Including 2 Gala Dinners. Guest speaker Professor Peter Martin.
Ashore on Skye, visit Armadale Castle and Gardens, 'a neat house, built where the MacDonalds had once a seat…', where the two travellers received a warm Highland welcome from Sir Nicholas MacDonald.
Past 'rough, rocky and barren' Raasay for north-east Skye, land at ancient Dunvegan Castle, surveying the loch from 'a rocky prominence, that juts out into a bay…', and taste the peppered single malt at Skye's only distillery, Talisker, in Carbost. Across the Sea of the Hebrides from the MacNeil stronghold of Castlebay on the outer isle of Barra explore the contrasting landscapes, fringed by flower-dotted machair and sweeping sandy beaches.
Resuming Boswell and Johnson's route on low-lying Coll, the ancestral seat of the MacLeans, explore this gem of an isle, where they reluctantly found themselves storm-bound en route from Mull to Skye. Head for the walkers' paradise of Ulva, their stepping-stone from Staffa, enjoying peaceful strolls and a visit to Sheila's Cottage Museum, a restored but-and-ben.
The bright, bustling waterfront at Tobermory on Mull is a world away next morning. Cruise onwards past Inch Kenneth, 'verdant and grassy' but treeless, 'once a seminary of ecclesiastics', where they enjoyed the hospitality of Sir Alan MacLean, en route for their beloved 'Icolmkill'.
Landing on St Columba's Iona, warm to the atmosphere of the restored Benedictine abbey, a far cry from the disarray encountered by Boswell and Johnson on their arrival. On the last leg of this legendary journey, Hebridean Princess cruises the scenic coast of Mull towards Oban and home.
