Day 4: Adventures in Scotland
Day 4: Adventures in Scotland started VERY early. I told my aunt that we should leave before 7AM. All of my friends with a knowledge of Scotland told me that there was no way we could possibly see a fraction of what I had on my itinerary spreadsheet. By day 4 I was paying much more attention to the warnings of roadwork and unexpected traffic stops, My expectations of what was feasible had gotten a bit of a reality check. And after day 3 in Glencoe, I was ready to flow with whatever God sent our way.
Our scheduled adventures for day 4 included lunch with a friend who lives on Skye and a Misty Isle boat trip to Loch Coruisk. Both of us also wanted to stop at All the Goodness Coffee & Bakeshop. Everything else on the list was wait-and-see.
In trying to be reasonable, I removed a few things from my spreadsheet. One of the places that I removed was The Commando Memorial. Thankfully my aunt said that she wanted to stop there.
The Road to Skye
The Commando Memorial
The Commando Memorial is dedicated to the brave commandos who fought and died in WWII. Right after the Dunkirk evacuation in June 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in order to strike back against German armies occupying Europe, ordered the establishment of the commandos. Having seen the terrain of the highlands I can understand why this area was chosen to train an elite force for irregular warfare. According to Undiscovered Scotland, during WWII “1,700 commandos lost their lives, while many others were seriously wounded and eight men serving with the commandos were awarded the Victoria Cross.”
We were there on a clear day with excellent views of Ben Nevis and Aonach Mòr.
The Views on the Way
The Highland scenery makes the drive to the Isle of Skye a rare treat. There just wasn’t enough time to stop at every viewpoint so we only stopped at the ones with excellent DO NOT MISS Google reviews. Both Glengarry Viewpoint East and Loch Cluanie Viewpoint are incredible, but we were actually able to get down to Loch Cluanie for even better views.
Giving an excuse of the food being too enticing to include any pictures is probably getting old. This time I had sticky fingers and was making ‘this-is-awesome’ moans when I thought about pictures. I have so many allergies and food sensitivities that I have to watch what I eat. However, all I had to ask in Scotland was if anything had alcohol in it. It was so strange to have such freedom in what I could eat! All the Goodness Coffee & Bakeshop had vanilla cinnamon and blueberry lime sticky buns. We made the very excellent choice of sharing both! Add Americanos and the view for a fantastic 9:40AM break. We didn’t take time for more pictures of Eilean Donan Castle because I had found a B&B down the road from All the Goodness Coffee & Bakeshop for the next night. Day 5: Adventures in Scotland will have lots of Eilean Donan Castle pictures.
Over the Bridge to Skye
Let’s talk about the Skye Bridge. I will admit to having been slightly terrified about driving over it. Remember, I don’t like heights, but it actually wasn’t bad. I was the one driving so I don’t have any pictures or video of my own, but this YouTube video is what it was like and it gives an idea of driving in Scotland.
If the road seems a bit narrow and the cars a little fast, that’s because they are. Believe it or not, the A87 is a wider road with a slower speed limit going over the bridge and through town. There were a lot of very narrow twisty roads with a 65mph speed limit. For most of those roads I was comfortable going about 45mph max! My motto is to choose life.
This was one of the better rural roads, just outside of Broadford. It was decently paved and fairly wide on our way to the ruined late 15th or early 16th century church ‘Cill Chriosd‘ or Church of Kilchrist. I was getting closer to discovering the true roads of the Isle of Skye!
A Full Day On The Isle Of Skye
Church of Kilchrist
It was an incredible feeling to walk around so much history. If the rocks could talk, I can only imagine the stories that they could tell! We were very careful to stick to the paths. Have I mentioned ticks? All of the Scotland travel blogs warn about ticks and lyme disease. Fortunately, Smidge also works for ticks. Anytime that we were going to be out in nature, we generously used the Smidge. I was sad to learn that you can’t get Smidge in the US or bring it back with you into the US. Here in the PNW I will simply continue to use my peppermint essential oil to deter ticks and all of the other buzzy bitey insects.
