6 May 2023
The Isle of Skye’s scenery shone today, and what amazing scenery it was. We started with a 2-hour round-trip walk up to the stunning Fairy Pools at the foot of the Black Cuillins. The Fairy Pools are a series of natural pools and waterfalls of crystal clear water that run down from the very impressive mountain range. Some very brave people were swimming in the pools and assured me that it was a ‘tad cold’ rather than ‘freezing cold’. As you walk up the series of pools, the mountains seem to get bigger and bigger. A very impressive place to visit.
The geology of Skye is varied and very interesting. The Black Cuillin peaks are composed of gabbro, which is a very dark igneous rock and are extremely rugged, while the neighbouring Red Cuillin peaks are mainly composed of granite, which has a more reddish tinge, and are more rounded in shape. A hiker’s or mountain climber’s paradise. Sligachan bridge (built c1810 by Thomas Telford – he seems to have built just about everything in Scotland) is an ideal spot to see both the mountain ranges at the same time. The water that flows under it is apparently magic, and if you hold your face in it for 7 seconds you will find eternal youth. Some of our tour group tried it, but I decided that I had better grow old gracefully with Rog.
After lunch in Portree, we drove around to the Old Man of Storr rock formation, which has starred in quite a few films, and is a mecca for hikers. We spent the afternoon exploring the northern part of Skye, and the scenery from the cliffs overlooking the Outer Hebrides and the Atlantic Ocean were spectacular – I don’t think my photos do it justice. There were many times that I just sat on a rock and kept still, to take it all in. I kept telling myself how lucky I was to have the opportunity to experience this.
Our last stop of the day was at Kilmuir where the is a Museum of Island Life that has a township of thatched cottages (called Black Cottages due to the interiors becoming dark with the burning of peat), some Highland Coos, and a very interesting cemetery. This cemetery is where Alexander McQueen, the clothing designer, is buried and he had a particularly unique gravestone. It is a broken piece of stone and across the top, in the break, it reads “love looks not with the eyes but with the mind”. Flora McDonald is also laid to rest in this cemetery. Flora helped Bonnie Prince Charlie to escape after the Jacobite defeat at Culloden, and to me it felt very poignant that I visited her grave on the day of King Charles III’s coronation. Just as Rog and I visited Culloden on the anniversary of the battle, it’s funny how timing has worked out for this trip, without any specific planning around these dates.
A friend told me that the Isle of Skye was his favourite place in Scotland, and I can see why he feels that way. It is such a special place.
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