Our Skye Day

Wednesday Sept 22

Our first morning on Skye we met in the dining room of our Bed and Breakfast where we dined with a couple fellow travelers Judy and Teresa, former co-workers and friends living in Florida.

Our host Kirstie turned out to be quite the opposite of the image she portrayed when we arrived. Instead of a cranky old woman she turned out to be rather pleasant. Her native language was Gaelic and Jason had a chance to practice the language with her. She prepared us a typical local breakfast of ham, sausage, an egg, toast, mushrooms a fried tomato and a small yogurt.

Our bus driver picked us up right on schedule and we began our tour of the island. This was the day I was expecting to wear my highly sought after hoodie as the area is particularly colder than the lowlands which were already quite cold enough.

The day was also quite rainy so instead of the hoodie I began the day with my rain jacket. Mark discovered that his rain jacket was missing. After a bit of frenzied searching and reflection he thinks he left his jacket at Glencoe and at this point we would not be able to retrieve it. We had all prepared for the rain here by making sure we were equipped for it. Fortunately Jason also brought a ‘backup’ poncho which we loaned to Mark.

And fortunate it was because it rained most of the day. Although it did it’s job and allowed Mark to participate in the many outdoor stops, it was quite windy and he at times looked like he was in a wrestling match with a large black trash bag which was frequently winning the contest.

The temperature never did get cold enough for my new prized hoodie. The temperature was a brisk 58° and at home I’d probably be wrapped up in it but on the tour we were on and off the bus and when we stopped we were hiking and walking a lot.

It was rather interesting how there was such little variation in the temperatures even though the weather seemed to change a lot. Whether raining or cloudy or sunny the temperatures rarely changed and in fact that’s how it’s been the whole time we’ve been in Scotland. Even the nights haven’t varied much.

While it was 58° during the day it was 57° all night. The temperatures were about the same in Edinburgh and the largest variance we had was only 5° cooler between the middle of the day and the middle of the night.

We asked Paul about the winter temperatures and his reply was “Winters are just colder wetter versions of summer”. Lol not exactly if that was an answer to the question or not but seems there may not be much variation.

We stopped for a look at what is perhaps the most well known and most recognized landmark on the island, The Old Man of Storr. According to the local travel information “This is probably the most famous walk on the Island and definitely the busiest. The ‘Old Man’ is a large pinnacle of rock that stands high and can be seen for miles around. As part of the Trotternish ridge the Storr was created by a massive ancient landside, leaving one of the most photographed landscapes in the world.”

The weather was so rainy and cloudy we only got glimpses of the large rock through breaks in the swiftly passing mists. In a way it made the landmark a bit more ominous and rewarding each time we caught sight of the elusive monolith.

We drove up the east side of the island on a very narrow winding road that was often just one lane. We’ve been on other roads like this before on this trip but this road was more one lane than it was two. Every hundred yards or so were pull offs large enough for a vehicle to pull over as the oncoming vehicle passed. It was a bit nerve wracking at times. Especially when the speed limit on these roads can get up to 50 mph and even more so when we find ourselves playing “chicken” with a semi truck coming right at us.

I was still having issues with the driver being on the left side of the road. I think most of us become so comfortable driving it’s becomes second nature to us. But traveling backwards to what we are used to was a bit nerve wracking. As we moved along and entered intersections and round-a-bouts my brain would just instinctively let me know we were in the wrong lane and that we were about to die. So I found that I couldn’t look out the front of the vehicle for long without suffering from lots of mini-strokes and mild heart attacks along the way.

This area has a large slate mining operation. So much so that slate tiles are used for many things that we would not typically use them for such as roof shingles and placemats.

Paul also said that Diatomite is mined in the area and since I don’t know what that is I’ll just move on.

We stopped alongside the road to take a quick look at Kilt rock. A rock formation that resembles a kilt. Ha! That’s was an easy one to cover so again, moving on.

