I spotted these wrecks while driving from Craignure—the main ferry port linking Mull to the Scottish mainland—to Tobermory, the island’s capital. They’re hard to miss actually as they suddenly appear on the right-hand side of the road near the village of Salen.
Information about the boats is sparse but it seems they’ve been there since the 1970s. A local man apparently paid a nominal sum for them with the intention of salvaging and restoring them, but then abandoned the idea (and the boats!)
They have deteriorated badly over the years and one has disappeared altogether, but the remaining two still make haunting images that stir the imagination.
The boat nearest the slipway is believed to have been built by Paterson Macduff in Banff in 1955 and named Pavonia. The other vessel was known by various names but finally as Elsie May, and worked out of Oban in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a prawn boat.
It seems likely that they’ll continue to deteriorate until there’s nothing left, so get in quick if you want to see them—they’re a photographer’s delight.
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