The forecast for the next 2 days was awful with severe weather warnings in place, so we knew we wouldn’t be able to do everything we had planned whilst on Skye. We started off the soggy day with breakfast at the highly rated The Coffee Bothy. It was a really cool vibe inside, with the most incredible cake display and the really friendly staff. Unfortunately, it was style over substance.. Mark ordered a lorne and bacon roll, which was a bit dry and lacked flavour. The cake was moist but had a slightly strange flavour.
Portree As with everywhere we have been so far, there are plenty of places to pull over for a view and a quick photo. We spotted a waterfall and P, so we parked up, and I popped over the road for a closer look. Unfortunately, there was a large family who had got there first. They started by all having individual photos, then various group photos.. they were completely oblivious that others were trying to admire/photograph the falls. I got fed up waiting, so I took a photo, edited them out, and went back to the van to continue the journey. Portree is the colourful capital of the Isle of Skye and is a lovely little seaside town. It’s full of cafés, bars, restaurants, gift shops and of course, whisky shops. A trip here wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the viewpoint for the multicoloured houses or a walk around the harbour to see them up close. On a nice day, there are plenty of cafés to choose from to sit back and watch the boats bobbing on the Loch with the stretch of hills in the background.
The Old Man of Storr This was one of the walks we were both really looking forward to, and luckily the rain has stopped and the skies were clear. One of my favourite things to do on a hike is to look at what other people are wearing. My favourites from here were hotpants with knee high boots, ankle boots with a heal (she had to have people either side to help her down) and pyjamas 🤷🏼♀ The Old Man of Storr is an iconic landmark on the Isle of Skye, with a towering pinnacle of rock perfectly set among the landscapes of the Trotternish Peninsula. The hike is a steady slog straight up the side of a hill, and due to the amount of food I’ve been consuming this past week (I’ve definitely put on a stone) I had to have regular stops just to catch my breath! There are so many photography opportunities here, and each turn just gets better and better. The rock formations are enormous and impressive, and the views out to the lochs, mountains, and surrounding islands were incredible. We really were so lucky with the weather!
Lealt Falls & Kilt Rock And that was where the good weather ended. It continued to rain for the rest of our time of Skye. One good thing about Skye is a lot of the waterfalls are easily accessible. You park up and walk to a purpose built viewing area. Both of these falls offer just that, and are definitely ‘must swing by’ falls. Lealt waterfall crashes into Lealt gorge and is surrounded by rugged terrain. Kilt rock is an ancient cliff resembling a kilt, with Mealt waterfall plummeting from the top of the cliffs to the rocky coast below.
Staffin As mentioned in the previous blog, there aren’t many campsite options this late in the season. But we found a small one in Staffin, which is located near to the dinosaur beach. By now the rain was heavy, but I was determined to find the dinosaur footprints which are located on various rocks around this black sand beach. We hunted for them, but soon gave up, which by the looks of it, so did a lot of people judging by the amount of footprints drawn in the sand instead. On a clear day, the Quiraing dominates the skyline here, so if you are fortunate with the weather, you should definitely add this beach to your list. The campsite for the night was small and settled, but despite multiple signs saying do not dry clothes using hand dryers and hair dryers, people were drying their clothes with hand dryers and hair dryers.
The Quiraing This was meant to be one of the hikes we did, however today the weather was even worse than yesterday. Due to the uneven ground and steep sections, a lot of reviews on AllTrails (and other websites) suggested that you don’t attempt this in adverse weather unless an experienced hiker. So… as we are absolutely not that, we thought we would try the viewpoint instead. This is one of the most photographed places on Skye, but unfortunately we just didn’t have luck on our side, and by this point, a small stream was also forming on the roads. Instead, we got a coffee and a bacon roll from the van at the car park (we were his first customer) whacked the heating on, and gave up on waiting for any of it to pass.
