![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
My original hope was to get up at dawn and see the Quiraing mountains. I say "hope" and not "intention" because getting up early is always a struggle. But then I was sick, so that put an end to any illusion I had of an early departure.
Also, breakfast was scheduled. It was very good - cereal and milk, fruit, yogurt, cheese, scones, muffins and... more.
But we left. To get to the car park, it was only a mile back down the road, then a mile up the mountainside. And a few pounds to park there.
And we set out. This is the first view everybody gets:
The trail is kinda dug into the side of the hill. Occasionally it cuts back into a gully, which were the only tricky parts, requiring a climb up or down some rocks.
This is looking up the trail.
On top of the ridge, it looks like a cube of rock that's leaning, and a round tower behind it. They call that The Prison, based on its look of a castle. You can see the trail snaking on the left side of the photo. We ended up going up those rocks in the lower part to the left of The Prison. We weren't sure where to go at this point because it was just a rock field with no trails. If we had looked carefull uphill to our left, we would have seen The Needle, a prominent and famous landmark. The trail goes up around it, and leads to The Table, which I would like to have seen. And then continues up, and back along the top of the cliffs, to the car park. But we continued on.
Mainland Scotland across the water.
We walked north. Eventually, ahead of us appeared a south-facing hill. The trail passed through a rough stone wall. To our east was a valley, but on this south-facing hill were three stone ridges, each progressively higher, going east. We walked up to the first one, where these people are standing.
Looking back south.
The further ridges would have involved climbing. Behind the stone wall and below the ridges was a pleasant little valley with cows grazing. [Aside: while walking, some French people passed us. Their language reminded me, for some reason, of the line in Monty Python's Holy Grail, "fetchez la vache!" Later, when among the cows, I heard one of the people yell something about "la vache!" I was amused. (And yes, I know that "fetchez" is not French, but that's the line.)]
In the back of that little valley was a sheer, straight cliff. I wanted to see what was up there, but I was sick, so I shouldn't have been exerting myself so much.
Note the two people near the peak.
On the way back, I noticed this little tree hanging from the side of the hill below me. I tried to get a shot from the trail, but then I realized this was The Quiraing Tree. Famous. So I had to climb down. I took a few shots, but the light wasn't great. Either that or I need to up my Photoshop game. Seriously, Google this tree, and see how bad my picture is. :-)
We got back to the car park and got a sausage from the food truck, then went back to the B&B for a bit of a lie down. Then the sun was out and we drove north. We were already pretty near the top of the island.
(clicky)
This is where the road turned west across the top. You can see a house on this side of the bay - the farthest to the right. That's a rental cottage. I would have loved that. Across the bay are the four most northerly homes on Skye.
And then we picked up a hitchiker. I always kinda want to pick up the tourists, but there are usually two of them, and we only had room for one in the back seat, due to all of our accumulated stuff. It was a young lady named Erin. She sounded vaguely Irish, but was living in Germany and had a couple of months to herself, so was traveling. She had to get back to Germany in a couple of weeks for a business meeting. She had walked about ten miles, and wanted a ride back to Uig, on the opposite side of the peninsula from where we'd started.
Past Uig, we went south, then west to Dunvegan. There's a castle with gardens, but it was getting late in the day and they were closed. Beyond the castle is Neist Point Lighthouse, which I really wanted to see, but it was near dinner time, and we were concerned with finding food.
Dunvegan had two or three restaurants. The first was having some sort of special steak dinner, so we couldn't get in. The second was "closed for maintenance." We couldn't find the third. But there was a cemetery nearby...
This is MacLeod territory. The two flat-topped mountains on the horizon are MacLeod's Tables, Healabhal Mor and Healabhal Beag.
In the middle of the burying ground was the shell of a church. Inside were buried several MacLeod clan chiefs, including one as recent as 2007.
So we went back across the island, didn't see any place to park in Portree, and ended up back at the place we ate the night before.
Here's the view from there, looking north.
Also, breakfast was scheduled. It was very good - cereal and milk, fruit, yogurt, cheese, scones, muffins and... more.
But we left. To get to the car park, it was only a mile back down the road, then a mile up the mountainside. And a few pounds to park there.
And we set out. This is the first view everybody gets:
The trail is kinda dug into the side of the hill. Occasionally it cuts back into a gully, which were the only tricky parts, requiring a climb up or down some rocks.
This is looking up the trail.
On top of the ridge, it looks like a cube of rock that's leaning, and a round tower behind it. They call that The Prison, based on its look of a castle. You can see the trail snaking on the left side of the photo. We ended up going up those rocks in the lower part to the left of The Prison. We weren't sure where to go at this point because it was just a rock field with no trails. If we had looked carefull uphill to our left, we would have seen The Needle, a prominent and famous landmark. The trail goes up around it, and leads to The Table, which I would like to have seen. And then continues up, and back along the top of the cliffs, to the car park. But we continued on.
Mainland Scotland across the water.
We walked north. Eventually, ahead of us appeared a south-facing hill. The trail passed through a rough stone wall. To our east was a valley, but on this south-facing hill were three stone ridges, each progressively higher, going east. We walked up to the first one, where these people are standing.
Looking back south.
The further ridges would have involved climbing. Behind the stone wall and below the ridges was a pleasant little valley with cows grazing. [Aside: while walking, some French people passed us. Their language reminded me, for some reason, of the line in Monty Python's Holy Grail, "fetchez la vache!" Later, when among the cows, I heard one of the people yell something about "la vache!" I was amused. (And yes, I know that "fetchez" is not French, but that's the line.)]
In the back of that little valley was a sheer, straight cliff. I wanted to see what was up there, but I was sick, so I shouldn't have been exerting myself so much.
Note the two people near the peak.
On the way back, I noticed this little tree hanging from the side of the hill below me. I tried to get a shot from the trail, but then I realized this was The Quiraing Tree. Famous. So I had to climb down. I took a few shots, but the light wasn't great. Either that or I need to up my Photoshop game. Seriously, Google this tree, and see how bad my picture is. :-)
We got back to the car park and got a sausage from the food truck, then went back to the B&B for a bit of a lie down. Then the sun was out and we drove north. We were already pretty near the top of the island.
(clicky)
This is where the road turned west across the top. You can see a house on this side of the bay - the farthest to the right. That's a rental cottage. I would have loved that. Across the bay are the four most northerly homes on Skye.
And then we picked up a hitchiker. I always kinda want to pick up the tourists, but there are usually two of them, and we only had room for one in the back seat, due to all of our accumulated stuff. It was a young lady named Erin. She sounded vaguely Irish, but was living in Germany and had a couple of months to herself, so was traveling. She had to get back to Germany in a couple of weeks for a business meeting. She had walked about ten miles, and wanted a ride back to Uig, on the opposite side of the peninsula from where we'd started.
Past Uig, we went south, then west to Dunvegan. There's a castle with gardens, but it was getting late in the day and they were closed. Beyond the castle is Neist Point Lighthouse, which I really wanted to see, but it was near dinner time, and we were concerned with finding food.
Dunvegan had two or three restaurants. The first was having some sort of special steak dinner, so we couldn't get in. The second was "closed for maintenance." We couldn't find the third. But there was a cemetery nearby...
This is MacLeod territory. The two flat-topped mountains on the horizon are MacLeod's Tables, Healabhal Mor and Healabhal Beag.
In the middle of the burying ground was the shell of a church. Inside were buried several MacLeod clan chiefs, including one as recent as 2007.
So we went back across the island, didn't see any place to park in Portree, and ended up back at the place we ate the night before.
Here's the view from there, looking north.
