The Isle of Skye, Scotland
This was a new port for us.
Old houses with slate roofs and multiple flues--probably one for
each room.
It was a tender port, so the ship was on anchor outside the harbor.
We'd hiked up the hill behind the town and this old church was
next to the trail out to the point of land there.
 
A narrow trail with dramatic views.
 
We were guided by a Hooded Crow (Corvus cornix). This is
a common bird in most of Europe.
This tower was at the end of the ridge. We continued to take the
trail around the other side for different views.
When we got back to town, we took a bus to the northern end of
the island where there were various hiking trails.
From the bus...
The red phone booth was the bus stop. A few others also got off
the bus here. The bus driver said that there may be other buses
out here that afternoon, but he would definitely be back here
in four hours. There was parking up that side road for those who
drove.
We walked along the road to get to a castle ruins.
No driveway needed to get to this barn.
 
Three loose sheep were wary of us. We walked down this country
road.
The castle ruins were on that steep rocky point ahead of us.
But first, we went to the beach.
This was the path from the beach up to the ruins.
A relatively new monument which reads, "This cairn is to
commemorate the Macarthurs, the hereditary pipers to the Macdonalds
of the Isles during the 18th Century."
 
While we were exploring the castle a group of tourists led by
this colorful and friendly Scotsman had arrived. It was then we
found that we were not supposed to be inside the gate, but the
way we came, up from the beach, there were no signs or gates.
We walked back to the bus stop and since we still had some time,
so we walked along that peninsula as well. Yes, another loose
sheep...
A stone sheep impoundment area as seen from the ridge trail.
Looking over for a different view of the ruins.
We hiked for a ways, but did not get to the end of trail where
there is a primitive camping site. We needed to get back for the
bus.
Shortly after we got to the bus stop, these two lovely guys joined
us. They'd been out camping for several days and said they'd hiked
across the mountains behind them.
They took our photo as well. How nice. Two buses came almost at
the same time. One continuing around the island, which gave us
the opportunity to see the rest of the route and our original
bus going back the way we came. We waved to the bus driver who
recognized us. What a great day and about ten miles on the old
pedometer.
The next stop was Oban, Scotland.
|
