Isle of Skye

 

Portree waterfront

After our taxi, train, ferry, taxi ride we got to our hotel on the Isle of Skye.  It is a VERY old house that has lots of taxidermy animals and antlers on the walls.  There also a lot of just old stuff that makes it a neat old house - the addition is the Georgian part.  Jeff and I are not actually staying in the house I think we are in a former barn but it has been fixed up wonderfully.  We have a first floor landing then we go up the steps to our room.  Pretty sure this is a newer addition to the place.  We are in the town of Portree which is a population of around 3,000 while the whole island is approximately 10,000 year round with a huge influx of tourists in the season.

It took me a minute to realize that was a working toilet.

On our way here, everyone kept commenting about how bad the weather was supposed to be on Saturday so once we got to the hotel (Viewfield House) we dropped our bags off and walked into town.  Town is not real big, but it was nice to wander in some shops since there are a lot of local artists in this area.  After wandering for awhile, we decided it was time to eat.  We wisely heeded the advice of our taxi driver and ate at the Lower Deck Seafood Restaurant.  It was nothing fancy but it was pretty good.  We shared a main course of scallops because he had pointed out on our drive a place where they grew them and he said they were good - he was right.  We saw these string of  lines in the water.  Apparently the scallops start life elsewhere and then they are brought here to grow nice and big.  Also on our drive, we saw these big circles in the water along the coast - salmon fisheries.  He did not recommend eating them.

The street along the water in Portree is an iconic site for the town because of its bright colored buildings. There are a couple of other towns on the island like Armedale which is where our ferry came in at, but none of them are very big or the main draw for the island.  I had heard you could drive around the Isle of Skye and experience all of Scotland's landscapes.  There are lochs, mountain ranges, interesting rocks, sheep, highland cows, a castle and the seas so yeah probably true.  Oh almost forgot dinosaur footprints too.

On our full day on the island, we did a scenic tour of Skye.  It was supposed to he a full day but because of the weather it became a half day.  We started out all nice and dry even through our first stop.  Unfortunately that did not last.  It was a good tour and the tour guide was great.  He taught some Gaelic language - tried to teach us all how to order a whisky in it and promised it would get a cheap drink but I doubt any of us remembered it all.

Our first stop was the Old Man of Stoor.  You can kind of see a man's face in part of it and then things get a little interesting.  It is not the face part that is most famous though.  Further down the hill there are several free standing tall rocks that have been used in many movies including the Transformers so that is quite popular with some tourists.  Our tour did not have time to climb up to it so just a quick stop and off we went again.

Another early stop was to see kilt rock and the dinosaur footprints.  The mountain is made out of basalt like the Isle of Staffa we visited in Oban so that is why the kilt comment - they think the vertical cuts in the wall looks like the pleats of a kilt.  Also right there is a beach where in the early 1980s and amateur archeologist found dinosaur footprints.  The experts came and agreed and then more were found including some very small ones.  At this point the weather was windy and a little rain but not bad.

While the weather was still decent, we visited Lealt Falls.

As it was starting to get rather windy, we headed for the Fairy Glens since that would be a little protected for us.  The old stories are that fairies were mischievous and something to be somewhat avoided.  This glen is full of short hills that are all pointy.  Like so much of the Highlands, sheep graze in the area today.  Their grazing has caused some parts of the dirt to  fall down the hill giving many of the small hills a tiered look.  There were also a couple of old stone buildings in the area that had been places of refuge at one time.

Terraces engineered by Sheep

We could make out a doorway.

Around this point stops started falling off of our to do list.  Donald our tour guide would say - you won't be able to see anything there or the clouds are too low.  We headed to Dunvegan Castle and he drove out to a vantage point where people normally take photos - you could barely see the place through the rain and clouds.  He said there were only a couple of rooms on the first floor you could tour so hardly worth visiting.  A group discussion was then held and the agreement was we would go to the broch and then call it a day.  No fairy pools - the walkway becomes a stream in the rain and no Neist Pointland cause the view would be too bad (it is a lighthouse on a point with great views). Major Bummer

Dun Beag Broch - our last stop of the day.  Brochs are a serious of building that were built along the coast of Scotland (main and islands).  They are old enough that no one is completely sure on how parts of the buildings were used.  When you entered, there was a way to easily kill an intruder.  The first floor was kept for animals, the second floor was for humans and the top was for storage.  There were circular staircases built into the walls to go from floor to floor.  What they are not sure about is why they were there.  They know that fires were built in the very top at times, but they are not sure if it was a warning system about intruders, if they used the fires as lighthouses during the winter for the fisherman or what.  It had seemed like the weather was pretty good (so to speak) when we got out of the van, but as we climbed up the hill the wind got stronger and the rain a little heavier.  The wind could have pushed you over up there if not careful.

The wind driven rain stung the eyes

Then it was back to our hotel.  While our rain coats kept us dry as did our waterproof running shoes we both had wet legs so we were happy to take off our wet clothes and change into something dry.  We thought we would head over to the drawing room which is also a small bar and had a nice fire last night.  But when we got there it was cool with no fire burning.  Then the rain stopped so change of plans and into town we went for a drink at the pub.  Well - um what pub?  We hit a couple of shops we had missed the day before and then went to a bar.   Jeff had a beer and I had a gin and tonic - gin is distilled in lots of places in Scotland.  The rain came back.  We waited awhile and then headed back in light rain to work on things on our laptops.  Guess what, now that the time for the tour has passed and we had  already ordered dinner at the Inn, the sun came out.  Weather forecasters seem to be better no better here then in the States!