Over the Sea to Skye....

Returning to Oban, on a beautiful morning, with calm seas, we started the next stage in our journey, a long drive north to Skye. The road to Skye initially hugs the shores of Loch Linnhe, reaches Ballachulish where an impressive bridge crosses Loch Leven, before again following the shoreline all the way to Fort William.

Ballachulish Bridge

We stopped here for lunch. In truth Fort William isn't the most attractive of towns, but it has facilities, some tacky looking gift shops an (almost) compulsory piper giving the bagpipes full throttle in the centre of the main street and plenty of places to eat. We opted for Nevisport, a large outdoor clothing and hiking shop with a no nonsense cafe upstairs that did an excellent soup and sandwich offer. Feeling rather full we carried on driving until, at the Kyle of Lochalsh, we took the road bridge over the sea to Skye.

We were just spending one night on Skye, with a ferry booked the next day departing from Uig to Lochmaddy in North Uist. I'd booked a room at the Sligachan Hotel, a historic inn, now much expanded, with terrific views of the Cuillins. Our room was a bit tired looking, but clean with a comfy bed so for one night it was just fine. After checking in and a long drive I wanted a stretch of the legs before having an evening meal so we crossed the road, went over the old Sligachan bridge and admired a new memorial, erected in 2020, of Professor Norman Collie and John Mackenzie, two lifelong friends who explored and pioneered many of the routes in the Cuillins in the late 1890's onwards.

Sligachan Old Bridge

Collie and Mackenzie gazing out at the Cuillins

We strolled a bit further but having booked an early meal we returned to the hotel and made our way to the restaurant. Our server was very friendly (he came from Cyprus) and gave us a superb table - with a picture window looking out to the Black Cuillins - although in truth the menu was rather limited and basic but my beef stew was tasty enough. I did have a rather nice beer brewed on site to accompany my food.

It was too nice an evening to stay indoors so after our meal we decided to brave the midges and walk along the track that runs through Glen Sligachan heading towards one of the Red Cuillins, Marsco - which brought back memories of lthe stirring music and lyrics of an early Runrig track, 'Nightfall on Marsco', released in 1981.

Skye Mountains:
Marsco on the left, Sgùrr nan Gillean and Am Basteir on the right

One of the noticeable features of being this far north in the height of summer is it takes a long time to get dark. Its not really very dark at midnight but the fresh air of Skye and a comfy bed gave us a good night's sleep.

Whilst the Sligachan Hotel's evening meal hadn't been overly impressive their cooked breakfast was very good and very filling (although not very healthy), and included Stornoway black pudding and haggis.

Struggling to move after a much larger breakfast than usual, we needed to move on, but had time to spend the morning walking around Portree, the main town on Skye and then taking a circular drive around the north of Skye, stopping off at Kilt Rock to see the waterfall cascading over the cliff into the sea and Staffin Bay where there are dinosaur foorprints about 170 millions years old left as imprints in the rock.

Waterfall at Kilt Rock

Portree Harbour

Eventually we reached the ferry terminal at Uig, with time to grab a bite to eat and (for me) to pop in to the Isle of Skye Brewery to add a few bottles to my growing stash of Scottish ales. It was only a brief spell on Skye, but our return journey would bring us back through the island with a little more time to explore.

The seas were calm and we spent the journey out on deck, arriving ahead of time at Lochmaddy, the ferry port on North Uist. We had made it to the Outer Hebrides and the next few days would give us time to get to know the Uists, Benbecula, Eriskay and Berneray as well as other smaller islands.