Skye, A Winter Wonderland

---

Thanks goodness I brought my down jacket because it is the middle of the winter here on the Island of Skye in Scotland. Kath, our tour guide, told us that this was abnormal weather for the island because the warmth of the gulf stream usually keeps it from getting cold enough to snow. Anyway, it made for quite an amazing day.

We really got to experience the strory telling skills of our guides Kath and Simon today. The first thing we did in the morning was to stop off for a safety warning. Simon explained to us that there are fairies, brownies, and giants living all over Scotland. Many of them have migrated to Skye because they don't like all the tehnology in the cities. Simon said that they are neither good nor bad but that they are quite mischievious. Apparently, the locals blame it on the fairies if their milk goes bad unusually early or they are unable to churn their butter properly. To prevent this they go to each fairy home (any mound on the countryside) and deposit a spoonful of mile for the fairies to drink. This is supposed to keep them happy.

Our next stop was Kilt rock. Its called this because the vertical ripples in the rock look like the pleats in a kilt and the horizontal layers in the rok make it look like a tartan pattern. The fairies are also present hear. As you approah the rock you hear a loud hollowing sounds that is the fairies whistling. The rock was auite amaing and reminded me of the Cliffs of Maher in Ireland. Then we headed to another mountain in the Cullin mountain range. It was snowing pretty hard by then, but we managed to make it to the top to take in some great views.

After climbing the Cullin mountains we stopped by two more castles. The first was MacDonald castle. This was the stronghold of the MacDonald Clan. The Castle is no longer in tact but the dungeon below is. You can climb in and see the prisoner's dire cold conditions.

Our second castle belonged to the fairies. It was up on a small hill loated in between many fairy homes (mounds of dirt). At the bottom of the castle is a portal into fairy land. If you walk in and out of the circle three times you are supposed to be able to transport yourself into the fairy world. But be careful, once you enter you cannot leave for 7 years.

The last and best part of the day was scallop fishing on Loch Carran. One of the friends of the tour comany, Neil, gives tours on his fishing boat. He took us out just at sunset. The views were amazing. We used a net that was dragged on the bottom of the lake. When we pulled it up there were all sorts of things in it. We were looking for scallops shells. We pulled them out and Neil opened them up so we ould eat them raw. Then 5 minutes later he appeared we a steaming hot frying pan with scallops cooked fresh in garlic. They were so good!! We left full and happy 😊

---