Another sunny start. There is something about opening the curtains and seeing the sun shining over the water and mountains smiling at the horizon that fills your spirit.
The plan for today was to head North/West instead, and explore a different part of Skye. So we jumped in the car and drove…
… over the hills and faraway… (not really, the island is not that big!)
…till we saw the sign for Talisker Distillery… and then we stopped…
The tours had sold out many months ago (book early!!) but the shop has a mini exhibition/information wall to explain how the whiskey is made. I quite like a ‘wee drum’ occasionally and find the process quite fascinating. (It all started from a visit to the Jack Daniels original distillery in Lynchburg Tennessee a few years back… when we found ourselves on a tasting tour at 9.30am!!). Anyway, I’m sure this one would have been just as interesting… maybe next time.
Some info below:
Opposite the carpark, right on the water there is a small cabin with cutest small coffee shop… and the coffee is the best of the island (and the cakes are fab too!). In fact, we detour and came back there the next day too! Highly recommended.
Caora Dubh’s website is here. The name means ‘black sheep’ in Gaelic.
After coffee… and whiskey shopping… we headed for an early lunch at The Oyster Shed up the hill behind the village, following Gus the skipper’s recommendation…
Utterly delicious. And a little bit messy…
Time to burn off some of those calories (did I mention the delicious brownie that went down with the coffee?… ahem… oops). We headed to Coral Beach. (Click on the link for all the technical information). Just a note of caution, the car park is quite small and this is a popular spot. We were luck to find a space but if it’s full there’s only to sit and wait. The road and narrow and parking along it is not an option.
It’s a short, pleasant walk to the beach itself.
Mid tide is best and in the sun the colours are ‘tropical’. We didn’t get that… just insane wind and rain. According to Strava the wind was blowing at 38miles/hour, and let me tell you… it’s hard to stand up in that!
You can actually see the wind blowing the water in this picture. Madness.
Ten minutes later the storm passed. As quickly as it came.
And it was beautiful again… so much so that we decided to stop and visit Dunvegan Castle, which is the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Scotland and has been the ancestral home of the Chiefs of clan MacLeod for 800 years.
It’s a nice crib.
It’s beautifully kept and there are guides full of interesting facts and anecdotes in every room.
The gardens are incredible too. So many different settings and plants and flowers… we were running out of time so unfortunately we could only whizz around a part of it, but they deserve proper attention… especially on such a sunny afternoon!
Apparently when it was first build it was completely isolated by the sea and could have only been reached by boat. What a sight it must have been.
the-wanderings.com 