Jen and Rebecca Brave the Blustery Winds of the Isle of Skye

R: Thursday was looking to start out lovely, but as in past days, we were fooled into thinking the loveliness would last. During our mile-long drive to our first stop at Dunvegan Castle, it had started to rain yet again. But by the time we got our rain jackets on for the walk to the ticket booth, the rain had stopped. (This pattern repeated itself much of the day as in past days.) The grounds at Dunvegan were very well gardened and nice to walk through, despite a bracing wind, but the attack of the scaffolding struck again. Much of the castle exterior was undergoing renovation. Inside we saw bits of the original 13th century stone castle walls, but also how the McLeod Chiefs of the 18th century renovated the interior to be stylish then. I particularly liked seeing the clan horn from which every male heir to the chiefdom must drink a full horn-full without sitting down or falling over. Apparently the current chief did it in record time.

J: The most painful part of my day came next. That’s right…I let Rebecca take me to a yarn shop. In the middle of nowhere…but oddly…it wasn’t so bad. We met the woman who dyed the wool and she answered all of our silly questions. And now Rebecca has a fun new sweater to make! Our next stop was brief, but also interesting. One of the 3 remaining tanneries in the UK is also located on Skye and they offer tours of the tannery. The guide walked us through the entire process (they do everything in the traditional method) and it really was quite interesting.

R: The yarn was really pretty! I was so excited. And I can’t wait to start knitting my sweater, pattern also purchased at the shop…after I finish the other 20 projects in my knitting queue…Sigh.

R (continued): I was forced to leave the woolly goodness behind. We traveled on to Uig, through more breathtaking scenery, in an attempt to visit the Isle of Skye Brewery. We found it, but they don’t give tours (or samples) and just have a gift shop. So we had lunch at the nearby pub overlooking the Loch Snizort (awesome name) where I was able to buy my own sample of the Cuillin Red (tasty). Clearly I have grown happier with driving here if I was willing to drink a half-pint and then continue driving. We proceeded to explore the scenic route around the Trotternish Peninsula and stopped at the Skye Museum of Island Life, a village of old crofts set up to show historic weaving, blacksmithing, living conditions and the like. I think we would have enjoyed this more if the wind coming off the coast wasn’t blowing us over.

J: Rebecca (and me too) became even happier once we discovered the highland cow by the side of the road. I’ll admit I had become a wee bit fascinated by them since pictures of the animal are all over the guidebooks and they have stuffed ones for sale in gift shops. So, when one was actually close enough to get a good shot of we pulled over for a little photo shoot. I’m sure if the farmer who owned the cow saw us, he would have thought we were nuts. Oddly enough, this wasn’t our last cow photo shoot of the day. Warning signs are posted everywhere for all types of farm animals possibly being in the road, but today, we finally encountered one! A big black cow was taking up half of a single track road. I’m pretty sure I amused the passenger in an oncoming car when I took a shot of his driver trying to maneuver around the animal.

R: The benefit of being on the northern tip of the Isle of Skye is that only one car passed us while engaged in our photo antics, so not too many people saw us look like such idiots. I also realized today how much my Iowa childhood prepared me in the ways of the polite hand-on-steering-wheel finger wave, in this case thanking cars for giving way on the single track roads… Anyhow, our last stop on Skye was another castle ruin at the north end of Trotternish, Duntulm. We might have also stopped along the way for some additional photo ops of the striking mountainous scenery, but we were running behind schedule to get to our next overnight town. Plus some sites, like the Old Man of Stor rock formation, was pretty well covered in the mist after which the isle was named, and therefore not particularly photogenic today. Oh well. It was nice to see in passing.

J: The rest of our trip passed uneventfully, although I suppose that’s a good thing while on vacation, right? We did pass through some stunning scenery, which I’m sure would have been much more striking had it been a clear day. Once we arrived at our hotel for the evening, we discovered that it was, indeed, as promised, right across the road from the Eilean Donan Castle – extremely handy for tomorrow morning! Dornie is a slightly less sleepy town than Dunvegan, so we were able to find an open pub for tonight’s dinner. But, by 9pm, we were the only 2 patrons left in it.