Across the sea to Skye

June 4 – Breakfast at the Captain's House was rewarding. We had a delicious, somewhat large Scottish breakfast followed by dessert of photograph albums showing Julia's ancestors, and some of her Finlayson family tree information. At her suggestion, we visited the Kirkton cemetery, where we viewed numerous Finlayson, Matheson, and Cameron headstones.

This castle, near Kyle of Localsh, Eilean Donan Castle, is the most photographed of all the many castles in Scotland.

Continuing with her suggestion, we skipped the bridge to Skye, and continued a bit south, past the palindromic-named town of Glen Elg, to view the 2300 year-old stone residences of early people, called Brochs.

This Broch is the remains of 1900-2300 year-old living (note the size, by the tree).

Then back to Glen Elg where we caught the very unique ferry to Skye. It is a very small vessel, holding only 4 vehicles on a turntable. The vehicles drive down a concrete ramp onto the turntable platform, which is then rotated for the 5 minute trip across the strait. Once the boat is tied up again, the platform is rotated again to allow the vehicles to leave. The strait itself was running with a good 7 knot tidal current, too.

The Ferry to Skye

We then negotiated a very narrow and twisty roadway inland a bit, where we got on the main roadway. Some of our McInnes and Campbell ancestors lived in the southern part of the island of Skye, so we negotiated ourselves down to the southernmost end of the island, at Sleat, where we could look across to the Isle of Eigg (some of the Campbell's came from there). Sleat itself is now only a couple of farms clutching to the sides of steep cliffs and hills, and isn't much of a place anymore, other than scenic. We turned back northward, and turned inland toward the west side of the Island, passing the Cullins, steep and rugged-looking hills, and checked into the Phoenix B&B in Carbost. This is a delightful B&B on Loch Harport, just a short walk up the road from the Taliker Distillery, and across the road from a fine little pub. We managed to enjoy the pub a bit, for an evening meal, and crashed for the night.

Sunday morning turned out to be another nice day (apparently not normal for Skye to be bright and sunny several days in a row). Time to explore a bit....so off we went, viewing another site of a Broch, and many miles of treeless hills with lochs.

Down one road we discovered an old, reconstucted croft house, laid out just as the homes of our ancestors had . They were known as “Black Houses” because of the peat smoke from the central, chimneyless fire inside. In behind was an illicit still, for making whisky in the traditional way. Nice to see how our ancestors lived!.

An old Crofters Home (a Black House)

Inside the Black House

Inside an Illicit Still

Continuing along the north side of the island toward the East, we came to Snizort Loch, where many of our McInnes and Beaton people lived. We found the cemetery there, near Glen Bernisdale, but although there were many of these surnames here, they were all too recent for us to make a connection.

This memorial perhaps refers to a latter-day cousin.

We continued on a loop on the northern peninsula of the island, with numerous views out to the Atlantic, and other Hebridean Islands. Spectacular scenery struck us at every bend in the road. One area we stopped is known as “Kilt Rock” due to the pleated nature of the terrain, like a kilt.

Kilt Rock

We found ourselves completing our loop of the island, after passing the principal town of Portree, and then returning to Carbost. We returned to the pub across the street for a magnificent repast of prawns. At least that's what they called them......they looked more like small (but delicious) lobsters, and tasted like it. The plate was piled high with them. I'd treat you to a photo of that, but alas – we didn't take our camera with us.....the Dutch couple sitting next to us promised to email a photo, so perhaps I can add that later. That made a full day. Time to retire. Internet a bit slow, so the Blog must wait for better internet.