Week 28 – Scotland – Anstruther to Isle of Skye

We slept in until after 8 am on Monday morning. We had a full breakfast in the restaurant which included haggis and black pudding. We didn't like the black pudding, it was very solid and almost rubbery, but the haggis was surprisingly nice. It was quite peppery and herby with a pleasant oatmeal texture. After breakfast we we drove up the coast back on the Fife coastal trail. We passed more fishing villages and beautiful countryside of rolling hills covered with golden wheat fields, or lush green dotted with black faced sheep and solid Angus cattle before stopping at St Andrews. We walked through the attractive town to the cathedral. We walked around the ruined cathedral and enjoyed the views of the sea, harbour and castle. Keith went for a paddle in the sea which was cold but became steadily colder the longer you stayed immersed! Suzie did not venture in, stating that she had already been in the North Sea – it must have made a lasting impression on her. We had a picnic lunch in the cathedral grounds and then walked back via the castle and the impressive university buildings. Everywhere through the town were beautiful flower baskets and beds in bloom. We drove on towards Dundee just after the Tay Bridge. We had to stop as our camera had had a seizure and was refusing to operate. We parked in the CBD and tracked down a camera shop where we decided to cut our losses and buy a new camera. To repair the old one was going to take an indeterminate time and an indeterminate amount of money as it had to be sent away. After the treatment of Bikaner desert dust, water showers at Victoria Falls and a drop onto the ground in Japan it was probably not going to be claimable under the warranty! We drove on towards the highlands through Coupar Angus to Blairgowrie where we found Shocarjen House B & B with a view of the forest, church tower and roosting pigeons from our room.

It was raining again when we woke up on Tuesday morning. After breakfast we packed up the car and headed north into the Highlands. We drove along Glen Clova - the longest and loveliest of the Angus Glens. The drive was really scenic. We were surrounded by steep heather-clad Highland hills dotted with sheep and large Angus cattle. We saw pheasants, grouse, partridges, hares and hedgehogs. At Clova, the road came to an end and we turned around and drove along the other side of the Glen. It was really cold, windy and wet - 10°C!

We stopped at the Spittal of Glenshee Hotel for a rest and a light lunch and then we continued on to Braemar. We stopped briefly at Craithie to have a quick look at the stone church attended by the Royal Family when they are at Balmoral Castle. Then we drove on to Tomintoul, where with the help of the Tourist Information Office we found a lovely room at the Findron Cottage B&B.

On Wednesday our first stop was the Glenlivet Distillery. We spent some time browsing around the display and the shop before we went on a guided tour of the distillery. The young lass showed us the barley which is malted by soaking in water for ten days to germinate which converts the starch to sugar. Then it is dried and milled into husk, grist and flour. After that it is soaked in three batches of hot water to remove the sugar and the solid waste is used for animal feed. Yeast is added to the liquid to convert sugar to alcohol and is distilled twice to concentrate the single malt Scotch whisky. Then water is added and the whisky is stored in a wooden barrel for at least three years. (Irish whisky is distilled three times.) We were shown through the factory where we saw the stainless steel vats used for mashing (soaking the milled malted barley), wooden vats used at the fermentation stage and the copper stills and spirit safes for distillation. We saw a small warehouse full of barrels containing twelve year old whisky, eighteen year old whisky and a couple of barrels of forty eight year old whisky (£10,000 for a 700 ml bottle). We left after tasting the fifteen and eighteen year old product with a dash of water. We drove towards Grantown on Spey through more beautiful country side. We saw a red squirrel with a pine cone in its mouth, a handsome donkey keeping horses company and numerous hairy Highland cattle. We drove on to Inverness where we stopped at Tesco for lunch of blackberries, mango and yoghurt. We travelled north over Bonar Bridge and stopped at Edderton to see the Pictish Edderton Stone in an atmospheric church graveyard with views over Moray Firth. We drove on to Carbisdale Castle and walked over a rail bridge with a river below. We decided to stay at Lairg for the night.

On Thursday morning we drove towards the east coast from Lairg and turned north to drive up the coast. It was an amazingly beautiful day with strong sunshine and hardly a cloud in the sky. We saw sheep running for no reason. The coast was magical with small beaches and cliffs plunging into the sea for long stretches. The sea was impossibly flat and in the distance an offshore oil rig was visible. Green grass covered the ground up to the cliffs and stone walls divided the land right up to the sea. We stopped numerous times for photos before we reached Brora where we stopped at Clynelish Distillery to try their Scotch which was reputed to taste of heather honey. It tasted like Scotch whisky to us! We drove north enjoying the scenery until we stopped at Caithness cheese farm off the main road. We tasted many cheeses and bought half a pepper cheese before continuing to Wick. We stopped there to try a scotch at the Old Pulteney Distillery and then drove around the corner to have a look at the 12^th century castle of Old Wick. It was built by a Norwegian chieftain in 1160 and all that remained was a ruined tower, however its location at the top of steep cliffs overlooking the sea was spectacular. On both sides the rock had cracked into a huge ravine which meant that the water surrounded the tower on three sides. Only a narrow strip of land ran down to the base of the tower connecting it to the mainland. A thin window was still visible in the rock of the upper level of the tower. Seabirds were nesting on the surrounding cliffs where they were safe from any predators. We walked to the edge of the cliff in front of the tower ruins with a large flat piece of rock sticking out of the water in front of it like an air craft carrier. We drove north to John O' Groats where the Orkney Islands floated in the flat sea in front of us. We turned west along the coast to Dunnet Head, the northern most point of England. We saw some baby rabbits, fly fishermen on small lakes and enjoyed the views of Orkney Islands, cliffs, seabirds, passing ships and the light house. We continued on along the coast to Thurso where we stayed in a static caravan for the night. From our lounge in the caravan we saw the sun set over sheep in the field next door. We watched Underbelly on the tiny TV in our caravan before bed – it was good to hear some Australian voices.

