SCOTLAND'S ISLE OF MULL

Every Autumn, The Peace and Quite of Scotland's Isle Of Mull Is Shattered By The Sound Of Rallycars. For The Rest Of The Year, As Jonathan Crouch Discovered, It's The Perfect Place For A Family Holiday

The road from Tobermory to Dervaig is not one you'd want to attempt without your wits about you. It twists and turns for about eight miles, rising twice steeply to about 500 feet with many horseshoe bends and blind corners.



The annual October Mull Car Rally uses a number of roads around this remote Scottish Island but this one is by far the toughest. Over 130 competitors each year line up to take it on and the event has had its share of fatalities over the years. More frequently, over-enthusiastic competitors have simply ended up in the Lochs that line the bumpy little single-track road. An added hazard are the steep wandering blithely around the blind bends, one of the reasons why the event has to be held at night when there's less chance of getting a woolly carcass through your windscreen.



The road record stands at seven and a half minutes - which as far as I can see must have taken a very fast car, a lot of luck and a total absence of fear. On a family holiday, anything much under thirty seven and a half minutes is likely to have your passengers heaving their breakfast out of the windows - or in the case of younger ones, all over your la...