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Published: August 3rd 2008
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The Isle of Skye is a stronghold of Gaelic culture and a paradise for walkers and anyone who wants to experience The Highlands at their most majestic and atmospheric.
Skye has views over the Minch and rocky islets and the Isle of Mist as Skye is known as, is soaked in romance and myth. It was with this in mind that we decided to explore, in the guise of an independent trek on Scorrybreac or the “breadbasket of Skye”.
According to an old Gaelic saying all Highlanders had a “right to a deer from the hill, a tree from the wood and a fish from the river”. However, by the late 1700's / early 1800's, many Highland landlords no longer wanted the common people helping themselves to the bounty of the land!!
Scorrybreac is also known as the Black Rock. At low tide, the different coloured zones of lichen, seaweed and barnacles add colour to the black basalt rock.
The Scorrybreac Circuit is 3km long and a little strenuous in some places. We did however, decide to do the trek and went on the steep slopes via the rocks and the sea as we wanted to go
to the Black Rock. We were the only people there and it was pretty slippery. At one point, I fell and "The Small Young Gentleman" was a little upset 'cos I had begun to bleed slightly but it was only a few scratches and I was fine.
We eventually got on the rock and shared a moment with cormorant birds before continuing our trek and leaving the shore to go onto the heather moor and open hill. We were wary of not straying too far from the path as we were looking into hills of nothingness. Beautiful to be sure but in the open; could be daunting if we got lost!
From where we were, we were able to see the Isle of Raasay ( Eilein Ratharsair ) and the impressive pinnacle of “The Old Man of Storr” ( Bodach an Stoir ) before descending back through the woodlands and hills.
The Isle of Skye is also excellent for remote seclusion, clan history and mountaineering on The Cuillin, which is Britain's only real mountain range.
After our lunch of pate sandwiches in the field, we went back to the Portree town square to take a local
bus to the Carbost Talisker Distillery. We paid ₤4.35 for a day ticket on the 35 minute journey to the distillery. I hadn't yet had the opportunity to try some whisky tasting and this was the last opportunity and so, very vital!
The Talisker Distillery is the ONLY distillery on the island. For ₤5 (adults) and ₤2.50 (children), one could enjoy a complimentary dram of whisky before a guided tour on the creation of the famous Talisker whisky!
Talisker Distillery is set in the hills of Minginish which is famous for the ancient clans of Macdonald of Sleat and Macleod of Harris and Dunvegan. We didn't quite make it further out to Dunvegan this time but I'm sure to be back in the future!
There was only one public transport bus going out there at a very infrequent rate of every 2.5 hours and so after the tour we hung around until we saw a sign depicting OYSTERS.
We love oysters so we set about looking for the oyster farm. We found it somewhere in the hills and each oyster cost us only 50p.
50p I tell you!
We had 5!!!
I had
introduced “The Small Young Gentleman” to oysters in France last year and so he knew just what to do!
Result.
We got back a little after 5p.m and had an early dinner before calling it a night.
See you in Glasgow!!!
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