I think we all have our nemesis words, and I’m here to admit that Isle/Aisle is one of those word pairs for me. Is it the Aisle of Skye or the Isle of Skye? I know once I write the wrong one, but it always takes me a hot second to think about it. Today, we’re making our way up to the aIsle of Skye, renowned for its landscapes, Gaelic culture and language, and castles.
The Mercedes still has too many buttons, but we did have a plenty of time getting to get acquainted today on our five hour car trek. The lane assist proved to be pretty handy because I only consistently use like 1.5 of my mirrors (the left-hand mirror is dead to me due to being in a weird place, so Arielle has to beep if there are Danger Items there), and the automatic wipers were 95% wiping when I wanted them to wipe. That was a key feature, because it likes to rain hard for 5 minutes at random intervals, and then the road is spitty behind other cars.
We wound our way up from just north of Glasgow to catch Dunvegan Castle’s final open day of the season (recommended to us by my neighbors). Here is my cheater map that breaks down the various legs of our journey today (poorly annotated because I didn’t bring my iPad on purpose unlike my camera lens):
I’ve only driven off the road one whole time today, which is a marked improvement over Ireland, where it has similarly narrow roads and it took me a lot longer to get used to the fact that there is car on my left instead of just a window, and the mirrors are in all the wrong places.
When I fell off the road briefly, the car didn’t yell at me or try to warn me of my folly, though here are other scenarios when it does not hesitate to yell at me:
- If I am driving on a somewhat curvy road and only using one hand, it demands I put two hands on the wheel
- When I sometimes stray somewhat close to the middle line or, selectively, the left (not always, see above referenced incident)
- When I back up and nothing is around me but it shrieks anyway (presumably, just because it is lonely)
- One time Arielle unbuckled for 10 seconds to take off her jacket and it want ballistic
- If you tap the steering wheel three times to turn on the assistant, and then tap it again, it yells at you that it has not subscribed to the service, so it won’t talk to you
On our way up, we stopped in the Glencoe valley since there are lots of scenic pull-offs and things to see and hikes for those who are not rushed to get somewhere before 5pm.
We stopped at the Coffin Cairn just before Glencoe, which is a really neat igloo-shaped cairn near a creek. It was restored in the 1990s by volunteers.
And when we reached Glencoe, we naturally became entrapped by a cafe and shop called Crafts & Things in Glencoe. We got lunch to go and souvenirs, also to go.
The road up to Dunvegan after that wound through the highlands and was filled with rainbows at regular intervals, thanks to the intermittent five-minute rain bursts but otherwise generally sunny weather. The highlands are a 10/10 gorgeous drive, highly recommend our route to anyone going through Scotland. You wind your way up and through and around the mountains, through valleys, and there are plenty of places to hop out and take pictures.
As we grew nearer to Skye, the road signs started appearing in Gaelic. Arielle was getting sleepy thanks to one night of bad sleep, but then, we saw a sign that breathed life into both of us: Feral goats for 2 miles. Feral. Goats. FERAL GOATS???
Please let us see some goats. PLEASE. And after 2020, we’re both pretty feral. The goats are clearly our people.
We saw no goats, but chanted “Feral goats! Feral goats!” for at least two miles.
After crossing the bridge of Skye, we wiggled our way up to Dunvegan castle, in the northwestern tip of the island. It’s still pretty busy despite the remoteness, and we passed people at regular intervals. Arielle took a dope picture of some sheepies in the road.
The castle and gardens are the ancestral home of the MacLeods, and the castle was built up and added onto since the 1200s. It’s the oldest continuously occupied castle in Scotland. It also closes at 5pm on October 15th. We arrived at 3:30. We did it!
You can tour through the rooms, which are decorated with the clan’s historic belongings. Tops for me was the clan’s claymore in the basement, and the drinking horn.
Oh, and of course, it had a dungeon (Arielle has to listen to me refer to it as a “fungeon” the whole time), which was located right below the passages to the kitchen. They wouldn’t feed prisoners, but you had to smell food all day. Brutal.
The gardens were gorgeous, even so late in the season. All the plants were labeled! The hydrangeas still had blooms on them, and the water garden with its brook and waterfall must have been a great place to stroll through before the castle was a tourist destination.
We left before it got too late, since I certainly did not want to find our lodgings in the dark.
We have a cozy little cabin just outside Breakish. There are sheep outside and cats somewhere and I really hope I get to pet something tomorrow.
The fun part about traveling in shoulder season is that at the tail end of it, sometimes your dining choices become rather limited. Tonight, we nearly became hangry because two of the restaurants google and the internet told us were open were, in fact, not, so we had to peruse the Isle of Skye’s grocery store aisles to feed ourselves. At least we got a good chance to finish off our Indian leftovers I guess.
Tomorrow: we find Highland Cows maybe (?!?!) and do the Trotternish peninsula loop! We read that the cows nearby like carrots, so we’re going to the co-op for a bag to tempt them. Please enjoy the AM view from our lodgings.
