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Published: December 14th 2009
Isle of Skye
The tour bus from the hotel is on our ferry this morning so as it turns out the hotel is serving breakfast early. We grab a quick bite and drive the short distance to the ferry terminal and get in line. This ferry is much smaller than the one we took to Mull and it has an open car deck. The crossing from Mallaig to Skye is only 30 minutes, but I think we made it a bit quicker than that.
Armadale Castle
We get to Armadale, Skye around 8:35 - and the first place we are going to is Armadale Castle Gardens and the Museum of the Isles. The castle was abandoned by the Macdonald family in 1925 (they moved to a smaller house). Armadale Castle Gardens and Museum of the Isles is part of a 20,000 acre Highland estate. This estate, once part of the traditional lands of Clan Donald, was purchased by the Clan Donald Lands Trust in 1971. The Trust has restored the gardens and part of the Castle. The castle is a very cool ruin that is used for weddings according to the brochure.
The left hand extension, which was built
Highland Cow
Highland cow on the Isle of Skyein 1815, has been converted into a walled garden. There are also 40 acres of exotic trees and shrubs on the grounds and they are just beautiful! There are really pretty water gardens and one of them has an otter sculpture that is really fun. There is also a ruin that was the laundry building. Mom and I had fun here using the laundry for a backdrop for some pictures of us. This ruin is right near the Museum of the Isles that we toured that was really informative. We also had a light snack at the Stables gift shop and restaurant. The gift shop had tons of nice things and we both bought several souvenirs for ourselves and others. While we were here the weather was lovely - sunny and about 13 Celsius.
The Macdonalds arrived in Skye from the Southern Hebrides, in the 15th century. They occupied Dunscaith and Knock Castle, both within a few miles of Armadale. By 1650 there were two farmhouses at Armadale, but after 1690 the family moved back to Duntulm Castle at the north end of Skye. The farm and gardens at Armadale were looked after by various other Macdonalds. The famous
Flora Macdonald was married at Armadale on the 6th November 1750. In about 1790 the first Lord Macdonald returned to build a new mansion house, part of which remains as the white section of the building seen today. In 1815 this was extended to a Gillespie Graham design to form Armadale Castle. In 1855 fire destroyed much of the original house which was partly replaced by the present central block designed by David Bryce. In 1925 the Macdonald family moved to a smaller house a few miles away, leaving the castle to the wind and rain. Today the Graham section is a sculptured ruin with a fine selection of plants from around the world. Part of the staircase and facade remain and old interior photographs can be seen on display.
Dunvegan Castle
We decided to go straight to Dunvegan Castle in the north of Skye and then we planned to go on to Uig and Portree before leaving Skye via the bridge to Kyle of Lochalsh. Dunvegan is about 40-50 miles from Armadale. Along the way we saw some Highland Cows hanging out in their pasture right at the edge of the road. I had given mom the camera
yesterday and told her to click away! While we were driving along a particularly deserted section of road, she had put the camera down when I spotted the cows. So I turned around and went back so we could get a photo of them. The photos look awesome of them - I’m psyched as I think these cows are sweet and really adorable!
The sky started to get really dark and it rained off and on all the way up. It was sprinkling when we got to Dunvegan and by the time we finished touring the castle it was just pouring. We stopped at the Macleod’s Tables Restaurant at the car park on the way out. We both got the tomato basil soup with some crusty rolls. It was just delicious. We totally skipped the gardens as it was a deluge of rain still. I know I should expect rain in Scotland, but mostly we’ve had overcast days or some light misty rain that didn’t keep us from being outside and seeing the gardens we wanted to see. But this was ridiculous, even with the umbrella and rain gear we were soaked in seconds. Plus the temperature had dropped
Thistle
Erbusaig - Tingle Creek Hotel to 10 Celsius.
Dunvegan Castle is the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Scotland and has been the stronghold of the Chiefs of MacLeod for nearly 800 years. Built on a rock, it has survived clan battles, the extremes of feast and famine and the profound social, political and economic changes through which the Western Highlands and Islands have passed. When you visit the castle you will see a fortress built for defense on a Rock in the sea. The massive exterior combines six separate buildings, of which you can visit five.
The castle is situated on an upstanding mass of partly columnar basalt approximately 30 feet in height arising from the shores of Loch Dunvegan. Around it originally the sea ebbed and flowed. Now after centuries of natural deposits of silt, and assisted by the modern needs of supplying an entrance from the land, the sea has receded from that side of the Castle. The Rock descends all round fairly vertically to the short scree slopes that blanket its base, except in the indent on its North-western quarter, where there is a kind of 'slack' in the cliff, up which a doubly-curved flight of rough stone steps mounts to
View from Tingle Creek Hotel
Erbusaig - Tingle Creek Hotel the Sea-gate. Before the opening of the first landward door in 1748, this was the only entrance to the Castle, and very likely from remotest times there has been an access to the summit of the Rock at this point.
More info:
Dunvegan Castle Rainy Skye
We decided to change our plans to drive around the northeastern part of Skye to see the Old Man of Storr and Kilt Rock plus the Skye Museum of Island Life (which is an outdoor museum) as in addition to the rain the clouds were really, really low. We drove down through Portree and thought about stopping to poke around the shops, but decided to push on to the hotel and hopefully drier weather on the mainland. Totally a wash out and the day had started out so promising weather-wise.
Of course as soon as we down near the bridge from Skye to Kyle of Lochalsh the sun came out and the temperature rose a couple of degrees. Oh-well. We found the Tingle Creek Hotel easily even though the GPS didn’t recognize the name. We just headed toward Plockton and there it was on the left!
Tingle Creek Hotel in Erbusaig
is really nice, the rooms have recently been renovated and everything is very clean and well kept. Our room had sea views across Erbusaig Bay to the Isle of Skye and Raasay. We made dinner reservations for 7 and decided to re-do our suitcases once again. We actually did the reorganizing right in the parking lot! It was just easier than lugging all the bags in again. We finally got mom’s stuff sorted out and I only needed to grab a few clean things out of mine.
We both got the beef fillet tips for dinner and they were yummy!! The shower was a drag as it just trickled water out and took forever to get hot, but when it did - it was scalding! Mom decided to make tea in the room and the first cup she forgot about and it was ice cold. Then she started to make another cup and ended up spilling a bunch of water all over the counter area in the room. Oopsy! But we mopped it up and finally she got her tea!
I noticed tonight in the shower that I can touch my fingers to my shoulder with some help
from the other hand! Woo hoo!!!! It’s really chilly out tonight - around 6 Celsius.
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