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Published: February 13th 2011
Brave sailors
With bright orange life vestsFort William to Isle of Skye
We woke up the next day in our lovely B&B in Fort William and saw the lovely view that it had to offer. All the effort getting there was worth while.
We trudged downstairs where the owner gave us breakfast and we discussed our plans for the day - not
with the owner, she went off to her part of the house with her husband, after sticking around for a quick chat.
As far as we remember the trip from Fort William to Isle of Skye involved a lot of stopping for coffee, tea and hot chocolate with ham, tomato and cheese sandwiches (all out of the back of the car of course) and taking photos of the beautiful Scottish scenery.
Not far from Fort William we stopped at a church called the Catholic Church of St Mary & St Finnan (which according to visitscotland.com
is a memorial chapel to the MacDonalds of Glenaladale, the family with whom Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed prior to the raising of the Jacobite standard at Glenfinnan in August 1745.).
We drove on...more photos...more scenery...more coffee! There are no specific stories to tell on this
leg as we didn't stop at any notable towns or locations. Emma and I do remember stopping on the side of the road at a rest stop and mum having a good ol' chat to some other rest stoppers. I know, an amazing story! The stop gave a beautiful view across a loch with a cute little white church behind us.
We finally got to the Mallaig ferry and had to wait around to get on. So, you guessed it, more photos, more coffee and most likely a ham sandwich! How we didn't get sick of ham sandwiches is beyond me, but every time I see the packs of sliced ham in Sainsbury's I have flashbacks of Scotland! Good times.
We sailed the high seas of the Sound of Sleat to get to Isle of Skye, watching the birds and looking for marine life on the way - in the summer breeze. Finally we landed in Armadale and drove off the barge and on to a little seaside town of Broadford for a lunch of fish and chips (with a million seagulls).
An hours drive later and we had arrived at Dunvegan Castle (the oldest continuously inhabited
castle in Scotland). Emma told us about this after her visit years earlier, particularly about the seals. The seals? You ask...quite wisely, too. Dunvegan Castle has an old man with a little boat who will take you out and let you see some seals in the Loch Dunvegan for £1 or £2. Thoroughly enjoyed by all, the seals ducked in and out of the water, but alas none got too close to the boat. We got back from our trip, excited by the seals, and had a wander around the grounds of the castle - it is still inhabited as far as I know, so you can't always go inside (and we didn't want to pay to do so!). It has beautiful gardens around it with plenty of flowers and plants for me to take photos of...much to Mum, Clare and Emma's great excitement I'm sure.
From the castle we drove on to to our accommodation in Upper Milovaig - a cosy B&B on a long road with houses only on one side and a loch on the other. Very beautiful. It is quite near to the furthest western point on Isle of Skye.
We arrived a bit
later than we expected and were greeted by the owner saying that she was worried we wouldn't turn up or that we had got lost. More like the roads are so windy you have to drive half the speed limit to make sure you don't die!
We slept well, in our half of the house and thought of our trip the next day to Neist Point, and it's lighthouse, which is the actual furthermost point of Isle of Skye...
Paul
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dad
non-member comment
Sounds like an uneventful trip. Always enjoy the scenery. Sitting here in my shorts looking at the parkers on you all cools me down.