Mull jury out on new ‘girlie’ sign

Argyll’s Isle of Mull has woken up to find that a piece of midnight mischief has left one of their Victorian mileposts painted shocking pink. One of only ten remaining from the original thirty mileposts on the island it informs travellers on the A849 that it is twenty-one miles to Salen (on the Sound of Mull in the north) and senventeen mies to the Iona Ferry (at Fionnphort on the Ross of Mull to the West). Pilgrims arriving on the Oban ferry and making their way to Iona will get a bit of a surprise. Dating from 1897, the mileposts would have originally been painted in yellow and white. Londoner Peter Keeley, who has a holiday home on the island, has been working on a millennium project rust-proofing and painting each of the remaining mileposts. He’s got a surprise coming up. Traditionalists are, of course, outraged – on an island which has made its name for its brightly painted main town of Tobermory and the even more brightly painted fictional version of the town in the tourist magnet children’s television series, Balamory. The Daily Mail has quoted one local resident as saying: ‘It’s an attractive sign, perhaps a little bit too girlie for some of our tastes’.