The small, west coast port of Mallaig is a busy mix of fishing boats, passenger ferries and small pleasure craft. Ferries from Mallaig serve Armadale on Skye, Lochboisdale on South Uist and the Small Isles of Eigg, Rum, Muck and Canna as well as Inverie on the remote mainland peninsula of Knoydart.

 

Ferries share the quays at Mallaig with venerable old, working boats.

 

At the end of the pier a larger than life sculpture of a fisherman, holding a small child by the hand, points out to sea.

 

On a clear day the Small Isles ferry is never out of sight of land.  The two distinctive silhouettes on the horizon here are Eigg to the left and Rum to the right.

 

We arrived on Eigg to clear, blue sky and sunshine, with Mallaig clearly visible twelve miles away.  Next morning the cloud had closed in and the mainland had vanished.

Click on any image for a closer view.