The boys and I took a boat trip to the nearby island of Staffa during our time on Iona. Above, Luke is sitting on the Wishing Chair. (He's wishing for a dog, I'm sure!)
Staffa had two main attractions, the cave and the puffins. Normally, the puffins have left Staffa by the first week in August, but we were luck and they were still around. They seem as interested in people as people are in them, and as folks sat and waited for them, more and more came around. Charlie could have actually reached out and touched more than one.
On our boat ride, we saw lots of birds and also seals. If you know where to look to the left of Luke's head you'll see a seal:
Here's a view of Staffa, which is made of pillars of 5- and 6-sided rock like a giant crystal. You can see the entrance to Fingal's cave on the right:
It was a bit of a terrifying walk into Fingal's Cave around the edge of the island. There was a rope to hang on to, THEN an uneven 3ft wide path, then nothing between you and a shear drop of many feet onto hard stone or churning ocean. Not for the faint of heart!
But the view is worth the walk. I've never seen anything like it. And apparently it was like nothing Felix Mendelssohn had heard. Here is the overture he wrote after a visit. (The video has some great footage of Staffa, too.)
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