This is a popular bolthole if you are on passage around the west side of Mull, or having a rough time out at the Treshnish Islands. It certainly gets loads of boats, but there is loads of room. There are two anchorages on Gometra, an island which is connected to Ulva by a causeway and bridge — Gometra harbour here in the south, and Acarsaid Mor in the north, so good in all winds. You can walk between them along a farm track which makes a very pleasant stroll with stunning views from Mull to Iona to the Treshnish Islands to Coll. There is a smashing little beach at the head of the first bay west of Gometra Harbour (if you can ignore the plastic litter). Before that there is an increasingly unkempt burial ground just up from the anchorage — Bail' A'Chlaidh, in which are buried three unidentified men of the British Merchant Navy from the second world war. There are several abandoned cottages on the hill near by. The first roofed cottage on the track is now I believe a small shop (can that really be true?), and then comes Jane Anne's Bothy which apparently can be rented.
Gometra House is 18th century and seems to command a well-organised farm with a lot of sheep, and signposts to direct you around. They are tipped with light blue which makes one wonder if the owner of the island is a Cambridge man. But no, he went to Bristol university. Roc Sandford bought the island in 1991 and lives in the house, at least for some of the year, which has no central heating, no electricity, and no hot water. You used to get the idea from his very informative website which no longer exists: "We have no reasonable access to a doctor or teacher, no reliable internet, mobile or land line, no cars or public transport, and we are off-grid. There is no working washing machine on the island. We usually have cold running water (though there are spells when the springs dry and water must be collected from the burns and boiled) and we often have hot or at least warm water". And from a lecture he gave in 2019. He is an active ecowarrior who lives 'off grid'.
Apparently grain was once grown on the island for the monastery on Iona. Now the resident population of the whole island is I understand only two, which is perhaps not too surprising given the difficulty getting supplies from the mainland to Mull to Ulva to Gometra.
