent islands (a work in progress).
Survey conducted by Lynne Farrell, Ro Scott, Alistair Godfrey, Maurice Wilkins, and Charlie Bateman.
Twenty species were documented, including coastal and marsh varieties: creeping bent, wild angelica, thrift, sea club-rush, red fescue, saltmarsh rush, silverweed, and sea campion.
Lynne Farrell's "Rare Plants Register" (July 2013) covers rare plants of Mull, Coll, and Tiree.
Contact Gometra with any questions or enquiries.
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