Skye travels

We’ve been on Skye for 5 days now (still no WiFi so no pictures yet). PICTURES ADDED!

One day we drove around the northern scenic loop. We stopped at the Museum of Island Life which is a bunch of preserved crofters cottages showing how islanders would have lived. This is really interesting since where we are staying used to be a decent sized town Apparently on the 1841 census there were 79 people living here in Achnahanaid and it was listed as a town on the map; now there are about 10 and it’s not listed as a town on the map. It also has a chambered cairn on the property of our cottage owner next door and at least 7 abandoned ruins of crofters’ cottages are visible from our cottage. Our cottage owner says there was an early Christian community here.

After visiting the museum we stopped at Kilt Rock and Mealt Falls. It was scenic but there were quite a few people there. Then we went to Lealt Falls. We could only see part of the upper falls from a viewpoint. The lower falls weren’t visible unless you went way out of the edge of a cliff where it wasn’t safe or hiked down along a trail prone to landslides. So we skipped that part!

The next day I baked a loaf of bread and then we went to the Talisker Distillery which wasn’t open to the public due to a renovation, but David did get some sample bottles in the gift shop.

Then we went further down the tiny one-lanes road to the Fairy Pools in the Cuillin Hills. It was a pretty hike along some small waterfalls and pretty pools. Some crazy people were swimming in the pools even though it was ice cold water and windy. We did not! It rained as we walked back but overall it was a nice hike.

The next day we did the western scenic driving loop. First stop was Dunvegan Castle and gardens. It was a nice castle (home to Clan MacDonald) but the gardens were amazing! They had a walled garden, a water garden, a sculpted round garden, a rhododendron garden, and two woodland gardens. It was sunny and a great day to walk around.

Next we drove out to Neist Point and then hiked to the Neist Point Lighthouse. It was sunny and scenic. We even saw a seal down in the water below.

Today we decided to stay “at home” but take a short hike up the hill behind our cottage to the lake at the top. The cottage owner showed us where to go, but it was definitely steeper and longer than we thought. Plus, we thought the lake would be at the top of the hill behind the house. Oh no! When you get to the top of that you have to sludge across a bog and a creek at the top and go up another hill behind it. Then you can see the lake (Loch Fada – which means long lake). And it’s windy at the top! We didn’t stay long before we hiked back down trying to follow sheep and deer tracks. It’s really odd to hike in the Scottish moors. It’s like hiking on squishy moss or on thick wet sponges. Every step you squish down and can hear the water. But if you’ve chosen wisely your shoes don’t get wet. If you chose poorly then you sink and water covers your shoes. So you go from moss clump to moss clump through the bracken and heather and try to avoid the pokey gorse bushes. Pretty good fun, but also much more taxing then walking on solid land.

We also stopped on our way down the hillside to explore some of the abandoned crofters’ cottages I mentioned above.

Tomorrow morning we take the ferry over to Lewis and Harris for our one day exploration of those islands. According to our cottage owner the roads are much better over there than Skye even though Skye gets most of the tourists. David has definitely mastered the one-lane roads with pull-outs for passing, so I’m not worried now. He watches the road for cars and sheep (yes there are stray sheep on the roads everywhere) and I try to look far ahead to see distant oncoming vehicles so we can start to plan for where/how to pass. Then we don’t end up having to back up very often (which is a challenge on windy roads driving on the wrong side). Should be fun!