Salen, Mull

Salen

Houses in Salen
Salen
Salen shown within Argyll and Bute
OS grid reference NM5743
Council area
Lieutenancy area
Country Scotland
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town ISLE OF MULL
Postcode district PA72
Dialling code 01680
Police Scottish
Fire Scottish
Ambulance Scottish
EU Parliament Scotland
UK Parliament
Scottish Parliament

Salen (Scottish Gaelic: An t-Sàilean[1]) is a settlement on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. It is on the east coast of the island, on the Sound of Mull, approximately halfway between Craignure and Tobermory. The full name of the settlement is 'Sàilean Dubh Chaluim Chille' (the black little bay of St Columba).

Until the early 1800s, the site of today's village was no more than an unremarkable junction of tracks. The Laird of Gruline and Ulva, Lachlan Macquarie, decided that there was commercial advantage in establishing a village and harbour on the nearest point on the Sound of Mull to his estates: and so Salen came into being.

The mailboat service from Oban to Mull formerly called at Salen pier en route to Tobermory. From 1964 the new ferries required bigger piers and Craignure was established as the main ferry terminus on the island due to its central location for visitors to Tobermory and Iona. This meant the end for Salen as a mailboat destination.

St Columba visited Salen and preached from a rocky bluff behind the Salen Hotel, it is said that his services were ‘not very well attended’.

A minor road branches off here towards Gruline and various places on the west side of Mull.

Abandoned boats in Salen Bay in 2016

The psychiatrist Angus MacNiven FRSE (1900-1984) is buried in Salen churchyard.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Salen". Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba ~ Gaelic Place-names of Scotland. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  2. ↑ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
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