The Isle of Skye

I finally got to visit the Isle of Skye off the North Western Coast of Scotland. It was a great weekend with a few funny stories to throw in along the way :-)

It is about a 5 hour trip from Edinburgh to Skye, with a few breaks in between it was a bearable trip. The fun began at 6 am Friday morning and continued in the car until 8:30am when a stop to hike to the Lost Valley of Glencoe started. I was under the impression that it would be an easy hike. NOPE! It was straight up a mountain! (my 35 mile bike ride to Falkirk earlier that week hadn't help the state of my knees, but that wasn't discovered until 1/4 the way up the mountain) It was an amazing hike though. Waterfalls, neat rock formations and the view at the top was unbelievable. I have always wanted to hike in Glencoe and I was happy to have the chance (side note: Glencoe is in the middle of the country and this was where the McDonald clan massacred the Campbell clan because they didn't sign a peace treaty with England on time. Glencoe is a hauntingly beautiful valley, that spurs the imagination to thinking that you can almost see the fighting going on between the men and the women and children running for their lives in the cold of February) This hike was neat because there were absolutely no other people around! Coming down the mountain I could see the tour buses all in the parking lot, but no one ventured even close to the base of the trail - silly tourists you missed the best part!

I also made a stop at the Glenfinnan Monument. It's a tower with a statue of Bonnie Prince Charlie (he tried to reclaim the Scottish throne during the 1700's but was defeated. It was at this place that it all began). It is a beautiful area, with the monument at the foot of a loch in between 2 mountains - the only sad thing was it was a TOTAL tourist trap! You were supposed to pay to park (2 pounds), pay to use the restroom (20 pence), pay to go into the garden where the tower was (5 pounds) and you weren't allowed to put your trash in the garbage can unless you bought it from their coffee shop! Really?!?! Come on! Well, I did park and I did use the restroom and I did put trash in the bin - and guess what? I didn't pay a pence and I don't feel bad about it! So there! :-)

Elian Donan Castle was another stop along the way that was pretty neat. It is one of the most photographed castles in all of Scotland. You might have seen it in the movie "Maid of Honor". It's a beautiful castle set on a little island in the middle of a loch. The last time I was in Scotland my mom and I got to go to a concert held in the castle - it was one of the neatest experiences!

Finally - Skye, 10 hours after leaving Edinburgh! Once upon a time there was a 7 pound toll to cross the Skye bridge but thankfully the Scottish National Party took control of the government and said no more to that - so it is now free and easy to get to the Isle of Skye (Skye is Norse for clouds - which seem to blanket the island ALL the time!)

It was too late to do any more hiking that night (I was pooped from hiking in Glencoe anyway) so a nice dinner off the island in the little coastal village of Plockton was the choice for the evening. I, as always, wanted to try cultural foods, and the local staple is Prawns. Right.... Well, no one told me that they come STARRING at you! They are like little baby lobsters that you have to break open and eat (except they are so small and not nearly as good as lobsters!) For my main course I had Game Stew (I think it had venison, pheasant, any other roaming animal from the area :-) It was OK, the sauce was incredibly heavy, so you really couldn't taste anything anyway.

Saturday dawned bright and early and the day begin with a trip to Dunvegan Castle, the stronghold of the McLeod Clan. It was a neat castle, as far as castles go. Nothing terribly exciting though. Next on the list, a hike up to the Old Man of Storr! It was great! (rained the whole way, but great!) This was about a 2 hour hike uphill (of course, like all of the other hikes in Scotland) and the views were simply amazing. The legend goes that an old Shepherd and his wife were transformed into stones when they stopped to look back at the giants behind them. The wife fell over a few years back, but the old Man is standing strong :-)

Kilt rock was next on the stopping points, but that was a HUGE disappointment. From the postcards it looks amazing and it looks like a great hike along the coastline, but it's not. There is a car park next to the waterfall and the water barely trickles over. Not too exciting - Sorry.

My favorite hike of the weekend was the Quirraing. The views were fantastic, I felt like I was standing on the edge of the world. Sheep dotted the landscape (you couldn't really forget about them because you had to keep dodging their presents they left everywhere) I really don't know how I am going to decide which pictures to post because they are all my favorites! You could really go anywhere on this hike and explore. I felt like I was discovering a new place for all mankind (it did help that it was raining buckets and there were no other people around)

Sunday came around all too quickly for my weary body and another trip to the coast was set out upon. This time it was a practically unmarked trail that lead me to a little beach with neat rock formations that reminded me of Giants Causeway in Ireland. Little seals followed my progress along the rocks from the safety of the cold cold water It was so peaceful and relaxing to be where no one else was and to have the beach and coast to myself (except for the sheep who were apparently trying to get tans as well - yup sheep on the beach! Who would have thought!)

The only "funny" thing about the whole weekend was that I have been hearing about the great highland hospitality for a while now. I have met MANY great and friendly people in the south of Scotland, so I didn't see how that could be beat. And it wasn't. If anything, people were downright rude. Service was terrible in the restaurants, you had to ask for things time after time, and even then you didn't get them. I stopped at a rest area along the way, only to be snarled at by the custodian that it wasn't open yet and that I needed to leave! (I think he could have been a bit nicer in his response) There were a few other surprising incidents over the weekend that really astounding me. Where was the Scottish Highlands Hospitality? Has it disappeared during tourist season? I would think now would be the most important time to have a welcoming smile and a kind word...

Once again, my post is a long one. Hopefully I haven 't prattled on too much and have lost everyone :-) In a few days I will post some fun trips to Linlithgow Palace, Rosslyn Chapel and Melrose Abbey. Stay tuned!