Isle of Coll Tourist Information

Isle of Coll Holidays

The Isle of Coll is a quiet, remote-feeling island with just one hundred inhabitants and only two main roads. Coll lies north west of Tiree and four miles west of the Isle of Mull. It's a beautiful island of machair and rocky sheltered, white sandy bays.

Arinagour on the south of the island is the main centre for amenities like the pub, post office, petrol station, general store and churches. The CalMac ferry terminal is a mile south of the village. It truly is an island to get away from it all and one of the few places in the country where you can't receive a mobile phone signal!

Coll is a fantastic location for walking and wildlife spotting. Seals and otters are frequently seen around the shore and the sand dunes and machair are home to a vast array of flowers including orchids and specialities to the island. Watch out for sea birds on the crossing over as you can often see shearwaters, petrels, white-tailed sea eagles, gannets and auks particular around the Sound of Mull.

Getting to the Isle of Coll

Coll is accessible by air travel or ferry. It is now possible to fly direct to Coll from Oban with Highland Airways. There are two daily flights at each end of the day with some flights connecting to the Isle of Tiree.

Another alternative is to take the ferry. Caledonian MacBrayne Ferries from Oban also run regular services to Coll from Oban. The services run from Oban to Coll and then on to Tiree. There are also the occasional direct sailing straight from Oban to Tiree. Some of the Oban-Coll-Tiree Inner Hebrides sailings go on to Barra in the Outer Hebrides.

Check the CalMac Island Hopscotch tickets if you're planning to do some island hopping. There is usually one sailing per day Monday-Sunday. Do check the up-to-date timetables as you may need to plan your journey carefully to arrive and depart at suitable times on different days.

Coll Wildilfe, RSPB Reserve

The RSPB own and manage an area of over one thousand hectares of mire, bog, machair and sand dunes on the Isle of Coll. The reserve is particularly noted for corncrake and is one of the key reserve used in the conservation recovery of this species. In addition, the reserve is also good for wintering barnacle and Greenland white fronted geese, breeding waders including redshank and lapwing, and farmland birds such as skylark, twite and reed bunting. Sand lizards also make their home in the sand dune habitats and otters can also be seen here.

The reserve encompasses fields, wetlands, sand dunes and machair which are also home to a wide range of plantlife including Irish lady's tresses and a range of other orchids.

The RSPB have the Totronald Stables Visitor Information Centre just north of Totronaid. Tel: 01879 230301. There are two car parks; one at the Visitor Centre and one at the other end of the reserve. You can hire binoculars from the Centre and book onto guided walks. There are three suggested walking routes that lead off from the car parks.

Check the weblink right and the section on wildlife on the Visit Coll website.