Back from Canna. Some things about the island are the same as ever. The light and the views of Rum still take your breath away, and the word magic appears on every page of the visitors’ book. Some things have changed. There are more young people on the quay to meet the boat, and this time I make the journey between Mallaig and Canna and back again without feeling seasick.
Light changes by the minute: Ray managed to catch the sun setting on Rum as we walked back to our cottage.
It is pretty perverse of me to miss the gutchurning passage of the old Loch Mor. Last time we went to Canna we loaded our baggage wrapped in black bin bags on to the deck and then I spent the next four hours watching huge waves wash over booze, bread and toilet rolls, clinging for dear life to a sodden bench while we bucketed in and out of Eigg and Rum and out into the Sound of Canna because I couldn’t face the smell of grease, cigarettes and vomit in the cabin below. When we stopped at Rum to lower passengers into a violently bucking dinghy, I opened my eyes to see a fellow tourist heaving herself across the deck, almost flat on her stomach, to chuck what was left of her breakfast into the briny. I remember thinking the journey couldn’t have changed much since the days of St Columba.
Not now. This time we stroll onto the shiny new Loch Nevis, a car ferry (a car ferry going to Canna!), and off again at the huge new pier just two and a half hours later; breakfasts intact. Less adventurous than the old way but a lot more comfortable.
There are too many positive changes to be nostalgic. We coincided with a National Trust work party of volunteers and saw them hard at work: reclaiming the garden at Canna House, picking up the plastic rubbish that clutters every coastline in the world. It’s a relentless task. As soon as the work party has disposed of this season’s crop of bottles, bags, crisp packets and assorted clothing, more of the same starts to arrive on the next tide. But at least it is being cleared away.
Crofts and cottages are being restored for islanders and for holidaymakers; a new tearoom welcomes visitors; a young couple are coming soon to start a Bed and Breakfast business, and a spirit of community enterprise seems to be growing.
On our journey back to Mallaig it strikes me this is the spirit of Canna. The former owners, John Lorne Campbell and Margaret Fay Shaw, did not seem in the least bit sentimental. Their legacy on Canna is a working farm and a fantastic archive of Hebridean folksong and Gaelic culture – but they believed in using every device that modern technology produced to preserve and communicate that heritage. A safe and speedy crossing to the mainland was definitely part of their plan.
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