Fairy Glen, Uig, Scotland, United Kingdom
Breakfast this morning with a couple of bikies. There is a rally in Kyleakin across the bridge on Skye.
10.30am, after saying hello to Izzie (the Eurasian eagle owl) again and introducing her to Kevin, she really did like him too, we left for the isle of Skye.
Skye has massive numbers of huge hills, towering, mini mountainous mounds, (we're discussing how to describe them). They’re dark and quite foreboding in the shadows, divided with riverlets of water gathering into cascading, spectacular waterfalls.
Where it is populated, it is rather dense, otherwise, desolate and remote in places. Not difficult to travel, roads are mainly very good. Traffic heavy, tour buses a plenty, variety of nations and languages.
It’s an area of 1,659sq km, population of 10,000. Portree the capital has Pop: 4150.
Comparison, Taranaki 7,285 sq km. Pop: 118,000, New Plymouth: 78,000+
Loved Portree, very commercialised, cruise ship visiting so town was full. Delightful harbour. We found the local “flea” market in the community hall, bought a small cheese knife - we needed one in the picnic basket, a fab silver tea spoon with a coloured stone thistle on it and a teeny mustard spoon.
On to the fairy glen. A heavy shower came over as we parked, the locals must get soooo frustrated, 20-30 cars & m/homes parking on their roads - no bigger than what the upper Kiri Road was 20yrs ago! Mud everywhere and sheep dung. Fun tho, got the heart rate up staggering up the slippery hill. It was worth it.
45min drive on to Dunvegan Castle, this was well worth it too.
https://www.dunvegancastle.com/the-estate/clan-macleod/ “Dunvegan Castle is the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Scotland and has been the ancestral home of the Chiefs of clan MacLeod for 800 years. Originally designed as a fortress to keep people out, today you can tour an extraordinary castle and Highland estate steeped in history and clan legend,”
Having secured a £650,000 grant from Historic Scotland and a £100,000 loan from Highland Opportunity in 2009, the MacLeod Estate was able to embark on the first phase of restoration works to repair and renew the castle’s lead roof. However this was only made possible because the MacLeod Estate funded the majority of the £1.2 million project cost by taking on very high debt levels which remain to this day. The roof restoration was completed on budget and ahead of schedule in November 2010. The quality of the workmanship was second to none and the remit of rendering Dunvegan Castle Skye proof against the elements had been achieved.
In 2011, the MacLeod Estate embarked on the second phase to restore the castle’s windows and various masonry elements including replacing all the rusting iron window lintels in the South Wing. Since then, the MacLeod Estate has invested a further £1.4 million into estate wide projects to further enhance the visitor experience. The positive impact of this rolling programme of major capital investment together with all the hard work and dedication of the Estate team culminated in Visit Scotland awarding Dunvegan Castle a 5* Visitor Attraction grading in 2016.
We arrived back here at our luxury bnb around 6pm, in time for the news.
Richard
2018-09-15
Did you have to drive around any sheep on the road ??? When on skye back roads they just sat in middle of road and would not move. Those hills up north on Skye are unbelievable cheers
Brony
2018-09-15
Philip said to tell Kevie “grab that headlight off the old fergie - we need it for ours!”
John
2018-09-15
When the bridge opened it was a toll bridge. Is it still a toll road to get across?
Jasha
2018-09-15
Amazing hills. Some great photos of you Judith. Yes Izzie looks beautiful.
jukes
2018-09-16
Richard, yes, the sheep are very quiet, extremely used to mad tourists. Haha Brony, just buy a new tractor. No, John , not a toll bridge anymore, it’s very well used too. Love your comments Jasha, hope all is well. Xx
.
2018-09-23
Lovely place .I had my birthday in Skye in 1970.