Now a stop that requires a bit more time. We stopped and took a tour of the Stafford Dinosaur museum. Stafford being the name of the nearby town, and dinosaur being those big giant creatures that roamed the earth some gazillions of years ago, even before mort of our great grandparents, although they may occasionally disagree.

The dinosaur museum was certainly an unexpected treasure. It cost just a few pounds for the “tour” and the entire museum was in what used to be a tiny one room school house. The museum was started as a result of the proprietor stumbling on a fossil which turned out to be a dinosaur leg bone. He continued his searching and turned up with more fossils that he was not allowed to keep and which were being sent to a Scottish museum. By law the only way he could keep his finding was if he started his own museum so thus it was established.

Our next stop was at a small area of unique naturally formed mounds and hills known as Faerie Glen just outside the port town of Uig.

Just driving up to the area it immediately caught everyone’s attention. It was lush green and made up of a series of oddly shaped mounds and rocks formations.

We scurried through the little valleys and between trees and climbed to the top of the highest point. Somewhere on the climb I twisted my ankle, but not too badly. I still was able to walk on it. After reaching the highest peak and just as as we started back down I noticed my ankle no longer hurt. Paul was telling us stories of the fairies and their magic and how dipping your face into some fairy pool would make you look younger. Perhaps the top of the mountain had magic fairy healing properties. I’ll have to examine my foot later to see if it looks any younger too.

For lunch we returned to Portree. We began the usual search for a restaurant and very quickly found a Japanese restaurant on the second floor of a side street. It was open and serving lunch and could get us right in. Around here just getting seated at a restaurant seems like we just won some competition. And in this case I just won some Udon noodles. Yum

The afternoon was dedicated to visiting our very first castle. Dunvegan Castle is the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Scotland and has been the ancestral home of the Chiefs of clan MacLeod for 800 years. Originally designed as a fortress to keep people out, now they are inviting people in to tour their award-winning castle. The ticket included a tour of the inside of the castle and the surrounding gardens which turned out to be quite extensive.

It was raining again when we arrived so we all put on out rain coats, and Mark his rain poncho. Walking to the castle he was joking how they will probably take a look at this “peasant” trying to sneak in wearing a trash bag and turn him away. They didn’t turn him away but they did make him take it off and put it in a side room which did somewhat confirm his concerns. Although we don’t know the real reasons, he claims it’s because people don’t wear wear trash bags in a castle, it just wouldn’t be proper.

The castle was interesting and fully furnished to look like it did hundreds of years ago. The castle was actually destroyed, maybe more than once, so this was not original construction yet still fascinating.

The grounds were quite amazing and seemed to cover several acres. There was a swift moving creek running through the property with several bridges spanning it and an abundance of flowers and plants. Jason claimed he could have stayed the entire time in the garden instead of seeing the castle since we never even got through the whole garden before having to depart.

Back to Portree we started looking for a restaurant early. We were told of one by the waterfront that did not require reservations so off we went. It’s true they don’t take reservations but they made us stand outside in a line. As some people exited the restaurant then others could go in. There were no seats or awning to keep us from the rain, but there were no other options.

We arrived first, or so we thought, but the place was already full. We decided to wait. The next people to come were a mother and daughter who were visiting from Edinburgh. As we got to talking and we mentioned Arkansas the daughter said she had just finished a book about a woman named Ruth that lived in Hot Springs that buried AIDS victims in her family cemetery when their families refused to claim their bodies. We knew about Ruth already and her story but how shocking that we were on the other side of the world on a remote island in line with strangers who were reading about our home town. Amazing.

After being in line about 30 minutes another couple came up and joined our line. They said they had just come from another restaurant and they were successful getting reservations for which they were particularly happy about. I asked why then were they getting in line here. The husband replied that the reservations were for two days from now. They were just thrilled to actually get on a list somewhere.

We eventually did get in to eat and then headed back to our guesthouse. Some other people staying there told us they gave up on the restaurants, went to a store and bought cheese and wine and had a much better evening.