Ardalum House – not shown in the picture above – was built by the Clark family around 1860 and resembles quite closely the big house on Gometra, that was built around the same time. This was the time when four people were still living at Starvation Terrace – the last of the native inhabitants who had been cleared from Ulva from 1848 onwards. Ardalum’s original function was as a shooting lodge for the new sport of deer stalking, a fashion that had arrived on the west coast after the 1850’s. However, throughout its life it has been many things and has housed numerous people who have lived and worked on Ulva.
At the time of the community buyout of Ulva in 2018, it had been lying used for five years and therefore it was considered as an opportunity for someone to start a hostel – or to re-start a hostel, as it had been one for a short period of time – and that is where we, Andy and Yvette, and our daughter Katy came in.
We have lived on the Isle of Gometra – which is the island immediately to the west of Ulva and is connected to Ulva by a short causeway – for seven years. We had already renovated Bearnus Bothy on Ulva back in 2020 as a holiday let, and although at first we considered Ardalum to be too committing a project for us, we decided to give it a go.
Three years later and after a lot of work, along with help from family members, guests and friends who have come and helped us, and McNiven Electrics who rewired the entire house after various other electricians had come and gone, we are finally opened in May 2022.
We wanted to create a comfortable but affordable hostel-style accommodation, but which also reflected some of the ‘feel’ of the old shooting lodge.
We also tried to keep to our commitment of re-use and recycle, so most of the furniture and decorations are second-hand and have come from MESS Castaways at Craignure – so don’t be surprised if you are local to Mull, to come across items that you might have donated to them over the years!
Given Ulva is a car-free island, mainly because there are no roads, only tracks, and the ferry-link is a small foot passenger only ferry, that makes renovating anything on Ulva, logistically complex. There is no post service on Ulva, rubbish collection, parcel delivery, so all thing get delivered to Ulva Ferry and then have to be brought across by hand and moved by quad bike and trailer to their final destination.
Vehicle crossing to islands in open boats is a bit of tradition on the west coast. These above are not of Ulva, but show what can be done when you have too….also slightly before the time of ‘Health and Safety”!
When we decided to also have two 25 foot Mongolian Yurts in the grounds of the host, this presented perhaps the biggest kit transport that we have done so far, but with help from the ferryman and a lot of manual-labour, it is amazing what can be achieved with ‘people power’.
Ulva Hostel 