2018 Scotland - The Skye is Falling (in buckets)

The morning was drizzly and windy, ideal for getting the tyre repaired. (It was also the nicest weather of the day, but we didn't know that yet.) Fortunately, as our rental car has no spare, it still wasn't flat so we were able to carefully drive the few miles into Portree to the garage recommended by Don. We learned that (1) our Leon had a common tyre size and (2) this happens all the time in Skye. In fact, they had received a shipment of 6 similarly sized tires 5 days ago and we were lucky they still had one left. Rain filled potholes are a chronic risk factor.

It took only an hour to move up the queue and get the replacement installed, so we headed to the Isle of Skye Bake Shop across the street to pass the time. It offer wonderful baked goods and fresh tea blends, with a craft store above featuring local artists. We bought some gigantic cheese and pesto rolls to eat later for lunch and liked them so much we'll probably stop there again tomorrow morning.

The owner of the craft shop had a new puppy she'd acquired three days earlier from a shelter. The puppy was born deaf and had flunked out of sheep herding training because, of course, he could not hear the verbal commands. Now he's being trained with sign language commands. Quite amazing; he knew hand signals to sleep, be quiet, sit, lay down, etc.

Back in the car, we decided to continue with our plan to drive the perimeter of the Trotternish peninsula. There were a couple of highly rated walks we'd hoped to do, but visibility was poor with the tops of the mountains fogged in. And there were cautions about doing these particular walks in rain or heavy winds. We decided to focus on stops with easy access along the coast instead.

Lealt

It was so windy here that it was difficult to stand still and take a photo. I had a fleece under my raincoat, a hat over my hood and was still cold. As I was climbing up the steps after taking the third photo below, a guy heading down reminded me, this is summer.

Remnants of diatomite works at Lealt.

Kilt rock

There were enormous flooded potholes in the short road to the car park. We drove very slowly and carefully.

Kilt rock, so named because the pleated reddish cliffs are evocative of the Scottish national dress. Kind of like those weird formations in caves that are evocative of a fried egg.

The waterfall was a bonus.

Duntulm and Tulm Island

This is another ruined castle that once belonged to the MacLeod clan and then was taken over by the MacDonalds. It was raining harder and very windy. Parked the car, dashed across a farmhouse yard for a single quick photo and ran back, soaked, to the car.

Castle on the left, Tulm Island on the right.

Nearby was the unfortunate Hill of Rolling which served as a sort of grand jury during old timey clan days. A person suspected of an evil deed was sealed into a barrel and rolled down the steep hillside. If unarmed, he was set free. If injured, the accused was taken to another hill where the clan chief passed judgment. If a compelling argument swayed the chief, the unfortunate might be released. Otherwise, it was off the third hill, the Hill of Hanging.

We stopped at the Skye Museum of Island Life, an open air museum showing the home, tools and trades of the crofters, or tenant farmers, of Skye. We thought it might be a bit cheesy, but perhaps we could dry out and warm up. It was actually quite interesting, depicting the simple and demanding lives of these subsidence communities. It didn't help us to get warm, though, as the exhibits were spread between a half dozen unheated former crofter homes and we had to run through the rain between them.

A surprisingly upscale bus shelter outside the remote museum.

Lydia spotted a small sign denoting a souterrain as we headed back towards Portree, so we turned around to investigate. This iron age structure was discovered in 2000 when a lintel slab collapsed after heavy rain. Volunteers helped excavate the structure and it's now open to the public. 

Not for the claustrophobic, this underground tunnel is about 65 feet long, 4.5 feet high and about 2.5 feet wide. It's speculated that it was used for storage. We looked inside the tunnel and, seeing the standing muddy water, decided to pass on venturing further. (Whew! Dodged that bullet. I'm sure it was super infested with spiders.)

We spotted the two ancient Kensaleyre standing stones on Loch Eyre south of Uig. Their origin and age are unknown, but are suspected to be from the Bronze Age or earlier. There is no signage or parking nearby, and the weather was dismal. We kept on driving.

We were treated to brief, amazing light show over the coast when a patch of sun broke through the low cloud cover and illuminated a big patch of water. 

And then to Portree to visit the Skye Batik store, a grocery to grab some prepared salads for dinner, and back to our B&B. Fingers crossed for clearer Skyes tomorrow.