Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Bonnie Scotland - The Isle of Skye (June 13, 2012)

Wednesday, June 13, 2012
The Eilean Donan Castle holds almost as much appeal in the daytime as in the evening...but there is something about it all lit up at night that makes it worth staying up to the quiet hours to photograph and view.





We saw it again after a wonderful breakfast at the Sonas B&B. I must tell you about the hilarity of Angela, the owner of the Sonas B&B. Not only does this woman wield a great spatula, but she's got a great sense of humor too.

Our friend, Betherwood, asked us to get someone to say, "no the now" while in Scotland. (It's an insignificant line from Braveheart.) I was speaking with Angela - thanking her for running over to three of her neighbor's houses looking for one small glass of ice for my hot Diet Coke - and she said it...without my asking. She said, "people in Scotland don't use much ice...they just put it in their whisky. Well - that or water - but no the now."

Later on, while I was asking her about paying her and making sure she didn't think I was running away without paying, she remarked, "I may be wee and fat, but I can still run." Too cute!

First stop on the agenda...take the bridge over to the Isle of Skye. Lovely views too. Loved the lighthouse underneath.









Then we were off to the Cill Chriosd which was once a Church of Christ but is now a very cool cemetery and building without a roof.













We got a bit distracted by the sheep.









After a minor detour thanks to the GPS which wanted us to "safely" turn around (a near impossibility in the Hebrides), we reached Sligachan Bridge. It was a lovely bridge and a beautiful location, but the photos don't do it any justice.













Planning this trip was a difficult feat. Many of the locations were without addresses, so we had to use latitude and longitude locations for our GPS. Case in point, the Fairy Pools at Glen Brittle. You have to put in N 57 degrees 15'2.15999999999" W 6 degrees 16'21". But we made it to these locations successfully after doing a bit of research on Google Maps to get lat/long for the GPS. I can't imagine if we'd tried to do this without preplanning.




The short hike to the Fairy Pools was an easy one. You can hike all the way to Sligachan, but we just went over to the Fairy Pools. In the photo above it's just in the valley at the far end of the photo.









It is a rather enchanting spot. Legend has it that it has been blessed by fairies...and you shouldn't take anything from the location...especially the rocks.









































The beauty of the coastline on Skye is something else. I adored the coastal drives...the green pastures and rolling hills with a background of beautiful blue ocean and white wave crests are captivating and a photographer's dream.









We were only too happy to hop out of the car at Balmeanach, The Braes to brave the whipping wind for closer views.





















Because the B&B asked us to pop in between 4 and 6 pm, we headed over to the Ben Tianavaig B&B in Portree (pronounced Port Ree) for the night. The Ben Tianavaig B&B is a lovely little B&B right near the heart of Portree with a great view of the harbor. The owners asked us to fill in a menu for breakfast the next morning and showed us the inner workings of our room, the Carbost room, and the locking mechanisms of the door.













After checking in and dropping off our things, we headed to Dunvegan. When we got there, the castle was closed but we found another neat cill to explore and had a quick bite to eat at a restaurant/gas station. It seems that there are a lot of joint business buildings in the isles (i.e. art house and cafe or gas station and restaurant).













We found another little bridge.





We continued down the road to Neist Point. Wow! This was a spectacular point with wild ravaging beauty. The wild cold winds nearly blew us away until we got down below for windbreak.









This spot reminded me so much of Ireland and the Cliffs of Mohr - except it also had a lighthouse. Superb...crazy walk down and back though.













We saw some baby lambs romping around. They act so much like dogs with their wagging tails and playful nature.

There was a run-down supply cabin in the valley down below.





We had to stop to fight the gusts of wind to take some New Zealand jumping photos. Here we are jumping like madmen against winds howling at 13mph, but you can't even tell we were jumping since the landscape is so varied.









We drove back to the B&B from a different direction and got a great view of the Red Cullins of Skye. Such pretty red hued mountains!













Kris also pointed out an Elderly people sign.






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1 comment:

Amy Johnson said...

Kristy...Your pics are fabulous! I am so glad you had such a wonderful time there. :-)