Highlands and Islands: Inverness to Isle of Skye

We left Inverness early in the morning after going to the shop to pick up supplies for sandwiches and snacks and drove across the country to the Isle of Skye.

We made a few stops along the way. We found this cool loch that we could access from the road. 

We also stopped at Eilean Donan castle. We didn't go in, but we walked all around it and used their picnic tables to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We had such a good view for lunch!

We also walked down the bridge and got a look at the cute houses across the water. We could also see jelly fish in the water!

We then got back on the road and soon were on the Isle of Skye!

We passed Portree, where we were staying that night and headed on to the northeastern part of Skye. Our first stop was the Old Man of Storr. 

We found a place to park (barely) and went on the allegedly 1-mile hike up to see the Old Man of Storr. 

We walked for at least half an hour, straight up. It got cloudier and cloudier and we were totally drenched from the mist. When we got to the top (though we didn't really know where we were), we couldn't see anything. I think we ended up at the base of the Old Man of Storr (see below), but I might be imagining a silhouette of what I wanted to see. 

We then kept driving north to Kilt Rock, which is so named because the cliff looks like kilt folds. There's normally a waterfall, but it hadn't rained for about 6 weeks, so it had dried up.

The whole time we were there, there was piper busking there. It was pretty intensely Scottish.

We then drove north to see the Quiraing. This was perhaps the highest on my list. We saw it driving up the hill, and I was excited to see the whole landscape at the top. As soon as we got to the top, the clouds rolled in and we couldn't see anything. I was pretty upset. We did at least get this view on the drive down.

We then continued north to the top of the peninsula to Duntulum Castle. 

You can't actually walk up to it, because it's just ruins and I think it's dangerous. But the place it's in is pretty crazy - it's right on a cliff on the edge of the sea. You can just make out the outer Hebrides from this spot. 

Flora MacDonald's grave is just down the road from there. She is famous because she helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape to Skye after the Battle of Culloden. It's worth a short detour if you are on that part of the island. 

On the way back to Portree, we stopped at the Fairy Glen. This is one of my favorite spots. It was also really nice because there was barely anyone there. I loved this little forest - definitely haunted by faeries. 

We then walked around and decided we definitely did not want to go to the top of that tall chimney-shaped rock. 

And then we got closer and decided we definitely had to go to the top. 

We made it to the top and got a great view of the stones in the little glen.

We then headed back to Portree. We stopped off at our Airbnb and then walked into town for dinner. We planned to go to the pub for dinner, but it was completely full because the World Cup was on! We couldn't even wait for a table. We went down the street to a different restaurant (which turned out to be alright anyway). While we were waiting a pipe band came marching through the high street! This was not the last time we would see pipers on this trip - we saw them almost every day. 

After our much-needed dinner, we headed back to the house we were staying in and unwound after a stressful day of driving and a long day of sightseeing!