We left Fort William, heading via Loch Ness (no nessy sightings I’m sad to say) towards the Isle of Skye. Our destination was a campsite surrounded on three sides by peaks, the entrance to this valley follows the main road, snaking along the coastline, and into the mouth of Loch Sligachan, to which will be our home for the next few days.
The loch is fed from the mountains that form the backdrop to our campsite, The Black Cuillin. The streams wind their way down from the peaks, and eventually form the river which passes under a beautiful old stone bridge, past us, and out in the loch and out to sea. Our evening is spent setting up camp, cooking, and watching the light fade behind those mountains.
The next morning we headed north past the capital Portree, to visit The Storr, an area where from the side of a hill, a collection of giant rock daggers rise up towards the sky. The formation is overlooked by a cliff, and from there the view is outstanding. The foreground has these giant rock pillars, and the ground is strewn with boulders of all shapes and sizes, the background as far as the eye can see, is the silhouettes of distance peaks reaching right across the horizon from the nearby islands of Rona, Rassay, and the mainland, separated by huge expanses of water, reflecting a beautiful blue sky. Making our way further north we stop by Lealt falls, a river flowing off the cliff edge down into the ocean below. Pretty as it was to look at, your position is awkwardly angled, and there is a crowd of tourists in the way, I struggled to find a composition I was happy with, so photographed the cliffs in the opposite direction. we continued on to The Quiraing..
There is a cliff line which runs from the Storr, north along the centre of the islands eastern province like a back bone. At the northern end there is the Quiraing, another impressive formation carved by receding glaciers in times long gone, a landscape almost from another world. The guys head up onto an edge, i hang back and capture a picture of them watching over the view..
The following day Jack stays in Sligachan, he goes off to solo summit the Black Cuillin. Me, Russell, and Bo – who’s paws are unsuited to the sharp terrain up there, decide to visit Neist Point, in the far western reaches of the island. At the point there is a lighthouse, and the view of it is very well documented on social media, so much so that the surrounding area is barely noticed! Rich, vibrant grazing meadows fade into rocky beaches reaching into a wonderfully dark blue ocean, quite the contrast on the filthy brown channel water we are used to seeing on the likes of Skegness beach back home!
Scotland and the surrounding Hebrides are truly wonderful places to visit, I cannot urge enough how much you should visit them given the opportunity! I hope to return next year to a different island, and maybe one day I will finally spot a Golden, or white tailed Sea Eagle in the wild!