Fairy Glen A delightful and enchanting miniature landscape of grassy, cone-shaped hills. The Isle of Skye is rich with faerie lore, however, the unique geological formations here are actually the result of a landslip (but dont think about that, let your imagination go wild). This is very easily accessible, with lots of parking and the whole area is a lovely walk. There is a large rock formation in the middle, known as Castle Ewen, which you can climb up for views across the whole site. Unfortunately, we chose to do it whilst it was quite busy, and I got wedged in the tiny gap used to get up to the top. Conscious that people were trying to get up and down, I managed to unwedge myself, but gave up giving it another attempt. We spent a bit of time exploring the area, but as the rain continued, the ground just became too boggy to enjoy it anymore. Luckily, everyone had decided to leave, so I gave Castle Ewen one more try, and with a bit of manoeuvre, managed to make it to the top.
Dunvegan Castle We knew we would have around an hour to explore here (in hindsight, we should have sacked off Neist Point to spend longer here) so we only paid to visit the garden, and not the joint castle ticket. Dunvegan boats 5 acres of formal award-winning gardens, including the water garden, rose garden, walled garden and woodland walks. You can tell they’ve put a lot of money and effort in to try and restore the gardens to their former glory, and were full of autumnal colours. They have a waterfall, and offer seal boat trips (these finished on 30th Sept) and the views of the castle across the water are stunning.
Neist Point The road here towards the end was absolutely terrible and full of pot holes, and the car park was rammed with badly parked cars. When we arrived we were greeted with heavy rain and thick, thick fog.. I left Mark in the car whilst I popped out for a look, with everything crossed that the fog at least would lift. However.. that wasn’t to be the case. The round trip walk down to the lighthouse was around 2 miles, and I was really conscious that we were booked in for a tasting at Talisker later that afternoon. There was, however, a cake fridge at a house by the car park! So to try and cheer us up, I got a lemon and a coffee and walnut slice.
Talisker As this is one of Mark’s favourites, we had to make sure we factored in a visit here (and also a perfect excuse to get out of the rain). Talisker offer a tasting experience, without having to do a distillery tour, so this was perfect for us (on the whole, if you’ve done one distillery tour, you’ve done them all!) As I was driving, I was given a drivers pack so I (Mark) could enjoy them later. We were taught the importance of sniffing the whisky with your mouth slightly open and sniffing it through one nostril at a time before trying the whisky neat, then adding 2 drops of water. Mind-blowing! You also get 10% off in the shop for attending the tasting, which is great considering how much some of it costs. The area around Talisker Bay is also meant to be stunning, but we really were fed up with the rain and wind putting a downer of Skye, so decided to head back to the campsite.
Sligachan Bridge We had stopped here yesterday for a walk around, but it was so so busy. Luckily, the car park and the bridge itself were now empty, so we parked up and had another look. It was now only drizzle rather than torrential rain.. hooray! The legend of Sligachan states that if you dip your face in the river water by the bridge, you will be granted eternal beauty. Knowing my luck, I’d fall in, so as tempting as this sounded, I decided to give the dipping a miss. The bridge is surrounded by mountains in the distance, and the weather makes it more atmospheric. When the water level is low and the sky is clear, you are able to get a really cool framed mountain shot through the arch of the bridge. There is a campsite here, but unfortunately, it closed for the season on Sept 30th. There are so many amazing photography opportunities here, so it’s really worth stopping, whatever the weather!
We were so looking forward to coming to Skye, but unfortunately, we’ve just been a bit underwhelmed. The bloke at the campsite we stayed at said they hadn’t seen weather this bad for a very long time.. so that obviously hasn’t helped. We missed out on Fairy Pools because the walking route was too deep with water. We’ve also been really spoilt with the incredible views of the west coast, and other tourists on the NC500.. Unfortunately, Skye was full of inconsiderate people, people parking in passing places, nobody said hello when you walked past.. and my biggest annoyance of all, nobody thanked you on single track roads for letting them passed. We’ve just been very unlucky. But I’d definitely return to give it a second chance in better weather!
The Travelling Ginger 