Isle Of Skye, Scotland.
My parents came over from New Zealand to visit me while I was living in Scotland. We had four days to kill and while I love Glasgow, you can basically tick the highlights off in one day. So I planned a little road trip to take them up to the Isle of Skye, of course with a detour through my old village, Luss, to meet my Highland Cows.
It was drizzly and gloomy and rather depressing weather for your typical road trip, but it’s Scotland (and October), so you strangely become grateful for it giving you a true Scottish experience.
We left Glasgow early, stopping in Luss for coffee and the grand tour of the two streets that make this village. Harris and Skye (the Highland Cows) used to come to the fence when I called for them, but as I tried to show off my cattle wrangling they were far too interested in grazing than saying hi to their old friend.
We continued on through Glen Coe, up to the Glenfinnan Viaduct and then straight to Skye. The next day we set off to explore the island. It was the off season but we still wanted to beat the crowds and get to the Old Man of Storr early. I’d been waiting 18 months to hike to this Scottish Wonder, but the clouds were so thick and low when we got to the top we could barely see an outline of the rock a few metres away (again, typical Scotland).
Back to Portree we headed to browse the village and warm up. We (of course) stocked up on Tablet and Edinburgh Rock for the car ride. Next, we drove to Kilt Rock, the Fairy Glen and took a little detour to the Talisker Distillery for my whisky loving father. We didn’t get to see everything I wanted on Skye, but I really hope I can go back to Scotland soon to explore this beautiful country in more depth.
After Skye, we wanted to check out Inverness. It had been a long day, so we stopped off half way at a castle-like hotel along Loch Ness. Scotland is a land full of so much history, and so many stories. It’s something that pulled me towards staying there, rather than being your typical Kiwi and moving to London. We played tourist for a bit, checking out Nessie attractions and exploring the ruins of Urquhart Castle. We never made it to Inverness, there was a bad crash along the highway so we turned around and headed across to Aberdeen instead. Oh yeah, and you bet we sure did stopped at the Glenfiddich distillery on the way too. That was our last night on the road. We returned to Glasgow to get ready for another early start to head to Belfast.
☾ ★
