Towards the bottom of the Craignish peninsula, but not quite at the tip of it, lies an old ruined chapel. Rather confusingly, it bears several names, including Kirkton, Kilvaree, Kilmolroy, and Kilmory.  While the first has a Norse element in ‘kirk’, the last three are Gaelic, and come from the same saint-name: St Máel Ruba or Maelrubha of Applecross, a 7th century missionary of Irish descent. ‘Rubha’ means ‘red’, suggesting that this wandering missionary may have been red-haired.

We ventured down there one day at the end of March, when the landscape was still washed in wintry tones of brown. The gorse was coming into flower, but snow lay on the mountains of Mull to the west, and a keen wind was whipping down the loch.

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