Skye, Day 2

Woke up and had breakfast cooked by Sam. He made us scrambled eggs on toast with toast on the side. One thing about the Scots, there is no shortage of bread and potatoes (or "chips", aka French fries) at almost every meal. Juice, coffee, tea and a choice of Mueslix or cornflakes were also available. The food wasn't spectacular but it was pretty good and it was a HUGE improvement over what we experienced at The National Hotel.

Over breakfast, Sam, pulled out his various maps to show us all the various routes we should take while we were out exploring more of the island. He recommended some of his favorite places and made sure we had plenty to see over the course of the day.

Sam was kind enough to let us use his computer to try and book tickets for a play at the Globe while we are in London next week. Along with using his computer, the question of how we ended up at the other Kilmuir House came up. Sam was very interested in hearing how I came across the other Kilmuir House's website and also wanted to know what I though of his and how it might improve. Both Michael and I tried our best to let him know, in a delicate sort of way, that if he is really serious about attracting people to his B&B, he needed to make his website easy to read and accessable. He has quite a way to go as far as getting more information on his site for potential visitors. As he and his house are, his website is also VERY simple!

We bid our farewells to Sam and headed just a mile or so down from his place to Dunvegan Castle. Although certainly not my favorite, Dunvegan is certainly an interesting castle to explore and visit. It is rather beautiful inside and has some lovely wooded gardens surrounding the castle property. Dunvegan Castle has been occupied by the head hanchos of the MacLeod Clan since 1270. There is a lot of neat memorabilia to look at in the castle and is worth a visit if you are ever on the Isle of Skye.
We wandered around the gardens after going through the castle. Very pretty grounds with several different types of gardens. The Water Garden was my favorite. It had luscious green foliage and a tiny waterfall flowing down the rocks of the garden. It was rather nice walking and seeing all the different types of plants, flowers and trees located in the different gardens.

From the Castle, we decided to drive around and see what there was to see in the town of Glendale. On the way there, we made a stop at a little woolen shop that had all types of sweaters and scarves for sale. There were some beautiful items there and I ended up getting a couple of sweaters. The lady who worked there was very helpful and was interested in whether or not we were enjoying "our holiday". We continued talking to her about her life on Skye and she explained how expensive things cost on the island. Groceries are expensive since many of the items have to be driven over the bridge from the mainland. She also told us about winters on the island and how horrible the rains and wind can get. She was enjoyable to talk to and gave us just a little more insight as to how life is lived on Skye. It is cetainly a very SIMPLE and different kind of life!

We continued to drive and just had to make a stop in Colbost where the world famous "Three Chimneys Restaurant" is found. We had been told by the across the street neighbor, Phoebe, that we must try this restaurant while on Skye. Apparently this establishment has quite a reputation and is very well known for its outstanding food and service. We tried getting a table the night before for dinner but they were booked so we decided since we were on the way to Glendale we would make a stop and try to get in for lunch, as Sam had told us getting in for lunch is much easier. By the time we got there, lunch was no longer being served. We inquired about dinner and of course, as expected, not a chance getting a table. It seems as though one needs to make reservations way well in advance to get a table for dinner. We glanced at both the lunch and dinner menus outside the restaurant and although it may be very good, there wasn't anything on either menu that caught either of our eyes as being a MUST HAVE experience. We didn't feel we were really missing much.

In Glendale, we stopped off at Skye Silver, another jewelry shop that specializes in all types of sterling silver necklaces, bracelets, rings and other items. They make their own pieces and seem to be a fairly popular place to buy items from Skye. Nice stuff but I didn't end up buying anything.

We wanted to see if we could get to the one and only whiskey distillery on Skye before it closed, so we drove a little and found it only to find out that the last tour just left shortly before we got there. Oh well! Now what? It was time to see if we could find a gas station, some dinner and a campsite for the night. Since I was feeling MUCH better, and we had planned on camping somewhere on Skye anyway, we wanted to find a place that was somewhat remote and that had a great view of both water and hills.

We took a look at a campsite in Sligachan, which would have been okay but it was near the highway and looked sort of busy. It did have spectacular views of the Cullin Mountains and it had a hotel and restaurant right across the highway... it certainly would have been the more convenient campsite to stay but convenience wasn't necessarily what we were after. Fewer people around, fewer cars and views of water as well as the hills were what we were hoping for.

We had to get to the "large" town of Portree to get gas and looked for a place to eat. Nothing striked our fancy so we returned to Sligachan and ate dinner in the bar adjacent to the hotel that was across the campsite. We were trying to decide whether to just stay where we were or head on down a little south to a campground called "Glenbrittle" which looked very remote and appeared on the map to be potentially a better spot to camp than Sligachan.

We drove down south and found Glenbrittle. Yes, definitely, this was by far a MUCH better place to camp. Drove through the gate that was at the base at the campsite and immediately were impressed with what we saw. Great green hills all around, ocean on the other side of the site. The fog was rolling in by the time we got to the campsite and was resting on top of the hills. There were quite a few people who were camping but never did it seem as though anyone was on top of another person and everyone was very respectful of eachother's space and privacy. Noise was not a factor either. It was certainly one of the more quieter campsites I have been to.

We parked the van, and decided to take a walk along the beach before it got too dark. It was an unusual beach in that it had black sand and rocks all over. There were tons and tons of seaweed all over the sand and at the base of the water. There was so much that we were able to walk on it to get pretty far out toward the ocean. We saw various shells and even a couple of jellyfish washed up close to shore. We ran into a young lady from Bristol, England who knew this campsite well and had been coming to this spot every year with her family since she was a little girl. She informed us that this visit was the first one in 10 years and it is by far the best camping site, in her opinion, in all of Scotland. She was very impressed that we even took the time during our holiday to get to know Skye and to go out of the way to find the spot that evidentially has a very special place in her heart! One amazing thing that this gal shared with us that neither Michael nor I could comprehend was how far the ocean travels to and from the shoreline every 12 hours. While we walked, we were able to see just how far the current had gone down and it was clear that much of the land was still wet from when the water had last risen. We just couldn't believe it had gone down as much as it had and from what the lady told us, this rise and fall happens quite naturally every 12 hours or so. It was hard to even believe but apparently had to be true from the lasting results we were seeing.

The temperature was getting colder, and we were losing light rather quickly. We got washed up and decided to set up camp in the back of the van and read our books as much as we were able to do before we could no longer read. We left the back of the van open and could hear the sound of the ocean behind us as we were reading our books. This place was definitely not a place anyone would come across if they were on a short trip to Scotland. We felt very fortunate to have had the amount of time we had in order to really get to know Scotland and to be able to come across such gems such as Glenbrittle. Before we knew it, we had lost our light for reading and decided to call it a night on the earlier side so as to be able to wake up early in order to possibly take a hike up the ridge of the hills overlooking the ocean. We also wanted get an reasonable start to Inverary so that we can do whatever possible to get to the great castle we had missed the last time we drove there. Since we were up in the northern part of Scotland and Inverary Castle is north of Glasgow, it seemed only reasonable to take advantage of where we were and drive down to Inverary on our way back to Glasgow.