The Isle of Skye

Skye Bridge

Are you ready to see my new favorite place? Follow the A87 out to the west and hit Skye Bridge, connecting mainland Scotland with the Isle of Skye. It's one of those places that just sounds gorgeous and kind of mystical. And it's even more beautiful than you can imagine. This is totally a hiker/nature-enthusiast's paradise, and deserves a couple of days to explore- just keep your fingers crossed that the weather cooperates. We lucked out and got some clouds but no rain. Skye is one of the Hebrides Islands off the western coast of Scotland, all known for their picturesque natural beauty.

 

Check out our hostel! We only kind of picked it for the name- it had really good reviews and it did turn out to be the  nicest of the hostels we stayed at. Saucy Mary's is located in Kyleakin on the eastern coast of Skye, just over the Skye Bridge. And at maybe 5 square blocks is actually NOT the smallest town we stayed in. It isn't a youth hostel, which means older folks can stay too, and they have some double/family rooms that aren't the traditional bunk beds if that's something you're interested in. Those obviously cost more than a standard bunk, but can still be cheaper than a proper B&B. They also have a good hot breakfast that costs a few pounds extra, do live music in the bar area in the evenings and have a convenience store attached. The guy who runs/owns the place is fantastic, and lives at the B&B next door, Plus, don't you just want to say you've stayed at a place called Saucy Mary's? Alright, moving on.

I've got a whole ton of pictures from Skye, so I'm attempting to be selective, but if you want to see more, head on over to my flickr page and check 'em out. 

Like I said, Skye is an outdoor wonderland. You'll probably want to have a car to get around the Isle, because it is pretty big, but you'll also want to pull over and hike around. There's any number of guides to hiking on Skye, so it's not a bad idea to invest in one. But the immediate impression you get of Skye is mountains, sky and sea. 

There are some neat geological formations and Neolithic and Iron Age sites. Skye is also the seat of Clans MacLeod, MacDonald and MacKinnon. The seat of clan chief of the MacLeods is Dunvegan Castle on Skye and is still in use today, making it the oldest continually-inhabited castle in Scotland (800+ years!). Dunvegan is the home to the Fairy Flag, a yellowy-brown scrap of silk originally from the Orient, and how it got to Dunvegan is a bit of a mystery. Theories have included that it was a prized relic of a now unidentified saint, it was brought back during the Crusades, etc., but the traditional stories hold that it was a gift to a MacLeod from the fairies. The flag is said to assist the clan in warfare and to provide various other sorts of blessings and luck. I wanted to see it, but Dunvegan is way up at the northern edge of Skye, and we were way down at the southern edge, and we didn't have time to drive all the way up there before catching our ferry to move on. There's always next time. We did get to check out the headquarters of the MacLeods' bitter rivals, the MacDonalds.

Armadale Castle is much newer than Dunvegan, built in the 1800s (and it shows.) The interior is entirely gone, overgrown by plant life. Today, Armadale and the surrounding land serves as the Clan Donald Heritage Centre. There's a small fee to go in (6 pounds I think), which includes admission to a really well-done museum on the clan's history. The Donalds were quite the important bunch in the medieval period and their chief held the title of Lord of the Isles. They held sway over the Hebrides and parts of western Scotland, and maintained a large degree of independence of the Scottish monarchy; they were essentially the most powerful Scottish noble after the king. The title ended up being forfeit to the king of Scotland in 1493, and ever since, the eldest son of the Scottish (later British) monarch has held the title Lord of the Isles. So Prince Charles holds the title Lord of the Isles as well as Prince of Wales and all his other assorted titles. Now for some pretty pictures!

 

 

Skye still has an active fishing fleet (fishing is one of the Island's main sources of income) and there are a number of pretty harbors. Kyleakin's (above) isn't really one of them. But it's what I had a picture of. Portree, Skye's largest town, has a prettier one, and if I can make a recommendation there's a restaurant right off of the town square whose name I now forget, but they had AWESOME macaroni and cheese and great seafood. Another major industry is whisky distilling- if you are a whisky afficionado, you may be familiar with Talisker, a major Scottish distillery located on Skye. Lots of really pretty on Skye. But below is a visual explanation why Skye's name makes perfect sense.

 

It is almost hard to tell where the sea ends and the mountains begin, and where the mountains end and the sky begins. There's a lot of sky on Skye.

Isn't it pretty? It had rained earlier that day, so we had quite a few clouds still lingering around, but as dusk fell, the clouds came out to play with the mountains.

 

 

Unfortunately we had to leave the next day, but I would love love love to go back. Instead of going over the bridge though, we took a ferry back to the mainland, so I'll share some pics from the ferry next time.