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Island of Inner Hebrides, Scotland
Photo: Colin Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Lismore is an island ten miles north of Oban in the sea inlet of Loch Linnhe. It's one of the Inner Hebrides islands, but little developed for tourism, and overlooked by visitors who sail by on the ferries. Lios Mòr in Gaelic means "big garden" and it's low-lying, fertile and often lashed with rain. Unusually for these parts, it's a limestone ridge, so it doesn't have the usual Hebridean peat bogs and midges. It was quarried in the 19th and early 20th century for lime but this industry has gone. In 2011 the population was 192.
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Lismore Parish Church
St Moluag (510-592), a contemporary of St Columba, founded a monastery on Lismore. In medieval times this small church was the cathedral for the scattered diocese of Argyll, since it was easier to get about by sea than by land. The present building is from 1749 but retains part of its 13th century predecessor, notably the doorways, sedilia (priests' seats), piscina (area for washing sacred vessels) and medieval grave slabs. It's now a Church of Scotland parish church and no longer a cathedral; the stain glass windows are modern.
Lismore Gaelic Heritage Centre
Small museum of island life, with cafe.
Scenic but scrappy ruins of a castle built in the 13th century over a Viking fortress - Caifen was a Danish prince. It's an oblong tower within a bailey of later date. The even scrappier ruins to its northeast are the Norse "Castle Rachal".
Dorm with 6 beds, 2 double rooms plus campsite and caravan or tourer pitches.
The Post Office and general store is open M Tu Th F 9AM-5PM, and W Sa 9AM-1PM.
Bring a car or bike. The island is 12 miles long, with a paved single track lane running the top 9 miles of it; the south end is rough track only suitable for 4WD. There are no filling stations on Lismore.
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