Over the sea to Skye

Recently my beloved took me to Skye for a night. Skye is an island off the west coast of Scotland and is the biggest of the Inner Hebrides, being 50 miles long. It's connected to the mainland by a bridge whereas in the past people would have used a ferry to get to the island.

On the way to Skye we had a few stops to admire the stunning Highland scenery - beautiful rivers, gorgeous man, and magnificent mountains.

Gorgeous Man

We stopped at the Clunie Inn on the way to Skye for refreshments for the three of us - Bramble had a very scenic view (above) whilst she ate her lunch.

Not long before you get to the bridge to Skye is the very famous Eilean Donan Castle - it's featured in quite a few films over the years, such as Highlander, James Bond - The World is not enough, and The Master of Ballantree which starred Errol Flynn (another Tasmanian).

We went over the bridge to Skye and our first stop was Broadford, which is one of the bigger towns on the island. There is a lovely collection of antique and second hand shops painted lovely colours and of course I found the black cat that was residing there. His name is Genie because he turned up out of nowhere just before Halloween last year, and decided to stay. He's a real sweetie and loves a fuss.

As you can see from the photo below it's quite eclectic in colours and things - I love the box with the lets attached being used as a table.

The blue building to the left is the second hand book shop, and the building to the right is the antique shop. The people on the left are making a fuss of Genie - see, everyone loves a chat with a cat.

This is a fabulous stone and antique garden feature with the names of the different book genres included in it.

Another shot of the very handsome Genie before we move on.

We then drove on to Portree which is the capital of Skye. One place we really wanted to visit was the Isle of Skye Bakery as we'd bought some of their products from a market we'd been to and they were scrummy, so it was a perfect chance to stock up. We ended up having lunch there and I had the fantastic cheese board.

In Skye we went past this plaque on a building - Mary Macpherson was a famous poet from Skye who did lots of her writing in Gaelic.

Portree harbour is really pretty with the multicoloured houses which a lot of the West Coast of Scotland is famous for, especially Tobermory on the Isle of Mull which was used as Balamory in the childrens show.

We then found our home for the night which was the Uig Hotel, overlooking Uig Harbour where ferries to the Outer Hebrides leave from. This was the view from the front of our hotel. It's a lovely dog friendly hotel and we would definitely recommend it - great food and friendly staff.

Once we'd checked in we went for a drive around the local area and found ourselves a great fixer upper - what do you think, won't need too much repair work.

Lots of lovely sheep to look at.

Beautifully restored black houses - so called because they don't have very many windows and used to be filled with quite a lot of smoke.

Another fixer upper for us - this one's quite grand and has some great windows.

We then drove down to a little bay that is obviously used to launch local fishing boats and there were even a couple of chairs there for people to sit on.

I think this boat is just a feature now or another place for people to sit - the hole in the side is quite worrying.

Shots of the bay where Ken found lots of belemnites which are the back end of fossilised squid.

Bramble and my beloved - Bramble loved having a run around the beach and would have gone in swimming if we hadn't stopped her.

On our way back to the hotel we found Kilvaxter Souterrain which is a prehistoric underground structure that historians think was used for storage as it would have kept food cool. The entrance is very low and there was no way I would fit in there.

Ken had a go at getting in the tunnel, but it turned out to be a bit muddy and as we didn't have a torch it was also a bit dark. Look at that cute little behind, and yes, the temptation was too great.

Don't worry, I didn't really kick him, I was just really tempted - it was a bit like the Father Ted episode with Bishop Brennan being kicked up the ass.

Here's a better view of Uig harbour - we had been here before, when we got the ferry to Harris many years ago.

We had dinner at the hotel and I wanted to share with you the list of whiskeys for sale - see the left hand column and the majority of the middle one which are all whiskeys.

Then before we went to bed we had a nightcap in the bar where there were some very cute dogs relaxing with their owners.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and have a wonderful week.

Pamela & Ken
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P.S: Final photo is one of the Christmas trees in Inverness.