Wed 28 Aug - Kyleakin / Isle of Skye, Scotland

Full day car touring on Isle of Skye... And yet another photo filled day...

Since we only have one more day on the Isle of Skye, and we haven't really explored the island yet, today's it. We make ourselves some lunch out of various items supplied at breakfast and at 8.30am, we are on the move. This is how we drove...

We had decided on a clockwise route around the island starting with Dunvegan as our first destination. As we drove, we suddenly started to see elaborate, home-made scarecrows outside people's houses and in public places so we stopped to check it all out.

Just to clear out any potential misunderstandings, on the first photo above the scarecrow is on the right, on the second photo the scarecrow is on the left. Or is it...?

It turned out that an Isle of Skye scarecrow festival is coming up and that each scarecrow had been given a "Tattie bogal name".

We continued our driving and stopped several times to take photos after a lot of oohing and aahing. A couple of samples follow:

 

We arrived at Dunvegan village, but continued just a little bit further to Dunvegan Castle, just as it opened at 10am. We thought that entry to castle and garden was a bit pricy at £9.50 each, but decided to go in anyway. Here is Di outside the main entry to Dunvegan Castle.

Dunvegan Castle has been in the same hands, the Clan MacLeods for 900 years or so and was unique in the sense that it was still intact and had never been seriously attacked or damaged.

Photography inside was not allowed, but we snapped a few when nobody was looking. Heck, we paid a premium to get in so...

This is upstairs from the entry. Lots of family portraits.

We liked this library set up which was adjacent to a larger dining room on the left.

One of the bedrooms which really showed its age as it was in a section of the building built in 1500's, called the Fairy Tower. Look at the carpet and the floorboards. Fantastic.

Unfortunately there were no free guided tours as bus groups were coming through but we found an older female staff member who was happy to tell and show us things. She was a proud MacLeod herself and she talked about the one single female Chief of the Clan, Dame Flora, who would run an annual MacLeod children's picnic which she attended as a child. Like a personal tour guide.

We rounded one corner at one time, and jumped when we saw this dummy of a servant lady. She was lit up and provided as a prop for the passageway between upstairs and downstairs. You can also see the very old castle walls and how it was built.

But the absolutely funniest moment was this. When we heard that there was a dungeon inside the castle, Hans asked one of the staff whether it was possible to see the dungeon. The answer; it was not possible due to "health and safety reasons" which was said without any hint of irony whatsoever. Hilarious. We were certain that no such concerns were given to the poor souls who were imprisoned there in the past.

And it turned out she was only half right...You could actually see down into the dungeon as it was covered with a transparent lid and was lit up from the inside. There was also a dummy prisoner down there to make it more authentic. We were sure that he, or those he represented, would have liked to object to imprisonment there due to "health and safety reasons".

Di then had enough of these constrained spaces.

But it didn't look like Hans had the same choice. Let me out... Let me out.

There was a nice outdoor patio (aka rampart) at the back towards the water, once protected by a set of these cannons. And maybe also by this tough lady...

We then ducked out at the front to have a closer look at Dunvegan Castle's gardens and its waterfront area so we circled the castle and passed this. The 2 first floors are open for public viewing while the 3rd floor is still for use by the Chief of MacLeod's (the 30th chief) and its entrance is here on the ground floor to the right.

A self portrait down by the water against Dunvegan Castle with the flag of the MacLeod clan on top of it.

The people who run Dunvegan Castle also offered seal viewing tours from a small boat shed where we were able to pick up coffee and tea which we consumed at the adjacent picnic tables. Di topped it up with some grapes.

The western part of Isle of Skye clearly gets windy a fair bit of the time as this tree evidenced.

There were at least 3 formal gardens at Dunvegan Castle, this is part of what was called the "Walled Garden". The door in the wall reminded Di of the book Secret Garden.

We liked this sundial at the centre of the Walled Garden.

Hans had to try the swingability of this large tree's thick branch. It had clearly been an attraction for presumably many children over a long period of time. Hans was more afraid that he may be the one who made the branch break, but rest assured, the branch was still intact as we left.

Our next stop after Dunvegan Castle was Neist Point which we understood was the western most point on Isle of Skye. It is not far from Dunvegan but most of the road is single lane with the added obstacle of a lot of these guys on or near the road...

This little fellow had made himself a nice little sheltered resting place and he looked quite content as he sat there and watched Hans moving around with the camera.

