Skye (2)

On the summit of Beinn Edra with the south Trotternish ridge and the Cuillin ridge behind

Last week Lesley and I travelled to Skye to spend a week in a holiday cottage in Fiskavaig. The weather for the first 5 days of the trip was absolutely perfect, allowing us to have a couple of barbecues in the evening with the added bonus of there being no midgies this early in the year. We saw a couple of impressive sunsets over Fiskavaig Bay with the sun disappearing behind Macleod’s Tables.

We went for a long walk along Glen Uig to the summit of Beinn Edra on the Trotternish ridge which is a more difficult location to get to than the map or its modest height (611m) might suggest, as the terrain is quite boggy in places (even after weeks of no rain) and the routefinding is not easy through pathless ground lower down in the glen. Views from the summit of Beinn Edra were quite spectacular, north to The Quiraing, east to the mountains of Torridon on the mainland and south to The Storr and the Cullin Ridge on the horizon. On the return from Beinn Edra we walked through the unusual Fairy Glen feature, which is the remnants of a giant landslide in the glen thousands of years ago.

We went for visits to the Talisker Distillery (home of one of mine and Lesley’s favourite whiskies) which was quite near our cottage, the ruins of Duntulm Castle at the northern tip of Skye (which is now closed to tourists) where there were excellent views to the Western Isles, and also to Dunvegan Castle and gardens which I didn’t find particularly amazing – it certainly didn’t justify the high entrance fee. We also went for a boat trip on Loch Dunvegan and saw some seals which was a lot better I think.

I walked up Bla Bheinn in the Cuillins but didn’t quite make it to the summit – unfortunately the weather had changed on the day I decided to do the climb, and the conditions weren’t particularly enjoyable, with rain, mist and low cloud making the already precarious scrambling sections a bit more difficult than I was mentally prepared for. Apparently the view from the summit of Bla Bheinn is amongst the best to be had anywhere in the British Isles, so I will reserve this summit for another attempt on a better day in the future.

On the last day of our trip we visited Plockton where I had some excellent langoustines in the Plockton Inn.

You can see photos I took on the trip on my website here.