Ulva is a pretty island but also in some ways depressing, certainly sad because the physical remnants of the past community of about 600 people are still so very obvious — the decaying and dilapidated church, the overgrown fields, and the ruined cottages buried in the bracken. However, it is now a peaceful haven, and the coastal scenery is fascinating with a mixture of basalt columns and limestone outcrops.
The island had been privately owned by the Howard family for decades until in 2017 it was put up for sale (offers over £4.25 million), causing considerable uncertainty for the six people who still lived there. Perhaps against the odds, a community buy-out by The North West Mull Community Woodland Company was successful in 2018, most of the money coming from the Scottish Land Fund. Various old properties are now being refurbished, new affordable homes have been built, and the population has risen to 11 or more. Whether the island can become economically viable we can but wait and see, and hope. There is an on-demand passenger and bike ferry across to Mull where in 2016 some handy pontoons opened, with diesel fuel as well as the usual water and electricity (how the pontoons will pay for themselves I just don't know). This facility is being expanded with not just toilets but also into a community hub by the Mull and Iona Community Trust.
The usual anchorage is delightful with a great view of Ben More, so spiky from this aspect, not the rather uninteresting shape it is from elsewhere. The Boathouse café does excellent seafood. When I was first there in 2007 it seemed to be in a state of glum sullenness but things became a whole lot better when the lease was acquired by Emma Mckie and Rebecca Munro. Indeed, into the Good Food Guide in 2018. In 2021 it was taken over by a couple from Edinburgh and by all accounts they did really well (ph 01688 500241). But in 2024 I fear it was up for lease — again. It will reopen in 2026. The café wasn't open on Saturdays, or Sundays except in the summer, presumably because the ferry doesn't run on those days, and nor in the evenings. This may have changed so check their website. Apparently the whole place has been overwhelmed by eager tourists following the 2026 TV documentary following Banjo and Ro's partial restoration of Ulva House into a boutique hotel. The second part of the documentary is due out in 2027, so even more crowds I expect.
The adjacent restored Sheila's cottage is rather good because it shows how a blackhouse was in the not so distant past uncomfortable and probably very cold and damp in winter. Then take a walk around the edge of Ulva House (1950s rather dull-looking from the outside) and the farm, and the 1828 church designed by Thomas Telford and with a double-tier wooden pulpit.
You can anchor briefly nearer the café but watch out for passing fishing boats and the underwater cables (probably better to row across from the pontoons). And then, after lunch but not so much alcohol that you are seeing two buoys rather than one, have a go at Ulva Sound.