We finally arrived and Neist Point was clearly very popular given the number of parked cars and campers at the end of the road. It wasn't hard to see why. This is how it looked from up the top and you could still not yet see Neist Point Lighthouse, hidden behind the hill below.

The coastline looking south from where the previous picture was taken was also spectacular.

There was a bit of a down hike to get to Neist Point Lighthouse and Di was somewhat uncomfortable with what she saw - rusted old handrail and sloping steps. She did make it down there though. Under some protest...

Up on the next hill, the lighthouse was suddenly visible.

Neist Point Lighthouse zoomed in.

However, up close the lighthouse showed signs of much better days and was up for sale. We hadn't seen any signs at the parking lot and having the sign just down here didn't seem to be good advertising.

Hans was delighted to see that extensive "vortexing" had taken place down by the water. This place was leaving Sedona in Arizona for dead, the first place we encountered high level vortexing.

Neist Point Lighthouse from the other side. Wait, what is that immediately to the left of it?

A giant bullhorn. That's what it is. Wouldn't like to be nearby when that goes off...

More spectacular coastal scenery on the Isle of Skye...

Then we settled in for some lunch, sheltered from the breeze by the lighthouse and the cliff it was sitting on...

 

This path... Goes... Somewhere... We don't want to think about it...

The return path up...

Hans voted Neist Point as the coolest place we so far had been to in Scotland. He just loved its isolation and rugged beauty and could have stayed and explored a lot longer.

Di was not so sure and voted the town of Tongue on the north coast as the most attractive to date, and Orkney for cool factor.

Anyway, back at the parking lot, we encountered a German registered car that...

We continued north and stopped for a tea in Uig (pronounced in 2 syllables U then Eeg) which sounded to Hans as possibly being derived from the Swedish word "vik" which means "bay" in English. This made perfect sense as Uig was situated inside a neat semicircular bay.

As we leave Uig and climb up the hill on its northern side, we suddenly saw a farmer with some cattle and ...wait who was hiding behind the thistles?

Di was in raptures over this beautiful blonde guy and his Mod hairstyle.

Again it was a single track windy mountain road, again with sheep but this time some more traffic as it was crossing the Quiraing, a volcanic mountain range with amazing rock formations and views.

We parked and walked to the edge... Not too close, Hans. The sheep seem unfazed by the suddenly drop offs.

Amazing views. Looking south along the escarpment behind Di.

And east behind Hans.
A fellow sightseer offered to take our photo, with the rock formations in the background, and did a good job (see below). That result is rare - therefore no self portrait required.

Ok, are we seriously going down that road? Hans got excited and Di nervous. Still single track...We saw a truck make the hairpin turn below by going forward, then reversing 3 times.

The good thing is that all drivers seem quite patient and share the road well. We both drove during the day and only once each did we have to back up when someone came the other way past a "passing place.

One more photo stop...Kilt Rock, with accompanying waterfall.

We thought the waterfall was "ho hum" but loved the rock face you can see beyond it. The cliff shows clearly the geological history here. A sign board said that the lower horizontal sedimentary layers were created about 170 million years ago, then the volcanic vertical layers came in top about 60 million years ago.

Ok, it was 5pm after a huge touring day - no more sightseeing stops.

On the way back south, we stopped for an early dinner in the only town of many magnitude on Isle of Skye which is Portree. After checking out a few places offering the same old, same old, we settled for pizza. This turned out to be a good move as we could easily share a Capriciosa pizza between us and still be fed.

Hans splurged a bit as he just had to try a local Isle of Skye brew called Red Chillin, an ale. OK, but nothing memorable as Hans is not a huge fan of ales.

No photo of the nice pizza as we wolfed it down fast (so nice to have some different food which was also good).

As we sat there and ate, Hans noticed a wallet on a seat where a guy had sat before while he was waiting for take away pizzas. We alerted the waitress who took the wallet with her. Today's good deed.

We then drove south home, which took about an hour and got there around 8pm. Isle of Skye is bigger than many people may realise and we drove more than 120 miles today.

A bit tired after a long day, but gosh we had seen a lot and we could now understand better why people rave about Isle of Skye. It is truly beautiful and dramatic with all its volcanic mountains, barren land and sudden drops into the ocean.

Again, we felt that we should have stayed longer as 3 nights was nowhere near enough. For example, there are numerous hikes on the island that sounded really interesting and would have kept us busy for days. Anyway, tomorrow we are moving again, but for now it is good night.

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