Picking Up Hitchhikers and a Day on Skye
On the Isle of Skye, Em and I had one full day to explore as
much as we could. One of the great things about hostels are that they are great
fountains of information from what the staff can provide to what the other
travelers can tell you. As a result of multiple conversations, Em and I planned
on going to Portree (where Em had wanted to stay), Dunvegan Castle, Neist
Lighthouse, and the Fairy Pools.
After a breakfast of homemade scones (a little crispy and a
little black on the bottom) and instant coffee (super strong and requiring coco,
sugar, and milk to be drinkable), Evil and Grumpy headed out for small windy
roads, green hills, and other motorists we hadn’t terrorized yet.
First stop of the day was Portree. Portree is the largest
town on the Isle of Skye and where most tourists stay or eventually pass
through. Since we didn’t book our hostel here (and I’m glad we didn’t cause I
loved our place), we decided to visit. This town is like many of the others
that we had visited while traveling across Scotland, a cute and quaint fishing
village set on a Loch with a mouthwatering mountain backdrop. The town is set
on a series of terraces and provided some good exercise as we hiked to the old
tower ruin at the very top. After perusing the shops a bit and grabbing a lunch
to go, we hit the road again to go to Dunvegan Castle.
As we were driving along the narrow paths we spied two
hitchhikers looking sad and lonely and decided that since there was plenty of
room in our lovely Bimmer, we would give them a lift. Upon their entering the
vehicle and our inquiring where our new friends, Roger and Debbie from Switzerland,
were headed, it was determined that they had no real destination in mind but
were just hoping to see the Isle. This of course meant that they were free to
kidnap for the day and Em and I decided to drag them around with us wherever we
went. Luckily they liked the idea as much as we did and there were no mentions
of kidnapping ;)
First stop was Dunvegan Castle. This was the first castle
that either of our companions had been to, so we were quite happy that they
enjoyed it. Dunvegan Castle is the oldest continually inhabited castle in
Scotland and has been the home to the MacLeod Clan for over 800 years. While
the castle was lovely and had many helpful placards around the different walls,
I was particularly enchanted with the gardens. I have to say that these, by
far, were my favorite of all the castle gardens that I’ve seen in Scotland.
There were a series of different gardens, a walled garden, a water garden, a
rose garden…
The water garden was my favorite. It had small wooden
bridges that cross a little river that sprung from a waterfall at one end.
Everything was covered in overhanging trees and flowers were planted in between.
It definitely gave a feel of a fairy tale forest.
After a shared picnic in the parking lot at the bumper of
our rental, the quartet headed to the “end of the world”, otherwise known as
Neist Point Lighthouse. To get to the lighthouse requires a car, a GPS (or
really good directions), a strong stomach (as there are many places on the one
lane road where you crest a hill only to momentarily lose sight of the road and
the cars that may or may not be coming from the other direction), a good set of
legs and lungs, and a sense of adventure.
Once you’ve made it to the end of the road (quite
literally), you park and start walking to the end of the world. Down a set of steep stairs you are graced with a
view of green grass, white sheep, and the swirling blues and greens of the
Atlantic Ocean. Walk along the path a bit and you’ll tune around the corner of
a medium sized hill and be graced with a view of the lighthouse. Then it’s just
another steep hill and you’re there.
The Lighthouse was built in 1901 (it’s not that old), but
has been remotely operated by the Northern Lighthouse Commission since 1990.
What is left is a series of abandoned outbuildings surrounding the central
light tower. Em led the way into the closed off courtyard and the rest of us
followed. We spent some time here exploring the old buildings and the cliffs,
while staring off into the seemingly endless distance. It was peaceful.
Our last stop for the day was to see the Fairy Pools. This
was another destination that can only be reached by car (or tour van) and is really
just a section of Glen Brittle (a gorgeous hiking and mountain biking area).
The area known as the Fairy Pools is section of a hiking and biking path were
there are a series of small waters falls that end in crystal clear pools. The
pools were incising and all four of us were considering a swim. The colder
weather and later hour though prevented the fruition of this plan.
On our way back to Kyleakin and our hostel, we picked up a
final hitchhiker, a sad soul (we never got his name) from England, who had been
camping in the woods for a few days and missed his ferry off the island. We
actually missed stopping for him when we saw him, but decided that we could
squish him in the car and therefore turned around and picked him up. In
Broadford, a town near Kyleakin, we dropped all of our new friends off and then
headed home for the evening.
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