Finding our way
This was the first time my aunt and I traveled together. We discovered that neither of us have much of a sense of direction. If there’s a right way and a wrong way, it’s pretty much guaranteed we will go the wrong way! I was warned that the GPS might not be accurate where we were going, but my friend had emailed directions to her house. I’m great at reading a map. Directions? I’m not so great. I usually end up lost! So I was concentrating on our possibly correct (or not) map app on my phone and the directions that my friend sent. It was such a relief to see a man out walking who had to be a local. We stopped to ask for directions. I love the Scots’ sense of humor and way of saying things. When I told our friendly local that I wasn’t sure if we were lost or not he said, “You won’t get lost on Skye. It might take you two or three days but you’ll end up back where you started.” We also laugh every time we remember our friendly local’s directions, “You go up the hill and down the hill and up the hill and down the hill and up the hill, eventually, you’ll see a wee cemetery…” I’m happy to say that we weren’t lost nor did we get lost, at least not on day 4. You will have to wait for those stories!
We were driving around Loch Slapin. This lesser known sea loch is one of Scotland’s hidden gems with excellent hiking. The views from the road were spectacular, I can only image how gorgeous the views are when hiking.
Misty Isle Boat Trip
Everyone that I talked to about my trip told me they hoped that we’d have beautiful sunny weather while in Scotland. That is all well and good for most places, but Skye is the Misty Isle. So while everyone else was wishing beautiful blue skies for us on the Loch Coruisk boat trip, I was hoping for just a wee bit of Misty Isle mystique!
Besides, there’s no chance of catching a glimpse of any fairies unless there is at least a small amount of mist. If you are going to see a fairy, it would have to be on the magical Isle of Skye with the Fairy Pools, Fairy Glen, and Dunvegan’s Fairy Flag.
A Long Evening On Skye
Most people would say that this had been a full and fabulous day. It had been, however, daylight was burning until about 11PM. So instead of being normal tourists and going for dinner on our way to the AirBnB, we decided to drive to Sligachan Old Bridge and then to Neist Point Lighthouse. In the warmth of the day, I was prepared to see if the Sligachan legend was true.
The legend says that if you wash your face in the river and don’t dry the water off, you will gain eternal beauty. It was rather chilly so I opted to skip hypothermia and keep the face to which I am accustomed. My luck, I’d end up in the river!
Sligachan Old Bridge
Sligachan Hotel is right across from the Sligachan Old Bridge. If I was able to stay overnight on Skye again, I would arrange my schedule to stay there! I learned from the Scotland travel blogs that it is easy to come home with expensive parking fines. Anytime that I couldn’t find a car park pay machine, I would ask permission to park in that business’s lot. In this case we were also asking for a WC (water closet or restroom for us in the US). The lovely receptionist graciously allowed us to use both the parking and WC. We also got to meet the chef. We would have loved to have had dinner there, but Neist Point Lighthouse was calling us!
The Road to Neist Point Lighthouse
The roads on the Isle of Skye are tire rippers! A friend ended up with a flat tire on the road to Neist Point Lighthouse just a few weeks prior to our visit. I didn’t want to repeat her experience so I was very careful driving on Skye, especially since it was a Saturday evening. You have to drive cautiously anyway with the single track roads and occasional ‘traffic jams’. This little lambie decided it needed nourishment in the middle of the road.
Neist Point Lighthouse
The End of the Day
By the end of the day, we managed to pack just about two full days of sightseeing into one. To review day 4: in the morning we left Fort William at 7AM, at 9:40AM we had a coffee and sticky buns break at All the Goodness Coffee & Bakery, and at 11AM we stopped at Church of Kilchrist on the way to my friend’s house, where we had a lovely lunch and visit. Next was the 3 hour Misty Isle Loch Coruisk boat trip with 90 glorious minutes to explore around Loch Coruisk. It was a little after 5PM when we got back to the car. The Sligachan Old Bridge was on the way whether we continued on to our AirBnB or detoured to Neist Point Lighthouse.
As everyone knows, we took advantage of the gorgeous evening to view this incredible lighthouse. It was a good thing that we did because we had a drizzly day for our second day on Skye. Neist Point made a fun place to make our evening call home. We were able to talk to our family and text pictures while enjoying the views at Neist Point. Who would have thought that I would have perfect cell phone service clear out on the edge of the Isle of Skye overlooking the Atlantic sea channel! By the time we got to the AirBnB it was 10:30PM and getting dark and cloudy. We were ready to drop and we had another full day planned for our second day on the Isle of Skye.
Day 4: Adventures in Scotland Conclusion
Day 4 of our adventures in Scotland was the new best day ever! We were blessed with seeing so much more than either of us expected to see. The only disappointment was not having a longer visit with our friends. It was amazing being on Skye and learning about the wonders of life on the Isle of Skye.
