Sunday
For the next four nights we are on the Island of Skye, staying under roof in a 1-bedroom cottage, and our route took us back past Eilean Donan Castle before crossing the Skye Bridge.
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Murchinson’s monument
Just before that, we stopped at Murchinson’s monument. Colonel Donald Murchinson was the fifth Earl of Seaforth during the Jacobite Risings of 1715 and 1719. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London until King George I, admiring his loyalty, pardoned him.
The monument was raised in 1861 by his great-grand-nephew the celebrated geologist and geographer Sir Roderick Murchison of Tarradale.
The views from here included the Skye Bridge in all its majesty.
Portree
Onto the Skye Bridge ….. which was quite windy, and was steep enough to make you feel that you were driving into the clouds.
We then journeyed onto Portree as we had decided to stop and have a late lunch with just snacks in the evening.
Portree was lovely, and even had a Highland Coo shop. Sadly none of them met Nikki’s expectations, apparently not shaggy enough. We had a quick beer in the Isles Inn, followed by a mooch and then lunch at the Lower Deck Seafood Restaurant before heading up to our cottage. This restaurant is set next to the harbour, was very busy and deservedly so.
Skye Stays
Nikki was driving today and on arrival along a single track road to the cottage was horrified to find that since checking it out on street view, a new building had been added and the driveway up looked a bit of a challenge. We were not even sure we would be able to turn the Beast around.
Steve set off to check that out, but in the meantime another Motorhome and several cars arrived behind her, and Nikki had to call Steve back when the situation escalated further as a full size coach arrived in front of her. EEEEEEEK, where to go !
After a little bit of reversing we managed to park across the entrance to our cottage, but by then the road was completely log jammed. To be honest, it was not us that caused the issue, being able to get off the road, but the Motorhome behind us and the Coach in front of us spent a good 15 minutes trying to get around each other, with the Motorhome and the 5 cars behind it having to reverse all the way to the main road, all the time more and more cars arriving at both ends. We later found out that the road in front of the cottage, Quiraing Road, is the route to quite a well known walk, hence all the traffic.
Skye’s single track roads are no worse than anywhere else, but it’s so busy, with cars not always leaving enough space between the ones in front to allow the use of the passing lanes.
Once the downhill traffic had gone, and before the uphill traffic arrived, we managed to drive through the narrow entrance and up the driveway, where we parked up leaving figuring out whether we could turn it around until the next day.
We were greeted by the owner Tricia, who lives adjacent to the cottages with husband Neil, and 2 Maltese dogs Lulu and Barney (Nikki was delighted and anyone who know Steve will know how he was not). They built the pair of holiday homes largely themselves, and we have to commend them for a job very well done.
It turns out that Tricia is from Essex and knows of Saffron Walden. I’m not sure who was more delighted to hear a recognisable accent, but Tricia is lovely and is very helpful.
Click here to see details of the cottages.
