by Pinkagirl

Created on: June 08, 2008   Last Updated: June 09, 2008

Recently I visited the beautiful Isle of Lismore (Lios Mor is Gaelic for Great Garden.). I was lucky enough to be able to stay at a friends Crofters Cottage and found it an enchanting and enlightening experience that I wanted to share.

The Isle of Lismore lies in Loch Linnhe south of Great Glen. The best way to reach Lismore is by ferry, this is a small passenger and car ferry which can accommodate approximately three cars. The cost for travel is very low and the crossing takes around 50 minutes from the port in Oban to Port in Lismore. If the air is breezy you can pop inside the cabin area and wait in there to cross.

As you travel across the water you are surrounded by beautiful scenery and if like me you had never experienced Scotland before this was gorgeous, lots and lots of green and several fortresses etc.

As you come into port at Lismore you will see several houses on the front, which are cute little white homes, that make the place look homely and the views from their windows must be spectacular.

We disembarked (we had taken our car) and drove through the bending roads to the Crofters Cottage. On route we passed lots of beautiful flora and fauna, sheep, birds, a few houses and other people getting off the ferry. My husband had directions to get to the cottage, but I do not believe we could have gotten lost anyway as the Isle of Lismore is only approximately one mile wide and ten miles long and everyone knows everyone else and where everything is. We drove a very short distance to the cottage and parked up. On entering the cottage we were both expecting bare minimum and bare minimum was what we got, but our friend is in the process of renovating the property in her spare time to retire into.

The cottage was a stone built property with a tin roof; one inside we saw that is was one room really with a mezzanine floor above, which was being used for storage. The furniture was all covered in dust sheets and it seemed quite daunting. But once we removed the dust sheets, moved the furniture about and lit the fire, things quickly changed and I could not believe how homely it felt.

The main concern before going and on arrival, was the lack of facilities. This included a toilet; we had taken a portaloo with us and positioned this outside, hidden from the road. This turned out to work out adequately for our purposes and I will dwell no more on toilet-talk!

There was no running water, electricity or mains gas at the property, but it is surprising what can be done with

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