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We stayed 2 nights in Balmacara, so that one day could be spent exploring Skye. First stop was Kyleakin, to see the Gavin Maxwell otter statue (Ring of Bright Water was one of my favourite books and film as a child)

and then carried on up to Portree. Had a bit of a wander and purchased supplies for lunch – including a box of langoustines! Yum. :-)

lunch!!! :-)

Drove around the Trotternish Peninsula, via the Old Man of Storr (didn't stop to climb it, too lazy for that!)

viewpoint looking out to the Raasay island, with Applecross peninsula in the background

and Kilt Rock,

then turned off the coast road to drive up the Quirang. That was a bit of a hairy drive!

The rock formations were stunning but it was a bit of a surprise to discover a crowded carpark at the top! Nevertheless, people didn't stay round the main viewing point for long, so we decided it was a good spot to pitch up for a picnic. I think we amused/surprised a few hillwalkers, to reach the brow of the hill and see two goths with picnic blanket, hamper and coffee!

Across the other side of the peninsula, we visited Duntulm Castle

rush hour traffic in Skye

and then headed to Uig to find the Fairy Glen. That was quite something, located off a quiet country lane, a collection of strange ground formations, perfect conical mounds, "castles", boggy pits and ancient trees. It really felt like something from another universe.

Decided to try to find a pub but instead of backtracking to Uig, we figured we had enough time to go over to Dunvegan on the Waternish Peninsula instead. This entailed a rather bleak drive through scrubby moorland and whilst Dunvegan was pretty enough, there was no pub there!

Instead we went for a coffee at the Waterside Bistro. A pleasant enough place but it was actually a petrol station cafe. (?)

Still determined to find a beer on Skye, we headed over to Carbost, home of the Talisker Distillery and a pub called the Old Inn. This was rather pleasant, tucked away down a steep road next to a loch. I got to sample the Skye ale here and we decided on food too – local mussels in cream sauce. Bloody gorgeous!

We were debating whether or not to go for desert, when we received a surprise greeting – by sheer coincidence, Charlotte (from work) and her husband Martin, were staying just down the road that night as part of their honeymoon! Sat with them for a while and compared notes on our respective journeys, as they were going west to east and us going pretty much the opposite route.

It was getting late, so we said our goodbyes and headed back to our B&B – forgetting just how far away we were, the sun was setting while we drove over the mountains and we had a dash to the Skye bridge to see if we could get there in time to see the sunset. Just about managed but couldn't really get a great westwards view.

dashing back over the bridge

So, Skye, hmmm. Neither of us were over-enamoured with the island, compared to the sights we'd seen already (and what was to come!). There were some great elements – the Quirang, Fairy Glen etc but in general found the place a bit bleak and scrubby. Fantastic from a wild, natural point of view but hardly "beautiful" as we'd been led to believe from so many glowing reports.

All the photos are here and on Facebook