Calve Island

Calve Island lies off the east coast of Mull in Argyll and Bute, a low-lying stretch of land measuring two kilometres long and eight hundred metres wide at its broadest. A whitewashed farmhouse with outbuildings stands on the western shore, used as a summer home by the Cotton family. The island is separated from Mull by Dòirlinn a' Chailbhe, a narrow channel, yet at extreme low tides the south-western tip connects to Mull via the tidal islet Cnap a' Chailbhe. Tobermory Bay benefits from Calve’s shelter, making the anchorage safer for boats. Small tidal islands called Eilean na Beithe lie off the north-west coast. The waters around Calve attract divers to its rocky walls, reefs and three wreck sites. One of the most popular is the sheer rock wall at the north-eastern point, ranked fourth in Scotland’s top ten wall dives for its depth, marine life and visibility. Visibility is excellent and the wall descends over forty-four metres. The wreck of the Pelican, a paddle steamer built in 1850, rests in twenty metres of water after breaking its moorings in 1895. Two other wrecks, the Strathbeg and the Anna Bhan, lie nearby, the former lost in 1984 and the latter unidentified. Visitors find a quiet island with few signs of modern farming. In 1934 Alastair Dunnett and Seamus Adam described Calve as a fertile but neglected place worked by a single extended family. By 2018 historian David Gange found the island almost empty, a symbol of depopulation compared with earlier times. Local stamps featuring a Basset Hound were issued in 1984, though the nearest post box is in Tobermory on Mull. The island remains a place of open ground, tidal links and maritime history.