Sunday, November 05, 2006

Isle of Skye - summer 2002

The Isle of Skye is one of Scotland's better known islands is has an enormous amount of great trails to hike. A great book with details of hikes: Collins Rambler's Guide - Isle of Skye

During the summer of 2002 we went to Skye (twice) to go hill-walking and bike riding.

The first trip we spent a night in Morar (about 3 miles from Mallaig) and rode our bikes from there to Arisaig to see all the lovely white beaches. We had the best fish and chips dinner ever at the Morar Hotel in the pub. You could tell the fish had been out swimming earlier that day.

Next day we took the ferry from Mallaig to Skye and went hillwalking on the Storr, just north of the town of Portree. We had to wear full raingear and the higher we got, the foggier it got. We walked right into the clouds. We couldn't go past the sanctuary (just below the Old Man of Storr) because of visibility. It was easy to see what an incredible landscape it was and we decided to return on a day with better visibility.

Photo: from the top of Storr

We spent the night in Plockton - a popular village where the tv series Hamish Macbeth was filmed - and went to a celidh that evening after dinner. We returned home the next day passing by Eilean Donan Castle.

In checking the weather the following week we saw that the weather on Skye was due to be sunny and warm for at least two days, so we repacked and set off again.

We hiked all the way to the top of Storr which gained us stunning views. The weather was incredible - high 70's F and sunny.

Photo: The old men of Storr!




The next day we hiked part of the South Duirinish Coast Walk - the entire walk is 18 miles. We hiked from Orbost House to Macleods Maidens on Idrigill Point. Same perfect weather. In fact, the Skye and the Western Isles had the best weather in all Britain. Unfortunately, no longer being used to constant hot sun we didn't take precautions and got sunburned!

Photos: the South Duirinish Coast Walk

I highly recommend a trip to Skye whether to hike, bike or just take a drive around the island. It's absolutely gorgeous!!




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