Guests
November 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment |
As we have friends over from Holland, there’s not much time to do the daily blogging. Fortunately I found time to stitch together a couple of pictures we took at Neist Point today. To the right you see the lighthouse. Enjoy!
Talisker bay
November 4, 2007 | Leave a Comment |
Today - no rain, not too cold - we wanted to go out for walk. We had been tipped by friends to visit Glenbrittle which has nice walks. Glenbrittle is a 30 minute drive south towards Carbost, close to the famous Talisker distillery.
Unfortunately we missed the road sign to take a left towards Glenbrittle and drove on through Carbost, Portnalong and Fiscavaig to eventually find a green signpost with “Talisker Bay” on it.
Although only 30 minutes away from our place, the Portnalong - Fiscavaig area looks different from where we live. It appears more cultivated and houses are built much closer to each other. Also, there are more trees and shrubs in contrast with the moorland you will find around Dunvegan.
As we wanted to do a walk anyway, we decided that the Talisker Bay walk would be as good as any. So we embarked on what looked like a nice footpath. Fairly quickly however, the path disappeared into the surrounding grassland and we had to do quite a bit of “island hopping” to keep the feet dry, as you can clearly see on the picture.
Towards the end of the walk we saw Talisker Bay. Unfortunately we had ran out of time and had to go back to prevent from walking the return journey in the dark, so we didn’t quite make it all the way to the shore. See the map to get an idea of the walk and the location. The red dot near Fiscavaig indicates the start.
Driving back to Skinidin, we found the traffic sign for Glenbrittle, so that will probably be the next walk.
The north route
October 30, 2007 | Leave a Comment |
As both our mums have to take on a serious journey to get to Skye, we pick them up from Inverness airport. You can get flights from Amsterdam to London Luton and then onward to Inverness.
The journey from our house to Inverness airport takes between 2.5 and 3 hours, depending on traffic. One has a choice of two routes. The north route and the south route. The south route is via Loch Ness and Drumnadrochit and we hardly ever take that one unless we fancy a nice fish & chips, as there’s a very good shop located just outside Drumnadrochit. The south route has much more tourist traffic (camper vans, caravans) making the whole trip a bit of a pain. Also the approach of Inverness from the south is more difficult, as you will have to go through the city center to get to the airport.
The north route on the other hand is quite spectacular and has a far better appraoch to the airport. It takes you past Loch Carron, which is truly beautiful. Lochcarron, the village named after the loch, is supposed to be the longest village of Scotland measuring two miles. Past Loch Carron you come through rough woodland and small villages, all with spectacular views over green hills and winding rivers. The road has steep ascends and descends, some up to 14%. As parts are single track it’s tricky to get distracted by the beautiful surroundings.
When we’re early - before 10:00 - we always spot deer and during one of the recent trips we watched them cross the road and gracefully jump the fences surrounding the fields. A magnificent sight…
To be honest, the above image was scooped from the internet. The next time we’re due west for Inverness, we’ll take some pictures of our own and publish them here on the blog.
Guests
August 27, 2007 | 2 Comments |
Last weekend we had Joost (a former colleague) and his girlfriend Esther over from Holland. They both love Scotland and decided to pay us a short visit just before they went off on their one year trip around the world.
We had a great time and luckily enough, we had great weather as well. They arrived Friday in the early evening flying with EasyJet on Edinburgh. We started off on Saturday with a walk at the Coral Beaches. We had lunch in the restaurant of Dunvegan Castle and spent the afternoon at Orbost beach.
Sunday was - opposite to the forecast - a bright and lovely day. After a full cooked breakfast, our first stop was at Neist Point. Neist Point is never boring and again this time it was lovely to be there. Joost took some impressive shots of the cliffs with his camcorder and we lingered a bit at the area past the lighthouse enjoying the sunshine and the mild breeze.
Next we went for a quick lunch at An Strupag, a small restaurant in Glendale. During our walk at Neist Point we had decided to climb Waterstein Head, one of the largest (if not the largest) cliffs on Skye. So, after lunch at An Strupag we drove the single track road down to Ramasaig and parked it almost in from of the cliff. The walk took us about 2 hours, there and back with half an hour of lingering on the top to enjoy the spectacular scenery there.
