The Viewpoint
The landscape around you is made up entirely of lava f lows, 60 million years
old! Look carefully at the shape of the headlands jutting out into the sea and
you can make out the lines of individual lava flows. The volcano from which this
lava come was in south-east Mull and its roots form the mountains that you see
there today.
The sands of Calgary Bay are made from the ground-up remains of marine
creatures, mostly shells. When it blows inland, the sand produces a fertile,
flower-rich sandy soil. These shell-send areas are known by their gaelic name of
'machair'.
Down to your right you can see a patch of low, scrubby woodland. This is a
fragment of 'native woodland', with tree species that occur naturally in this
part of Mull. Low, windswept oak coexists with hazel, willows and birch. These
insignificant looking woodland relics are very important for the lichens and
mosses that grow on the bark of the trees, flourishing in the sheltered habitat
and nourished by the mild, wet climate. Some of these tiny plants are so scarce
that they grow only here on the west coast and in just one or two other places
in the world with a similar climate.
This is a good vantage point for spotting birds of prey. Buzzards are common,
you may already have spotted one, perhaps sitting by the roadside, looking a bit
like a small golden eagle. If you see a very large bird soaring gracefully above
the cliffs on broad wings, it probably is a golden eagle. If you are very lucky,
you may even see a sea eagle, Scotland's largest bird of prey. It was hunted to
extinction in Scotland, but is now reintroduced and breeding on Mull.