SEAVIEW BED AND BREAKFAST - Key Persons
Option 2: To continue on the M74 (new part of the motorway now open) and join the M8 on the other side of Glasgow heading for Glasgow Airport and the Erskine Bridge. Leave the M8 at junction 30, and cross the Erskine Bridge keeping to the left hand lane. Travel north on the A82, past Dumbarton (Filling Station available here if low on fuel) and Loch Lomond.
There are important colonies of seabirds that breed on Staffa and as you approach the island during the summer months, you will notice the variety of birds flying to and from the island. The island is the nesting place for a whole range of species including puffins, cormorants, shags, kittiwakes, fulmars, great black-backed gulls, skuas and razorbills.
Puffins are a particular favourite with visitors because of their brightly coloured beaks and clown-like appearance. Puffins nest in burrows and rocky crannies around Staffa where they lay one egg during the summer months. Their main food is san eels which they catch by diving up to 60 m into the sea.
Anyway, a quick history in brief. Opened in 1831 for commercial extraction and quarrying ceased in 1910. Reopened by "Scottish Natural Stones" in 1985. Stone is only rarely extracted now. 1990 was the last really busy period when I used to see lorry load after lorry load of large unshaped Granite blocks leaving the island on the back of articulated wagons. Cranes and quarry equipment lies derelict in the working area today 2007).
The stone that was produced was shipped to many places in the world, particularly America. Its use for monumental construction has meant that pieces of Ross of Mull Granite have turned up as far away as China, and in graveyards throughout the world. The list of some of the more well known structures is shown below. It has been compiled from Joan Faithfull's book and "Scottish monumental stone's" catalogue.