We had an early’ish breakfast, and then headed out on the road by 8am to try and beat the predicted Armageddon weather (if you missed it, see yesterdays blog instalment) and the other tourists to the nearby sights.
First call was “Old Man of Storr”, the Storr is a rocky outcrop crested by a massive ancient landslide, and the Old Man is a large pinnacle rock that can be seen for miles around, particularly from the south. We stopped a couple of times when the Old Man came into view to get some photos and then parked up by the assent trailhead. There were maybe 10 cars there when parked, later in the day that was closer to 100 cars parked all around. It was raining lightly when we set out, just enough to warrant a rain jacket, it also made the climb a bit sweaty. We headed up the left trail, steep enough to get your blood pumping and then came upon a small pond that was very still. It had a beautiful reflection of the rocky outcrops above in its waters. We continued on to a point where the climb got steeper, and Deb relented, resting for a while before heading back to the car. I kept going, I wanted a clear photo of The Old Man! On the way back down Deb came to the pond again, but the waters were disturbed by the rain, we got lucky there. I guess I kept walking for another 500m or so, got my photo (I hope it’s ok, I haven’t checked yet) then turned around and walked back down. Deb beat me back to the car by 10 mins.
Back on the road and our next stop was the Lealt Falls, a combination of two falls that have their waters falling 90m into the ravine below. Again we were ahead of the crowds, sharing the viewing platform with about 10 others. (later in the day we passed by and it was packed!) It pays to start your day early.
The roadside signage here is pretty ordinary and we missed the next three things we were going to do, so we kept driving on up to the top of Skye and the Duntulm Castle ruins. We pulled over near a small Tea and snacks van parked near the pathway to the Castle. And ruins they were, at the end of a sheep paddock were the crumbling grass covered remains of an old stone building. We stepped over the fence surrounding the ruins and had a look around. Some of the rooms/spaces below ground level were still intact, but blocked off from access. It would have been an impressive building in its day.
Next we drove to The Quiraing, one of our missed sights, an outlook point that provides panoramic views from the far away coast plains, Islands off the coast and the main land. The views were amazing, on a bright sunny day they would go on forever. Such rugged mountains and green rolling plain, beautiful.
Our next catch up was “Kilt Rock and Mealt Falls”. Kilt Rocks are named after the resemblance of the basalt columns with intruding dolerite sills in the sea cliffs to the pleats in a tartan kilt. If you squint yours eyes tightly and have a nip of whiskey the similarity is very clear, if you don’t see it have another nip, repeat until it is clear and you’re speaking Scottish! ?
Mealt Falls result from a creek reaching the coast at the top of the cliffs, the water dramatically falling 55m into the seas below. The waters here were very clear and we are sure they would have looked spectacular under blue sky and sunshine, but then this is Scotland.
As we were leaving we noticed a food van in the carpark and decided to have a look and maybe get some lunch. We both ordered a bacon roll and we got talking with the young girl running the van. She was delightful, so full of life. Turns out her boyfriend was a Kiwi. But that aside, she told us of her plans to try and bring her community more together socially. She said they all only really saw each other while shopping or at church, neither time was relaxed enough to enjoy each others company. So she and a few friends had an idea to open a pub in the village so people had somewhere to relax and talk. We wished her luck with it all, we thought that she had enough in her to make it work, but whatever, she will give it a great shot. ?
Our final catch-up was Brothers Point, or Rubha nam Brathairean as the locals know it, in Culnacnoc. Our directions were to park in a small carpark near the Glenview Hotel, and walk down the path opposite to the coast. Turns out the hotel is fairly well hidden from the road, and the carpark was more of a small rest stop, if that. But anyway, the effort and perseverance was worth it. The path takes you past a small cemetery, (there seems to be an extraordinary number of cemeteries here – note to self – don’t annoy the locals ? ) between a farmhouse and a BnB, and down through a sheep paddock to the rocky coast and the eastern most part of the Totternish Peninsula. The grassy slopes are springy underfoot, I guess the ground is peaty, it is very lush. The “beaches” are rocky, large pebble rocky, 150mm diameter, and the cliffs are steep. Sheep are grazing all over the slopes and Deb always loves to talk to them ? , and take their photos. It was a beautiful spot, Deb thought it was missing a bench seat so you could just sit and take it all in.
Whilst we didn’t see any, there are meant to be lots of dinosaur footprints made by 2m tall long-necked Sauropods and T-rex’s older cousin, Theropods in the tidal pools around this area, on another day with some sunshine and a lower tide we may have searched for them.
We then drove back to our hotel, stopping along the way for a few final photos of some of the sights we saw earlier in the day, but from a different perspective. We had a tour guide along time ago who suggested to us to always look above and behind you as you go, you will always see things you may have missed along your way.
We had a very enjoyable day, the weather was ultimately very kind to us and the sights were very enjoyable.
