ABC Tour – Clearer Skies, Castles, Craggy Coastline

SUNDAY 19 JUNE

As predicted, Sunday dawned sunny!!!!  This is what we had been hoping for, as we were headed to the Isle of Skye and weren’t going to go if the weather was wet and foggy. 

As we headed west the scenery continued to be breathtaking with several lochs and rugged hills.

It was so nice for it not to be grey and raining, although it was still quite cool, only getting up to about 14 degrees C.

There are so many pine plantations and they are quite dark when you are in them.

Of course we had to take a photo opportunity at Eilean Donan Castle, although we didn’t go in to have a look.  It really is a beautiful setting.

Then it  was up and over the Skye Bridge.

The scenery on the Isle of Skye is really stark when you first get there.

We found our way to Portree, which has a colourful water front. It is the main town on the island.

We were surprised how big the Isle of Skye is, much bigger than the Isle of Man and the Isle of Skye has a really ragged coastline, so you can’t just drive around it in a circle.  We just went around the north east section, which was stunning.

The island is much more populated than we expected.  There were white cottages wherever you looked.  They looked so nice and bright after all the stone houses we have been seeing.

As you can see by the photos, the sunny weather disappeared and we had a drizzly afternoon.  We were very lucky with the weather on the most part though.

We found accommodation at Portree for the night.  There are heaps of B & Bs and nearly all had a “No Vacancy” sign up.  It is a really popular tourist destination.  We were surprised at how many left hand drive vehicles were on the road and wherever you went you heard a multitude of different languages being spoken.

The B & B we ended up staying at was right down on the shore, so lovely and quiet.

You can’t beat this outlook from the front of the cottage in the evening light.