Author: Mrs A
Location: Neist Point Lighthouse, Dunvegan Castle. Portree, and Uig, Isle of Skye, UK
Sunrise on Thursday morning was a pink affair, complete with a seal fishing in the loch just metres from us. It was also about 7 degrees centigrade, so we just admired the wildlife from the warmth of the camper.
We decided to drive out to Neist Point Lighthouse, supposedly spectacular walking and amazing views. The road out there, as we have come to expect on Skye, was single track and rather potholed, with some extremely narrow passing spots, often leaving us teetering on the edge of a steep drop. Mr A used every ounce of strength to overcome his fear of heights (and fear of us toppling down a precipice!) to skilfully guide us to the coast.
Once there, we stepped out into gale force icy wind whistling off the sea, and I almost leaped back into Truffy to shelter. A stern look from Mr A told me I needed to at least sight the lighthouse before we drove back along that road! Wearing almost every warm thing we own, we picked our way along the cliff top to admire the spectacular coastline. Steep plunging cliffs, a combination of black rock and green foliage, heading down to a deep turquoise sea, covered in the white caps of rough windswept waves greeted us – just incredible.
Walking in the other direction, we found the views down to the lighthouse, deciding the forego the path that takes you down to its front door. It is absolutely breathtaking, even when viewed through eyes streaming with tears from the chill wind.
We didn’t hang around, musing at how an opportunity has been missed here by the community of Skye. Surely a clifftop cafe with nice warm double glazing serving steaming mugs of hot drinks, and selling locally made woollen gloves and beanies would make an absolute killing here? We certainly would have been a couple of willing customers.
We made our way back into Dunvegan and the privately owned Dunvegan Castle and gardens.
This has been home to the chief of the MacLeod Clan on Skye for 800 years. Towers and walls were put up over the centuries on this castle with no thought to the overall look and feel of the place, until the 1800s when the then then chief of the MacLeod Clan decided to ‘bring it all together’ rendering the outside and adding the more ‘castle-like’ features of the building such as drawbridge entranceway and canons pointing out into the Loch.
The current clan chief still lives in the castle, splitting his time between here and a house in London. The upper two floors remain locked and private, but we were able to explore the lower floors, well preserved and containing centuries worth of antiques and relics.
We were left to our own devices to explore the castle, its various towers and dungeons, the different centuries of rooms and stairwells quite evident.
We drove across the island to Portree, where we settled down in a campground for the evening.
The following morning we drove into Portree for a look around, finding it to be a sweet little fishing town. The first port of call was a friendly outdoors shop, and within 15 minutes I was kitted out with a Marino wool neck scarf, a nice warm bobble hat and some windproof and waterproof gloves. Finally I was suitably attired for the Scottish weather!
The UK and Ireland are taking a battering weather wise with plenty of rain and wind – the remnants of Hurricane Lorenzo, an Italian sounding storm which has been whipping things up off the coast of Africa and moving steadily in our direction. We thought we ought to take advantage of the fine weather and hit the road.
We followed the east coast, stopping to admire the spectacular views. An Cailc was an interesting location near where there used to be a diatomite mine (a clay-chalk like substance which goes into making dynamite, paints, polishes and even filtration for beer). Now there are just a few ruins of what was a major industry in the late 1800s and early 1900s, with the mine closing down in 1960.
We took our time enjoying the view but choosing not to take the steep and slippery walk down to the base of the waterfalls, before continuing on our way around the coast.
Reaching the top of the island, the road hugged the cliff, turquoise waters on our right and rolling greenery on our left. The colours can only be described as delicious and the scenery and road among the most beautiful we have seen.
We had decided to investigate staying longer in Scotland’s western isles, having been absolutely bewitched by Skye. We have seen a lot but not everything, and the island has more to offer us in the future. We headed to the little village of Uig, from where we knew we might be able to catch a ferry to the island of Harris.
It was meant to be. I managed to get us on the 14:10 sailing from Uig to Tarbert and we joined the queue.
It was a gentle couple of hours’ cruise over the inner seas off the West Coast of Scotland and time went quickly.
Before long we were sighting small islands and rocky outcrops again as we approached the island of Harris, home to Harris Tweed. The story from here will be over to Mr A, which he will share soon…
We really enjoyed our time in Skye, made all the more special by the fabulous weather. We know we were very lucky on this occasion – but please don’t be put off by the potential for cold or wet weather. It is a spectacular part of the world regardless.
