Scotland - Isle of Skye 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I’d long been looking forward to visiting the Isle of Skye. After we arrived at our Airbnb the host said we’d need at least two solid days to see all of it. She offered us some advice on how to see the sites and warned us about the traffic and narrow roads. Concerned we would get stuck in crowds we headed off early in the morning for the northern part of the island.

Old Man of Storr

Our first and most important destination was the Old Man of Storr. This is a geological formation that’s quite unique and iconically associated with Skye. Our plan had worked. We were fortunate to hit the last 10 miles of single track road with almost no cars. This allowed me to relax a bit and get ready for a great hike. When we pulled into the parking lot we were pleased to see that we were early. We parked right at the beginning of the trailhead and started our hike. It wasn’t long until we were questioning our decision, as the hike has a vertical ascent of 1100’ in about a mile and a half. We decided to keep pushing up and onward.

It wasn’t too long until we started to see the formation but it didn’t look much like the pictures we’d seen. It didn’t matter as the views of the ocean were amazing. We were lucky to have such a beautiful, clear, sunny day.

On the way down we both commented how much we enjoyed the hike. It was getting much busier and we were glad to be heading to our next destination.

Lealt Falls and Kilt Rock

We headed a bit further north toward Kilt Rock stopping along the way to see Lealt Falls. A hundred years ago, the beach at Lealt Falls was used to be a salmon fishing output. As I understand it, men would come here and stay for months at a time. They would row out in the sea in long boats to fish salmon. It seems like it was a tough life even if it was in a beautiful location. You can see the ruins of their buildings below.

Kilt Rock is a cliff that, you guess it, looks like a Kilt. There’s a beautiful waterfall that falls into the sea. When we first arrived it was busy and it was difficult to get a good picture as the falls are so close to the viewing area. We took a break and had some lunch. After lunch I got motivated to get the drone up for some shots. I wasn’t happy with the video (so I won’t include it here) but one of the stills came out ok. It was clear I needed to practice more with the drone.

As you can see we did get to enjoy some bagpipe music from a busker. It added an authentic touch to the experience 🎶.

The Quiraing

This is another beautiful hiking area. We both agreed that we were a bit wiped out from the mornings hike and that we didn’t have the energy or time for another decent hike. If we were to head there we’d probably need at least a full day. As a result, we discussed our priorities and decided to head for the Fairy Pools. Here’s a stock picture of what we missed. Maybe next time!

The Fairy Pools

The Fairy Pools are a series of beautiful waterfalls and crystal clear pools. As you can see these are a popular place for hikers / tourists to kick off the boots and take a brisk swim.

Even though it was busy the water was pretty enticing. If I had really planned ahead, I would have brought my swimsuit. Instead I was fortunate to find a small pool with waterfall and decided that my feet deserved a dip into the a fairy pool. It was wonderful.

The rain was coming fast so it was time to hightail it back to the car to make our way back to the Airbnb.

As we pulled out of the parking lot (along with the rest of the people on the Isle of Skye that day), we got into what can only best be described as “single track lock-up”. As I mentioned in our posts about Ireland, tourist to Scotland don’t understand single track roads and instead of only letting a few cars go through at a time, people didn’t want to wait. That leads to disaster as there is no where to go and no space to make room to break up the jam. After the initial frustration of the stupidity of it, it started to get funny. Finally, there was a break in the jam and it started to flow. It took us about 35 minutes to go 1/4 of a mile but people started to get it and the flow kept up until we got out of the single track section.

Eilean Donan Castle

It was a long drive off of Skye and we were pretty wiped out. We stopped to check out an impressive castle along the way called the Eilean Donan Castle. We decided that we‘d just grab some pictures from the outside and head out. We thought, maybe we'd make it back another day.

We learned later in the trip this was one of Scotland’s finest castles so it was a bit of a bummer that we didn’t take the time to check it out more.

Rest and Drone Practice

We took the next day to do laundry, rest and take care of some business back at the Airbnb. About mid-day we were getting a bit stir crazy and decided to go out, find a place to practice with the drone and then hit a little chocolate and coffee shop we saw while driving in.

It wasn’t long until we found a cool spot to practice and to get some nice shots of the highland landscapes. Having improved my drone skills a little bit here’s the resulting composite footage showing off some of the highland landscapes.

Glensheil Chocolates and Coffee

The owner of the shop started this business when he was 16 (he’s probably 19 or 20 now) and his shop makes all of their own chocolate on site. His shop also features unique and high quality products from around Scotland including products such as Scotch, jam and fine woolen products, etc.. We grabbed a coffee, mocha and a biscuit with a side of clotted cream and raspberry jam. All of it was amazing. We bought a few chocolate bars with interesting flavors, including one with haggis spice. Don’t know what haggis is? Look it up!

It was really cool to see Glensheil chocolates in other parts of Scotland. The founder has built a name for himself and developed many partnerships. I was amazed how many people knew his story as we travelled other parts of Scotland. I wish him a lot of success as he and his team look like they truly love what they do. Cool!

We really enjoyed our time in this part of the highlands but it was time to move to the northern part of the Scottish highlands where they make the majority of their Scotch.