Scotland: Isle of Skye

Alas, it was time to leave for our next leg of the journey.  Over the sea to Skye!

We said goodbye to our dear hosts, Emma and Graham at Scorrybreac, and took our scenic drive through Fort William to the Sky Bridge.

I was really looking forward to this next part because we were going to see some really awesome places, the first of which is the famous Eilean Donan Castle.  Guys, I LOVE this castle.

We found this amazing rope swing when we made a wrong turn  on our way to the castle.  I was annoyed at our 30 minute detour and Bob carefully reminded me that we were in literally no rush and could spend the moment doing something unexpected.  He's right, so we I swang on the darn swing.

Welcome to one of the most picturesque castles, Eilean Donan. This place......it truly is magical.

The clouds, the rain, the green, oh it was wonderful.

The Clan McCleoud (who's current Chieftain is a woman) still uses, inhabits, and hosts events in this castle so it was a real treat to walk through it.  Many of the halls were closed to the public, but the open places were beautiful and filled with amazing historical artifacts.  We spent over an hour chatting with Terry, one of the castle's historians.  He was amazing.  It just made me love this place even more.  Terry's daughter and son-in-law run a jewelry business on Skye......we may have stopped there for something.........but I digress.

As you can see I don't have any pictures of the interior.  As a family home they do not allow photos so, you will just have to go yourself. 

I threw one of my best handstands on the bridge, and got the compliment of the trip.  One of the workers stopped by and said, "I have worked here for 5 years and have never seen that done on the bridge! That was amazing."

We made it over the Skye Bridge to the Isle of Skye and stopped at the Cuillin Mountain range to take in the gorgeous views.  It truly was so much fun to stop whenever we wanted.  Everywhere is a picture op.

Our little room on Skye was in a home out in the countryside surrounded by sheep!  It was a cute room, but ridiculously noisy house and not my favorite spot.

Portree is the main "city" on the Isle and it is known for its harbour with colored houses.  The City is super cute and it was busy!  The busiest city we had been to by far.

We enjoyed some chill mornings drinking coffee and laying in bed for way too long.  It was rainy and foggy the entire time we were there, but I loved it.

Hiking and driving was the number 1 plan for the Isle.  We started our first and only full day on Skye with a visit to the Old Man of Storr.  Its a gorgeous hike culminating in amazing granite spires that have been a part of many movies and shows.

In Scotland you can literally climb and hike anywhere you want.  It's wild so we did just that. it was amazing and we even had breaks in the fog where the sun and blue sky made an appearance.

This place.  It is pure magic.  

We finished our first hike of the day and headed down the road to Kilt Rock.

The Isle of Sky is a beautiful island and it was a lot of fun to drive with ocean in sight all around.  Cold Atlantic ocean.  But absolutely beautiful.

Kilt Rock was gorgeous.  After stopping we decided we were hungry and found ourselves a cute little  island store, grabbed some sausage, crackers, cookies, and coffee, had a picnic in the car and pressed on.

The last spot was the Quairang (Kwa-RANG). So hard to describe this place. Scotland is a mash of granite mountains crashing into each other covered with moss.  There are sheer drops and crags and cliffs everywhere.  The Quairang is one of the most picturesque.

Plus, the single track road was WELL WORTH the drive.

We started the hike in the gorgeous sunny weather.  We decided to climb up the back of the mountain and by the time we got to the top the weather was fast changing.

Within 10 minutes of the sun shining and the view being open, we were covered in fog with minimal visibility.

And this is how we hiked on the rim of the Quairang cliff for much of our hike.

As we made our descent down the back side of the mountain, the weather decided to lighten up and it showed this incredible landscape.

This place is just amazing.

The hike home was equally as incredible as we snaked back towards the car at the base of the cliffs.  

The waterfalls just added to the ambience, and the whole thing just felt like we had been transported to a fairy land.  The only thing tethering us to reality was how wet we actually were.  It was a lot.

The Isle of Skye is gorgeous and our whole day of climbing around the countryside made us super hungry so we stopped at the Portree Harbour for some incredible fish and chips....oh and more cider.