Tired but contented we drove back home and enjoyed a sturdy meal: neeps & tatties with Haggis and some bottles of red wine. Lovely!!
Monday morning, after breakfast Joost and Esther took off to catch their plane back home to Holland and make the final preparations for their big adventure. You can read about their adventures on their website.
Orbost Beach
August 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment |
Today we decided to go to Orbost, a 5 minute drive from our house. Officially it’s called “Orbost Estate” and it’s currently owned by Highland and Island Enterprises who bought it from the MacDonald Family. The estate covers over 1850 hectares and like many locations on Skye, it’s a place with impressive natural beauty. Today we decided to walk along the beach towards a point called “Meall Greepa”.
Orbost beach is a rocky beach which makes a bit hard for swimming, although you can find spots where you can take a dip but rubber beach shoes are required to make it in and out the water. The water is crisp clear and there are lots of little bays where you can sit on the rocks and let your feet hang in the water.
During our walk we found that the rocks in some of the bays had large numbers of mussels on them. As they looked quite eatable, I decided to suffer some wet shoes and catch us some for an afternoon snack. So I got in the water - up to the knees - and got us a reasonable portion of mussels. We drove back home and enjoyed the mussels with some home made whisky sauce (mayonnaise, ketchup, salt, pepper and a little splash of Jura single malt). It was delicious!!
Coral Beaches
August 15, 2007 | 2 Comments |
Today we walked to the “Coral Beaches”, a beach on the opposite side of the loch a couple of miles past Dunvegan Castle. It’s roughly a 4 km walk from the car park to the beach, which was quite good enough as the weather was a bit unpredictable today. We had walked this before during holidays on Skye, so we’re familiar with it. It’s a lovely spot, with loads of wind that keep the midges away which are quite numerous this during this month.
The beach is not actually consisting of coral but calcareous alga (see below for an explanation). Nevertheless, the beaches make a very pretty sight with spectacular colors: white sands, scattered black stones and green weeds. As it was low tide, we also had an opportunity to walk to a small island, close the beach called “Lampay”. It’s really small and no longer inhabited, although there were the remnants of an old house.
The dazzling creamy-white beaches known locally as coral sands are created by the calcareous alga Lithothamnion, which has a remarkable resemblance to branching coral and which flourishes in sheltered bays around the west coast. Broken fragments are continuously washed up and these unusual sands were used locally to ‘lime’ acid, peaty soils.
Neist Point
August 7, 2007 | Leave a Comment |
Today… finally dry after days of fierce winds and heavy rain. So, a good moment to get out and about. Neist Point is always a good spot for a quick workout. It’s about a 10 minute drive from our house and during the holiday season a popular spot with the tourists.
Today is was extremely crowded with people. The recently renovated and extended car park was packed full with cars.
Neist Point is located in the North West of Skye, along the coast and is well known for its cliffs and the lighthouse. The cabins of the Lighthouse are now operated as self catering chalets although there’s never much folk around. Probably because it’s extremely remote and requires a very brisk 30 minute walk along steep paths. There used to be issues with the public access of the area (click here to read) but this all seems history as the area is now enjoyed by everybody without any problems.
The lighthouse is still operational and maintained by the Northern Lighthouse Board. Nowadays it is fully automated and only inspected every now and then. Besides the occasional tourist talking a walk, the area is also popular with climbers and anglers.
Opposite of the road leading to the lighthouse is Skye’s highest cliff, called Waterstein Head. If you drive on, past Neist Point, you can also climb Waterstein Head. This gives a marvelous view over Neist Point and - when you’re lucky - you can see sea eagles soaring the cliff.
To go back to your car, you will have to climb the very steep path and stairs back to the car park. The stairs have been made of concrete and you’re protected from tumbling down the steep cliffs by an iron fence. Although the picture may not give the right impression, I estimate the slope at about 30 degrees.
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