I planned a short route around to see Dunvegan Castle, then on to Portree to get myself a cheap rain Mac after last nights soaking when running to the loo.
Dunvegan Castle was £16 to get in, that was dearer than Culzean Castle. The castle has some stunning vies over the Loch and from the font looked miserable and dark, the inside which was pretty nice, the gardens are huge and have many waterfalls. The family occasionally live there, so not all of it was open to the public. The entrance into the castle I thought was a little dull, 6 feet in through the door and you at the foot of the stairs, it all seemed crammed in, I think from the design it was to make you climb the stairs to the main areas, and that the ground floor was for the servants. Typical plumber, that I am, I spotted some really nice lead hoppers, I made a few whilst and apprentice, so I know how much work goes into these things. I have pictures below of them.
The MacLeod clan had their own steam engine, not much was mentioned about this, so I'm not sure if they had their own tramline company or just the one engine.
After spending about 2 hours walking about I decided it was time to make a dash for Portree and have a mooch about there. Whilst kitting up in the car park, I saw a couple both on GS's who waved, they set of before me, and on this nice little B road I found, I passed them as they had stopped to take pictures, when I stopped to take some pictures they waved as they went past. Funny thing, in Portree, we bumped into each other again.
I found me a "Mac in a Pac" from a hiking and camping store shop in Portree. I have yet to use it as the weather turned sunny and stayed dry all night.
I had battered sausage and chips in a chippy, the chips was not the great but the sausage was spicy and really nice, if the queue wasn't so big I would have asked what make it was, I do have a funny feeling it was some Scottish sausage. Outside the chippy there wasn't many spaces and a young lady was sat eating chips, asked if she minded me sitting there and she said it was cool, we started chatting, turned out she was basically going all over Scotland on public transport and staying in hostels, some times having to wait 4 hours at a bus stop, for the next bus. She did hitch hike a few times, and as a typical pedant thing to say, take a pic of the car number plate and text it to someone, just in case, I know that's not really any guarantee of getting into a car with a psycho and successfully making it out alive, but at least someone would know where you was last. She is certainly brave, I wouldn't do it, unless I was really desperate.
Despite it being warm and sunny, and that my gear had dried right out, but the wind kept up all night.
If you camping in Skye I would recommend the Camping and Caravanning club site. They sell frozen food, some fridge stuff, milk etc and tinned foods, bread and even have a coffee machine. The only negative thing I would say about the site, is the drive way round is, loose stone, not gravel, I'm thinking MOT sub base 3, I could be wrong, fine if your in a 4 wheeled vehicle, but a nightmare on 2 wheels. One thing I would say, is that when the wind hits here it hits hard, so make sure you peg things down properly, I was fine, but one camper, had a mess to come back to that day.
Maybe one day I'll come back here, with a puppy in tow (maybe that's a hint of travel)??? lol