It was a cold night and we got out of bed reluctantly on Friday morning. Unlike yesterday it was a pretty cloudy and cold day. After breakfast, we packed up the car and then walked along the sea front into Thurso to have a look around. Then we drove along the winding and spectacular single lane road to Tongue. At Tongue, we got out of the car and walked along the 2 kilometre track to the 14^th century ruins of Castle Varrich. All that was left of the castle were the remains of a tower with thick walls constructed from sandstone blocks. We enjoyed the wonderful panoramic views of the surrounding countryside and the Kyle of Tongue (kyle is a narrow channel of water) from the castle. Then we drove across the causeway across the Kyle of Tongue to the cliff side village of Durness where we stopped for lunch at the Loch Croispol Bookshop & Restaurant. After lunch, we got back in the car again and headed out on the road (single lane again) to Ullapool. Again, the scenery was spectacular with granite rock outcrops, green and purple heather hillsides scored with burns (streams), icy lochs dotted with islands and Ben Hope in the background. Keith kept stopping the car to take photographs. We decided to stop for the day at the little fishing village of Lochinver, and we found a lovely room at the Tigh Lios. After checking in we went for a walk to the edge of the village to visit Highland Stoneware. Outside the shop were some wonderful mosaic armchairs and a car. Inside the shop were stoneware crockery items beautifully painted with local landscapes, flora and fauna. We were sad that it wasn't practical for us to buy anything (K wasn't!). We walked back into the village for a drink of the local ale Deuchars at the Caberfeidh Bar and then we went to the Lochinver Larder to try some of their famous pies for dinner. We started with a steak and ale pie and a chicken, sage and onion pie. They were so delicious that we went back there for our dessert of chocolate, banana and toffee trifle and black forest meringue, and we also bought some savoury pies and sweet pies for lunch tomorrow.

Saturday was an ordinary looking day with lots of dark clouds as we drove back the 11 miles to the turnoff to Ullapool but the scenery was still spectacular. We had to make it to Ullapool to fill up with petrol. It was another fantastic drive with mountains wrapped in cloud, golden moors, water pouring out everywhere and lochs ringed with golden seaweed around every corner. We stopped at Ullapool briefly to visit the local market and admire the huge ferry which was going to the Lewis Islands (The Hebrides). We bought a compilation CD at a market so we had some music in the car and a couple of oat slices called flapjacks before heading off to Kinlochewe where we stopped to eat our venison and cranberry, and pork, apple and cider pies from Lochinver Larder. It was so cold we ate them in the car and they were just as good cold as hot. Then we aimed for the Kyle of Lochalsh which was the gateway to the Isle of Skye. There is a bridge now so we didn't have to get a boat like Bonnie Prince Charlie. We drove into Kyleakin just over the bridge but kept going into the island proper. We went to the Tourist Office at Broadford but they had no accommodation available and sent us to the hostel up the road. We could see that Skye was a tourist hotspot and when the hostel had nothing left we were a bit concerned. Luckily Ewan turned up at the hostel just as we were there to say that he had a room in another hostel around the corner – it turned out that it was his and his girlfriend, Ava's bedroom. We took it even though it wasn't that great. We spent a pleasant evening in the hostel chatting to some other tourists from Australia, India and Germany before heading off to bed.

After breakfast on Sunday, we took the scenic drive to Elgol. The drive included views of Bla Bheinn mountain across Loch Slappin and Cuillin range from Elgol Harbour. Driving on the single lane roads added extra excitement as you had to pull in or reverse when you came across oncoming traffic. Then we retraced our steps and headed north to Talisker Distillery. We enjoyed the distillery tour and the whisky which had a distinctive smoky, salty aftertaste. Then we drove to Dunvegan stopping on the way at the Dun Beag Broch – a ruined tower. It was impressively situated on a high point with double stone walls so that people or livestock could move in between the inner and outer walls. Then we drove past Dunvegan castle to the Coral Beach – made from the bleached exo skeletons of coraline algae (maerl). We walked a mile and the beach was blindingly white. We drove on to the Trotternish peninsula and just south of Uig we stopped at a magical glen of ruined turrets and small conical hills called the Fairy Glen. Then we drove to the Kilmuir cemetery to see Flora MacDonald's grave, the unfinished piper's headstone and the stolen Scottish king's gravestone. We continued around the peninsula and saw the Quiraing, a basalt escarpment with impressive cliffs and pinnacles. Further on was the Old Man of Storr, a 50 metre high pinnacle of basalt. Our final stop for the day was at Portree and we walked around the pretty harbour lined with brightly painted houses before heading back to Broadford.