Isle of Skye

We rented a car in Fort William and drove to the Isle of Skye on the west coast of Scotland. Yes, they drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right so there was a little bit of a learning curve getting started, but Jeff did a great job of adjusting. I was the copilot helping with reminders to stay left, roundabouts, and the ever changing speed limits. Additional challenges on the island were curvy roads and many one lane, potholed roads with two way traffic and pull overs for passing. Our air BnB was on this kind of road so we eventually got used to looking ahead for cars.

On our way in on Friday we stopped at the Fairy Pools. It is a mile long babbling brook with little waterfalls - a natural occurrence. Someone was smart enough to add some Scottish folklore about the fairies and advertise it. Many, many people walked the trail. It was very pretty and if we hadn't already crossed hundreds of streams and waterfalls, or if it was a sunny day, we may have been even more impressed. Of course, it started to rain while walking it and we got to our car soaking wet.

We went on to our air BnB which was a pod about 9 feet by 15 feet - two rooms and a bath. Very cute and cozy. We met our host, Peter, who has been running his two pods since 2019. They are almost fully booked from March through October. After drying out we went to The Old Inn for dinner then back to our pod for an early evening.

On Saturday we hiked The Storr, a steep, ragged mountain line created from ice glaciers. The scenery, of course, was beautiful. Near the top, there was an area where the wind had to be at least 40 mph.

From there we went to the Dunvegan Castle and gardens for a tour. It has belonged to the chief of the MacLeod family for 800 years.

Lastly, we stopped at the Talisker Distillery gift shop followed by one more dinner at The Old Inn (there weren't many choices where we were staying but the food was very good!) and then back to our pod.

Sunday we returned the car to Fort William on a drive that was much better than on our way to Skye. We took a taxi to the train station and then caught the train to Glasgow and then another to Edinburgh.Read more