This repost from the Atlantic Islands Centre is from way back in 2015. We spent almost a week on this tiny island (6×1.5miles) which now makes us wonder what we did for all that time? Can’t remember but we do remember having a great time. For example, one evening we set off walking round the coast to the town of Port Mary in the NW of the island. We searched and searched but, apart from lots of slate workings there was no trace of the town we thought we had seen on the map. Apparently, it’s just the name of a bay! Took a whole evening to find that out though so you get the idea of how we can easily fritter away a week.

The Isle of Luing (pronounced Ling) is not one we have ever been on before. We were not only excited to be visiting but also to find that in the capital, Cullipool, there was the Atlantic Islands Centre .. with a café. When we got there it had only been open a couple of weeks but was already proving to be a major hit with both islanders and visitors. Having been many years in the planning and construction it now provides a community based cultural centre for the island with loads of local history and genealogy information. Most importantly, of course, it has the only café/ restaurant on the island. Prior to this, going out for a coffee would have involved a ferry trip so it is not difficult to understand why it is popular.

Out of the way

There are two main population centres on the island, Cullipool and Toberonochy. Together they account for 90% of the population of about 200. There are no street names the houses are just numbered e.g. 17 Cullipool, and so on. As always in these ‘out of the way’ places the staff were extremely helpful and friendly. On our first visit we were served by a lovely girl on a two week holiday from Poland visiting relatives.

Hardy beasts

We were impressed that she could come over to somewhere like Luing and end up with a job. Especially when everyone on the island seems to have at least three or four jobs. Okay, like most of the jobs in the restaurant, it was on a voluntary basis, but admirable nevertheless. Unfortunately, our scones were not so admirable .. seemed like they had been deep-frozen or something. Despite this, it is a great place.  We have no doubt that it will develop into a fantastic resource for the island.

The island is probably best known for its now-defunct slate mining industry. However, it is also the place where Luing cattle were first developed by the Cadzow family in 1947. A cross between Beef Shorthorn and Highland cattle. These hardy beasts and are now found all over the world in areas where the climate, like Scotland’s, can be less than balmy.

EVEL

The climate in Parliament today may be less than balmy as MPs discuss EVEL (English Votes for English Laws). Earlier this week the Scotland Bill was agreed by 58 of Scotland’s 59 MPs but failed. It was voted down by English MPs .. almost enough to make you choke on your scone.

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As Boris congratulates his government over its handling of the coronavirus crisis it is perhaps worth remembering that the two wealthy western countries with the worst problems of social inequality and deprivation – the US and the UK, have accounted for more than half the global COVID-19 deaths to date. Just saying!

Mask or not?

The debate around the wearing of face masks rages on. It’s a bit of nostalgia for us because it takes us back to the days when we used to rob banks. How else did you think we could afford all those scones? No more, of course, we’re not even allowed out of the house for goodness sake!

We thought we might be able to recycle our old rather dashing black bank robbing masks but of course, they were more in the style of the Lone Ranger. They went around the eyes rather than the mouth. Useless! No worries though, we are indebted to our Côte d’Azur correspondents for sending us these beautiful homemade gender-sensitive masks. Bring it on, COVID-19!

ISLE OF LUING SHED