11-6-2022: Isle of Skye

This day was my personal most anticipated day: the island tour of Isle of Skye. Unfortunately, the weather is typically Scottish: lots and lots of rain.... So, we packed our raincoats and umbrellas and went to the pick up point. We were told there would be a maximum of 16 in the group and that we would be picked up in a minivan. There were 15 in our group (including ourselves) and most of the group members came from the US. 

After a pretty long drive, we started the tour at the Fairy Pools. It was quite a bit of a hike to get to the pools, but it was dry and the landscape impressive. There was a lot of wind, which made the going tough. Luckily there was a lot of beauty to sustain us during the walk. The water was more robust than usual because of all the rain, so we didn't really experience the tranquility of the pools ;-).

After the visit to the pools, we had to make a choice: visit Dunvegan castle, or visit Point Neist. Because of the wind (there would be even more of it at the Point), we chose the castle. We really liked visiting the part of it that was open to the public. It is still inhabited, therefor not all of it is open. We could freely explore the gardens, but the heavens opened up again, so we opted to have lunch instead. 

After this, we visited the Fairy Glen. Despite the rain, I did climb the rock you see on the right. It gives you a great view of the glen and the surroundings. 

Because of the rain and the mist, we didn't get to see The Old Man of Stor (a huge standing stone). We were glad that we'd seen it from the taxi (the taxi driver pointed it out). We were further away, but it's so big that we could still clearly make it out. 

The highlight of the day for the girls was our sighting of some Highland Coos.