On our third day, we hiked. A lot. I was super excited about it, and was over-eager about getting the day started.
Our bothy has a dozen windows, most without curtains, and at this time of year in the Scottish highlands, it stays light until after 10 pm, and then gets light again around 4:30 am. So I woke up with sun light streaming through the window, and I tapped Anthony on the shoulder.
Me: “Hey. What time is it?”
Anthony: *checking watch* “It’s 4:30.”
Me: “Oh. Ok.” *rolls over and goes back to sleep*
And then I woke up again with sunlight streaming through the window, and I tapped Anthony on the shoulder.
Me: “Hey. What time is it now?”
Anthony: *checking watch* “It’s 5:15.”
Me: “Oh. Ok.” *rolls over and goes back to sleep*
And then I woke up again with sunlight streaming through the window, and I tapped Anthony on the shoulder.
Me: “Hey. What time is it now?”
Anthony: *exasperated, checking his watch a third time* “It’s 6:30.”
Me: “Oh, good! You wanna get up?!”
So we got up. We started our fire that went out during the night, and ate some breakfast and got ready for the day. And onward we went, heading toward Portree, only to continue north to our first real stopping point: The Old Man of Storr.
The walk up to the Old Man of Storr is pretty steep, but we stopped to take pictures of the view at quite a few stopping points on the way. We were lucky with the weather. It was slightly overcast, but the sun was determined to peak through.
After making it up, we decided to go ahead and turn back down instead of continuing around the top since Anthony was still sick with a cold and was getting chilled. We took the longer route back to our car though, but then headed north on the loop again, stopping at various points to walk around and explore.
Our next big stopping point was the Quiraing, and my goodness, is it beautiful around there. We hiked around for quite a while along the narrow path at the top.
Anthony swears it was safe as can be, but we were awfully high up, and those paths were very narrow, and the drops seemed pretty damn steep if you ask me.
Either way, I loved it, and we had perfect timing, as the clouds rolled in right as we were heading back to the car. We were wet and frozen by the time we got there, but at least we had seen all those spectacular views before the clouds hid them.
By that point, we were starving so we made our way back to an art café for lunch which was pretty charming. I felt quite fancy, drinking my tea and eating my lunch surrounded by local art with all these English people around me speaking in their ever-so-polite-and-proper way. “Would you like any ice in that?” “Oh yes, just one, please; That would be lovely.”
The rest of the loop was much quicker as we just drove on to Uig and then back to Portree, where we spent a little bit of time. As it doesn’t get dark until late, we decided we’d go ahead and cross the island to Dunvegan and Neist Point Lighthouse.
The clouds were rolling in at this point, but it was still pleasant out, so we drove through fields and fields of sheep until we arrived at the parking lot for the hike down to the lighthouse. We decided to hike up first for the views of the area, and I am glad we did.
Neist Point lighthouse is the westernmost point on Skye, facing out to other isles, and it’s a very beautiful area. After that adventure, it was time to head on back to our bothy. We walked along our beach a bit and sat and listened to a choir of cuckoo birds, sheep, cows, and waves. Super peaceful. Once we got chilly, we came back in to sit by our fire and drink some wine.
Here’s the thing about the bothy. It was just about the most affordable place I could find on the Isle of Skye, is an incredibly charming, stone one-room cottage, and is right on a fairly picturesque bay. There is the opportunity to see seals bathing across the way, though I haven’t. The bed is super cosy, right next to the fireplace, with a big, thick winter duvet on it. However, if you’re looking for luxury and amenities, this is not the place. It’s down a steep dirt track; the “bathroom” is a combination of a composting toilet outside, and showering down the way at the hosts’ house; the kitchen is as basic as you can get (small stove, some cast iron cookware, and a mini-fridge, no garbage disposal, etc); and the furniture is very old and torn up. There is no key because it’s unnecessary. I love it. I would put some hot water in the bed warmer and put it in my bed about half an hour before hopping in, and then I’d fall asleep wrapped up in that big thick duvet with a fire roaring next to me, some dim light streaming in, and nothing but the sound of waves or rain, depending on the night.
On to day 4. On day 4, we were to drive down to the southern part of Skye, and take a boat trip from Elgol to see a seal colony and Loch Coruisk, surrounded by the Cuillin Mountains. But day 4 was rainy. And being on a boat on the ocean on a cold, rainy day sounded miserable. So what did we do instead? We headed to the beach! (We’re smart like that)
Down to Talisker Bay we went. We walked for over a mile in the drizzle to get there. Surprisingly, we weren’t the only ones. An older gentleman, a woman in a skirt and flats, and a younger girl in tights were slowly heading that way as well. I don’t know how they weren’t freezing to death. And then we saw a couple, the man in a kilt, heading to the beach too, setting up their shade tent for the day. I’ve never worn a kilt, but it just seems like his legs would have been awfully cold on that wet beach day, but hey, the Scottish people can probably handle this weather a lot better than I can.
Even with the nasty weather, it was a pleasant experience. The walk was nice, with lots of little lambs baa-ing at us, and the black beach was surrounded by green mountains.
We didn’t stick around long though, and after our walk back, we went on to Talisker Distillery for a tour. We had a very diverse little group of people for our tour. Anthony and I were the only Americans (that’s been the norm on this trip so far), and there were a couple Canadians, a few French people, three people from Taiwan, a couple girls from London, and some Germans. Our guide was knowledgeable and funny, and his thick Scottish accent made me smile.
The whisky was strong. Really strong. I’m not a whisky drinker, so I can’t give much of a review here other than that :).
That evening after the rain finally wore off, we walked down the beach to the pub at the Stein Inn (the oldest inn on Skye, fyi). The service was lacking that evening, but the food was good, and the old bartender’s bluntness is entertaining (the same one who told us we would just have to talk to each other since they had no wifi). Our server was very confused when Anthony asked for silverware. After some miming, she caught on that we needed “cutlery”. It’s always weird to me how we can share a language, but still not be able to have any idea what one is saying.
Back home we went to enjoy our final night at the bothy. I sure will miss that crazy little place.
