As it was almost time to go back to the mainland, we thought it good to go to Tobermory one more time, just from the joy of seeing the beautiful little harbour village again, and also to buy some presents.
We had to drive through Salen, where the road to Loch na Keal struck off, and I felt sad again that we were not still at little Staffa Cottage, but hey, it is not bad at the sheiling!
A nice story about the area, is that in 1609 the british goverment sent out troupes to quell the unruly Hebridean chiefs, as they were a lot of marauding raiders that was quite a headache to the government.
The ships sent over were anchored at Aros bay, and the chiefs were tricked by lord Ochiltree to come on board for talks, and once they were on board, the ships lifted anchor and set sail. The Chiefs had to sign an undertaking to behave before they were later set free.
But unbeknown to the people in charge, an English soldier were left behind. He was luckily a very adaptable man, and settled on the island, becoming shepherd to MacArthur, who had a famous piping school on the island of Ulva.
The Englishman found that he loved piping, and used to practice secretly, coppying exactly the technique of MacArthur who always walked around practicing on his walking stick.
One day MacArthur had an audience who he wanted to impress with his rendering of 'The Battle Of The Birds', an extremely difficult tune to play on the pipes, and just as he was ready, the Englishman started playing the same song, wanting to impress his master!
The MacArthurs were not a happy clan, and dad was furious with the Englishman, who hastily retreated to the bay where he was originally left behind, but the murderous and very angry lot hunted him down and killed him!What a shame!
Aros Castle was our next stop. It was just one big ruin, but used to be an important stronghold for a consortium of highland chiefs that were called 'The Lords Of The Islands', who were quite a headache to the government of that times. As a matter of fact one of the macDonalds lay claim to the British thrown, claiming that he had more of a right to become King than Robert the Bruce!
Along the way we came upon the two beautiful boats rusting up along the road. I don't know why anything so beautiful was just discarded, but we stopped and I clambered up onto them, feeling a  strange sadness come over me, like when I look at the burned down crofter's houses, and I cried a wee bit for the hardships that this people had to endure, and also for the fact that all good things pass, and this beautiful boats would never sail again!