Wednesday 24 August: Skye

It was a wild night in Skye, with gale-force winds and driving rain. We hoped that we would get some decent weather for a change, but the winds were still blowing strongly when we set out this morning.

Our route took us north from Staffin, to the ruins of Duntulum castle, around to Uig, Dunvegan, down to Sligachan, up to Portree and finally back to Staffin.

Duntulum was the stronghold of the MacDonald clan, until a nurse dropped the chief's baby from a window, thus bringing a curse on the house. There's not a lot left of it now, but it is a spectacular location, located on a high promontory. The wind at this place was amazing - we had to be very careful not to be blown over the cliff. It's probably the strongest wind I have ever experienced.

Uig is a pretty little port town, where you can get a ferry to the outlying islands. We had a cup of coffee there, took some pictures and moved on to Dunvegan. This is a nondescript sort of place, but has a castle open to the public. We looked at the admission prices and moved on.

Sligachan is just a crossroads and an overpriced hotel. There is a nice little river there, and a couple of stone arch bridges. The sun was making one of its brief and infrequent appearances, so we went down to the river to take some photos. Within a couple of minutes an incredible hail-storm blew up. We dashed back to the car, and spent the next little while drying ourselves and the cameras.

Portree is the main town on Skye. We had another coffee, bought some supplies and got caught in the rain again.

On the way back we got some pictures of a strange rock formation called "the Old man of Storr", and the Kilt Rock, where a little river flows straight over a high cliff into the sea below. Quite spectacular, but you would really need to be in a boat to get a good picture.

All-in-all it was a pretty good day. Now I have to find an internet cafe so I can upload the last week's diaries.