Day 5 - Oban to Portree, Isle of Skye - Monday, 2 September

Weather - Overcast, drizzly - 10º - 15ºc 

Accommodation - Burnbrae Apartment, Portree 

This was a day of travelling to arrive at the Isle of Skye for our week’s stay. Our highlights on the way were the Eilean Donan Castle and the little village of Plockton. And, of course, we were very excited to have arrived on the Isle of Skye.

It was a good day to drive as the weather was mostly drizzly and it was cosy in the car. We left Oban at 9.00am and arrived at Portree at 3.00pm. There was four hours of driving. The A82 road hugged the coastline most of the way and it felt we were very much in Scotland with the drizzle, low mists, high mountains, large fir trees, lochs and mountain streams. It was a very pretty, atmospheric drive. 

The one radio station we could tune into was BBC Gaelic so the Scottish music added to the experience.

After three hours of driving we arrived at the Eilean Donan Castle. It was good to see it after seeing many photos of it for so long. The place was swarming with tourists and we appreciated there were parking attendants to direct the cars in the small parking lot. Henk and I knew none of the castle’s history but before buying the entry tickets we had our photo taken and went straight to the packed cafe for lunch. 

The castle sits on a tiny island where three sea lochs meet. We had no idea that it lay in ruins for 200 years until it was bought by a Lt Colonel John MacRae-Gilstrap in 1911 and it underwent a massive restoration and opened again in 1932. Interestingly, it never had a bridge connecting the castle to the mainland until it was added in the late 1920’s. Prior to that all goods came by boat.

The inside of the castle is snug and the rooms are not big. It is very much a place for comfort rather than being ostentatious. No photos were allowed to be taken inside the castle. 

We weren’t due to arrive at our accommodation until 3.00pm and as we had spare time we took the opportunity to visit the very small village of Plockton.  It’s only 15kms from the Isle of Skye and sits beside Loch Carron and is surrounded by the hills of the Scottish Highlands. The six miles into Plockton was on a narrow single road with, thankfully, many passing places. As we arrived at the town we had to wait for a herd of cows to walk leisurely down the road.

When we turned into the narrow main street on the esplanade we could see why the small village is listed as one of the “must see” villages of Scotland. The view of the loch was stunning, even on this dull day. The tide was low and mustard-coloured kelp covered the shore. 

We took a different route out of Plockton to get to the two bridges which cross to the Isle of Skye. The distance between the mainland and the island is amazingly short at 2.4kms. From the bridge it took us forty minutes to reach Portree mostly following the shoreline and passing through many small coastal villages. 

We were warmly greeted by our host, Shona who has stocked the fridge and cupboards for the week with a wonderful selection of local products for our breakfasts and other food for our lunches when we go walking. We didn’t expect it. I particularly liked the bottle of wine!

After the long drive we rested before setting out to see the town and find a location for dinner at five thirty. It is only a ten minute walk from our accommodation to the harbour town so we are pleased with our choice of location. We passed many tourists and walkers in the town’s streets as we headed straight to the harbour to see the wonderful, brightly coloured buildings.

Shona told us that most eating places in town don’t take bookings and people eat early. As we were already on the harbour we chose to eat at the Rosedale Hotel Restaurant. It overlooked the harbour and from our table we had a terrific view.

We both chose local seafood for our dinner which was at six o’clock. There were quite a few in the restaurant so it looks like early dinners for us this week.

We have no firm plans for the week yet as it will depend on the weather. It looks like tomorrow might be a day for doing indoor things but the rest of the week should be ok to do some walking. 

And finally…