On our only full day on the Isle of Skye, we PACKED IT IN. First of all I got up very early and ran to the Fairy Glen, which was amazing, and then after breakfast we set out to hike the Quiraing.
First of all, let me just establish that I have hiked a LOT and seen a lot of beautiful places, and this is hands down one of the most beautiful wild places I've been.
It had snowed the night before, so all the snow lying on the hills showed every ripple in the ground and it was just the most incredible visual effect.
You can either do this hike as a loop or as an out-and-back (which is what most people do). We did the full loop, where you hike to the end of the ravine and then up the mountain and back along the cliffs, so you're walking on top of the cliffs you seen in the left side of the photo below.
Just so gorgeous. I could not stop taking photos because every bend showed something more beautiful.
For a lot of places, the photos don't do the actual scenery justice, but this one they don't even come close. It was SO much better than the photos show.
It was also very cold!
About two seconds after this photo Isaac fell full length backwards into the mud...poor guy. He was a good sport about it though! Neil also told me later he fell a solid half-dozen times on the descent (which was very wet and slippery grass).
Looking back from the top of the cliffs; the ocean is on my left.
I was wearing waterproof boots so I really enjoyed the second half of this hike. Everyone else, who had opted to just wearing running shoes, had a less favorable opinion of the icy snowmelt which was about 3 inches deep all over the top of the cliffs. You can sort of see it here, but there was a noticeable current and no way to avoid walking through the water.
The yellow grass in the photo below that looks like it basically drops off is what you walk on for the whole descent. It was quite thick and did a great job of concealing the inches of water that you sunk into with every step (this is where Neil was sliding). The boys ended up making a game of it and just racing down to see who could get the highest spurts of water behind them. They were all soaked by the end (I had anticipated that and made everyone change into dry shoes and socks when we got back to the car).
Good heavens it's a gorgeous place.
Once we got back to the car, we had a quick picnic spread and I love so much the fact that the back essentially had a built-in table.
Brie, jam, cured meats, and sourdough. My fave.
Then we hopped back in the car to see a few other points on the Trotternish peninsula. First was a stop at Mealt Falls...
And then we started hiking down to Brothers' Point.
Lots of checking out the tide pools! We saw lots of seals hauled out on the teeny little island close to shore.
And soooo many lambs!
The island-ish rock right behind them is full of seals.
Climbing up and over the cliff-looking thing in the center of this photo was genuinely terrifying because the wind was so strong and one step in the wrong direction would send you careening down into the ocean. The kids and Neil were fine; I was super stressed by it, which is not typical for me, but this felt very unstable because it was mostly dirt rather than rock and more prone to sliding. Just FYI.
Pretty unbeatable views though!
We stayed out at the point for less time than everyone else would have liked but I wanted to get back over the top before the wind picked up much more.
It was already quite windy...
We climbed back up to the road again and set off towards the ruins of Duntulm Castle, which dates to the 14th century.
It's a pretty solid position for defense!
Then we made a stop at the Fairy Glen, which I had been telling everyone all day was soooo magical. Well...the light was pretty grey and it was PACKED with people and not very impressive after the Quiraing, so...keep that in mind when planning the order of your adventures.
Finished up the day with a lot of fish and chips! This was probably the best fish we had the whole trip.
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1 comment:
Absolutely gorgeous!!!
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