This part is meant to describe Thursday, Friday, Saturday and the very beginning of Sunday for THE HONEYMOON!
THURSDAY
We rented our car from the Glasgow airport around noon, after breakfast. The trip was going to take 5 hours of driving to reach our cottage on the Isle of Skye's northern peninsula. The plan was to drive up A82 to A87 through Loch Lommond and the mountains, taking in the sights. Things ended up poorly.
Adjusting to the other side of the road was actually pretty easy. As long as I took it at reasonable speeds and gave myself an extra half second to process the change on turns, it was easy. The bigger issue was the narrow roads. Scotland, outside the cities, is nothing but what Americans would consider tiny country roads. A82 is a major roadway to the north, and it's just two lanes. No shoulder. I was driving a midsize sedan and felt like a truck.
The problem came about an hour into the drive, just past Loch Lommond. The road was filled with giant Tour Buses, and they seemed unaffected by the narrow roads and would barrel by these narrow, twisting roads like they weren't 2 feet wide. One came around me on a tight corner and forced me into the rock wall. We hit the wall, but it felt like just a big bump. About 2 miles up the road, we decided to pull into a stop at the Falls of Folloch. I got out, gave the car a look, and immediately felt my heart sink as I saw the back left tire was flat.
So for the next 3 1/2 hours we were sitting in this tiny parking lot in the rain, waiting for roadside assistance to come and replace the tire. At least we got to know Folloch Falls pretty well.
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| Note the kayaker |
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| The lonely road we waited on |
This made the rest of the drive a rushed nightmare, also a slow nightmare as well, because my driving confidence was busted. Thankfully, most of the drive was incredible. Once you pass Loch Lommond and get around Glen Coe pass, the scenery gets extremely dramatic and it's like being in Lord of the Rings. For the next 3 hours we were treated to probably the prettiest drive I have ever done.
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| Eilean Donan Castle |
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| Eilean Donan Castle |
However by the time we reached Skye we still had an hour and a half to go, and it was dark. The problem was the dark. Skye is a remote country island with no street lights. Because it's Scotland, there are lots of clouds. As a consequence, the Dark is totalitarian. You can only see what your high beams illuminate. It's stressful driving and it feels like the night is all around you.
But we eventually made it and fell asleep.
FRIDAY
We woke up on Friday only to find out the darkness was so total that was I thought was forest was actually complete open air and the island was an expansive masterpiece. There are no trees. Mostly because it's too windy to even consider being a tree. Seriously, Skye is the world's windiest place.
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| The Cottage |
The day began with a trip around the Trotternish Peninsula. Skye is all one lane roads with small passing sections, so it's slow driving. Our first stop was a cute little country cemetery.
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| Sat on a smurf |
Then we stopped at Duntlum castle, which was just ruins at the end of a windy, sheep poop covered peninsula. It was really pretty though.
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| Duntlum Castle ruins |
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| What most of skye looks like in one photo |
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| The Castle promontory |
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| Keeley attempted a panorama with me in the photo |
Then a brief stop at Flodigarry Hotel for some brunch. I ate
Cullen Skink. It tasted like new england clam chowder, so it was good.
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| Statue outside the Flodigarry Pub |
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| Imposing clouds over the Quiraing |
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| A large town by Skye Standards |
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| The Outer Hebrides |
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| Evidence of the wind in Flodigarry |
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| Our first views of the edge of the Quiraing |
Our next stop was an hour break at the Quiraing (Queer-ang). The Quiraing is the remains of an old landslide and it is one of the most dramatic and amazing spots I have ever seen. We walked up the ridge to the south, not part of the official trail. Since we had stuff to do we vowed to come back the following day. Our next stop was Dunvegan Castle.
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| The Gaelic name for the Quiraing |
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| Pano of the Quiraing |
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| Pano 2, featuring the access road |
Dunvegan Castle is very well preserved and rather pretty, but they don't let you take any pictures inside, which is kinda bullshit.
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| Outer Hebrides |
After Dunvegan we went to the Three Chimneys Restaurant, an extremely fancy and well renowned restaurant located in the middle of goddamn nowhere, Skye. I think that's the actual address. The dinner however was incredible, even if it was one of those places that puts food on about 1/10th of the plate all dressed up. I ate a dinner that was "head to tail" of beef, which consisted of 6 small slices of meat from different parts of the cow, including the tongue. Tongues are chewy. An excellent experience. The only downside was that dinner took 3 hours because they aren't trying to move tables so I had to once again drive back to the cottage in the darkness.
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| The elaborate bathroom sink |
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| More filling than it looks |
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| Hilarious no parking sign nearby |
The cottage we stayed at on Skye was easily the best place we stayed, and I wish we had gotten more time to relax there.
SATURDAY
Woke up, packed up, took a backroad shortcut to the Quiraing, and then we hiked the coolest place ever, this time on the real trail to the north. The trail is easy in terms of grade. No real elevation changes of note, the challenge is mostly just wind and exposure. The trail is narrow and a fall in certain spots could be bad, but for the most part it's one of the best bang for buck hikes out there as long as you are dressed for wind. It's impossible to get a bad view on the hike.
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| Uig (Pronounced oo-egg, I think) |
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| Port of Uig |
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| The coolest picture I took, it doesn't look real |
The trail follows the hillside for a mile or so to a large rock formation that I called "the Castle". The trail then climbs between the castle and the cliff face and this spot is the windiest spot I have ever been in my life. It was hurricane winds.
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| The Castle (I've seen it called The Prison, but I think it looks like a castle) |
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| The Castle |
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| Taken at the windiest spot |
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| Note the tiny man on the left for scale |
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| Quiraing |
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| My favorite panorama |
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| Wind |
Once past the castle you pass around the north side, shielded from the wind and everything gets quiet. The trail drops a bit into a quainter valley with a little pond and then reaches an old rock wall. Here it started to rain a bit and with the wind we decided not to do the whole loop which climbed to the top of the cliff, so we turned around and took the still beautiful walk back.
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| The Wall |
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| The quiet side of the Quiraing |
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| Sheeeeeeeep |
After we finished the Quiraing, we drove down to the Old Man of Storr, a quick hike uphill (Actually harder than the Quiraing but more popular). Storr is the biggest mountain on the peninsula. The old man of Storr is a big rock pillar standing below the cliff face of Storr. It's pretty cool. There are a lot of trails around it, which we didn't have enough time to fully explore.
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| Tree doing the patented "Skye wind lean" |
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| Storr |
Finally done with hiking, we ate lunch in Portree, and then drove to Inverness. Along the way we briefly stopped at Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness, which sadly was closed so we could only see it from above. After swinging through Inverness we found our bed and breakfast, tucked way above Loch Ness in a creepy house that was actually run by a very nice family who did not murder us.
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| Portree Harbor |
The next day we took a brief back road tour to see Loch Ness, then drove to St. Andrews.
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| Inverness |
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| No Nessie was Spotted |
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| Loch Ness |
RANDOM IMPRESSIONS
-Skye is incredible and I could have spent upwards of two weeks here just to see everything. It really does feel isolated and remote. The roads are tiny and empty, there are more sheep than people, and the only town on the island of any size is still small. The scenery is just terrific, an dit's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.
Driving impressions:
-the UK uses roundabouts, and roundabouts are incredibly good and the US should adopt them.
-Driving on the wrong side is easy, but for whatever reason it's really hard to get used to having a gearshift on the left side. It never felt natural.
-They need to increase the size of their speed limit signs and their road signs.
-They need to learn what a shoulder is
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