You Take the High Road...

Arriving from Belfast into Stranaer, Scotland, courtesy of Stenalines, Victor Volvo ferried us to our first nights destination in Scotland – the seaside town of Ayr. Staying at an OK B&B we had a great meal at The Tree House before settling in for an early night knowing we had a big drive ahead of us the next day. Starting out early we found a great little coffee house in the centre of Ayr (Su Casa) where the barrista knew how to work a coffee machine and served us some of the best coffees we’ve had in Britain. Our drive through to the highland town of Fort William was the longest of the trip to date, taking in several beautiful Lochs on route to the town that sits in the shadow of Scotland’s tallest mountain Ben Nevis. A brief stop on the banks of Loch Lomond for lunch was one of the only stop of the day before we came to rest at the Moorings Hotel in Fort William, located right next to Neptune’s Staircase (a series of 12 staggered locks). We arrived at our stop just in time for episode 2 of the new season of Doctor Who (the 2nd live to air episode I’ve now seen...too exciting) the fabulous Day of the Moon.
The scenery of this section of the highlands was not what I expected – the stark brown peaks soar above the windy sections of roads and lengthy lochs litter the valleys where small towns perch on the larger banks of the water containing a disproportionate amount of B&B’s.
Our next day was another day of driving and onto one of the highlights of our trip, the much lauded Isle of Skye. Arriving onto Skye using the bridge from Kyle of Lochalsh we made our way to the North Western portion of the island and Dunvegan Castle. Stopping here for lunch and an explore we spent a pleasant afternoon strolling the grounds and castle of the MacLeod family, a residence which has been in this family for over 800 years. Arriving into Portree, Skye’s largest town, in the early evening we found our gorgeous hotel (The Rosedale Hotel) located right on the water’s edge of the main harbour. On arrival we were greeted by the friendly staff with a complimentary Talisker’s Whiskey or a Sweet Sherry as a “traveller’s remedy”. Making our way to our rooms we discovered that this hotel is a unique mash up of three miner’s cottages inclusive of a maze of staircases which makes it both instantly charming and unique. Both of our rooms looked directly onto the amazing harbour and water where the level of the room threw off an amazing optical illusion as the water appeared to lap at the window. Our rooms had excellent en-suite bathrooms and included some stunning Cole & Lloyd showering product. A great touch. This comes close to our B&B in Bath as the best accommodation we’ve had to date (www.rosedalehotelskye.co.uk). We had been highly recommended the hotel’s restaurant for dinner, which is actually outsourced to a different owner and we weren’t disappointed. The restaurant sources all local produce from the Isle of Skye for its menu and our meals consisted of Cullen Skink (a potato and smoked Haddock soup), Black Pudding Salad, Pan Fried Goat’s Cheese and Langoustines (a large prawn) caught early that morning from the waters just beyond Portree’s harbour.

Isle of Skye fact: Drambuie originated at the Broadford Hotel on Skye and to this day they are not charged for any bottles they order.

Our itinerary for the next day was the much anticipated tour of the Islands off of the South West corner of Skye (Rum, Eigg, Muck and Canna). The tour, via aqauexplore.com, departed from Elgol jetty but to get to the town of Elgol we came across our 15 miles of single lane road...
Question...um “what happens when someone’s coming the other way?”
Answer...”use the Passing Place”...a little hiccup of road which bubbles out at irregular intervals along the road; a kind of waiting station for cars allowing the traffic to flow in a stop-start manner. Add into this mix a roadway that appeared to be inhabited with black faced sheep and our 15 mile journey to Elgol took us nearly an hour to make.

On arrival into Elgol we all gave a collective gasp at the stunning scenery before us...the harbour of ink blue water dotted with 4 large islands to the left and the stunning and stark peaks of the Munroes (mountains) to our right. Having a coffee, accompanied with freshly made Apple and Cinnamon scones, at the town’s only coffee shop (a kitchen attached to a couples house) we marvelled at the activity in the small harbour below. Descending the steep hill from the car-park toward the harbour I spied the craft that would take us on our tour of the islands; 15 metre orange dingy which appeared to seat about a dozen passengers. When I pointed out the craft to Mum she immediately denied that this was going to be our transportation. 15 minutes later we were wearing massive water-proof coats and clipping on our life-jackets before clambering onto the dingy.
The 4.5 hour journey to the Isle of Rum and the Isle of Canna was an incredible experience. The isles lay approximately 15 miles off the coast of Skye and the craft got us to Rum in just over 20 minutes. Our first stop was Rum and our craft took us into the sweeping Queen’s Bay, where Red Deer stood on the beaches edge grazing on seaweed. Rum was handed to Scottish Heritage in the 1940’s and although it has 72 residents it is foremost a nature reserve and the only place in the world where Deer have been observed to eat seaweed. Moments later our boat was sitting next to a cluster of Puffins and Gillymott which were wading through the waters on their annual migration to the islands for nesting. Our next stop was the Isle of Canna, where we were disembarked for an hour and allowed to explore the Isle which is home to an entire 22 residents. Back on board the dingy the final part of the tour meandered around the cliffs of Canna where we found more Puffin, nesting Shags, more Gillymott’s and watched a Golden Eagle soar high above the cliffs peaks. A stunning afternoon basked in incredible sunshine. Highly recommended for any visitor to Skye.

Glossary of UK Holiday Terms.
Fantastico – something that is fantastic
Wankadanka – a motorcyclist, generally over 50 years of age and travelling with a minimum of two others, that takes over at any destination at which they arrive (eg Visitor’s Centre Cafe, Booking Agency, Parking Station etc)
Porka de Porka de Pork – does it have triple bacon?
Haste ye Back (sung to Justin Timberlake’s Sexy Back) – please return quickly
Pastey Back (sung to Justin Timberlake’s Sexy Back) – please put your shirt on quickly
Farm Cows – cows of the farm
Hairy Farm Cows – hirsute cows of the farm
Black faced sheep – self explanatory
More? (said in Liam Brochu style) – requiring a repeat