Easter on Skye

For Easter we decided to venture all the way to the Scottish Highlands. With 4 or 5 off days we had the chance to get all the way up there, and we thought the weather would be a little bit milder in April. The Highlands are supposed to be beautiful in summer but neither of us thought we'd sacrifice a European trip for it (sorry Scotland!), so it was now or never.

It turned out to be a great decision. On the Thursday night after work, Ollie and I took a 5 hour train trip north to Glasgow. We stayed there overnight before picking up our hire car for the weekend the next day.

On Good Friday, day 1 of the road trip, we headed to Fort William (home of the Ben Nevis mountain) driving past Loch Lomond and stopping off on the way to see Glenfinnan Viaduct (famous for featuring in Harry Potter taking the children by train). The scenery along the way was pretty and we had one or two photo pit stops at a lookout and waterfall. Fort William itself wasn't special - just a street lined with outdoor shops and people preparing to or returning from their climb. We were booked on the 4pm ferry from Mallaig to Armdale on the Isle of Skye. It took us about 40 mins to cross on the ferry. We then drove along the southern shore of Skye and around back onto the mainland over the Skye bridge to a town called Dornie where we were staying in a B&B for the evening (a roundabout the way to go, but the most scenic route).

Waterfall pit stop

Glenfinnan Viaduct

Just some passing scenery

Want to live here?

Enroute to Glencoe, an amazing valley of mountains to drive through

At Glenfinnian

Lovely coastline

This, believe it or not, is a golf club house by the sea

Rainbows!

We arrived late afternoon which gave us long enough to walk from our accomm to Eilean Donan Castle and then have a beer in the only pub in town. We had dinner at a cute restaurant called the Waterside which was actually on both the water (nb. fresh fish) and a train platform of Kyle of Lochalsh. A train even pulled in while we sat there. I had seafood chowder for entree, sea bass for main course and whisky trifle for dessert.

Eilean Donan castle

Eilean Donan castle

Dornie, a one pub town

On Saturday we drove back to the Isle of Skye which was going to be our base for the next couple of nights. We had a nice breakfast at the B&B which overlooks the castle and then hit the road. First stop was the village of Plockton (the TV show Hamish MacBeth was filmed here). I really liked this village. It was the prettiest of seaside villages we had seen so far and was what I was expecting to see. With the exception of all the palm trees! 

Passing scenery

Plockton

Plockton

Boats in Plockton harbour

Action shot!

The tropics of the Scottish Highlands!

This is for you Mum. Rubber duckies in a garden pond!

A backdrop of snowy mountains

Then it was on to Talisker Distillery. I felt we should have some whisky while in Scotland so we did the distillery tour.  I knew it from my days working on the Diageo account so was keen to see it's home. My tastebuds still don't really appreciate whisky - I still prefer gin. The good news is that Scotland has a lot of gin distilleries. We didn't visit any, but we had the chance to try quite a few different ones at the various bars and restaurants we stopped in at.

We had a late lunch at the Oyster Shed just behind the distillery - we ate fresh mussels and chips with a pretty impressive view.  We made it up to Dunvegan Castle & Gardens in the late afternoon with an hour to spare before closing to explore the grounds. We checked into our B&B and had dinner at the Old School Restaurant. We tried a Harris Isle gin as an apertif (which we since bought a bottle of!), and for dinner I had cod cheek, black pudding and asparagus entree which was really good. That was followed by steak and a chocolate fondant.

Fresh oysters

Lunch time!

The Black Cuillan mountain range in the distance

Cute lambs everywhere!

Easter Sunday was our day for getting use out of our hiking boots which we'd been lugging around with us. We had breakfast at the B&B and drove to the Old Man of Storr. It was a relatively easy walk (anything is easy now compared to our volcano hike in Costa Rica!) up the mountain and had great views from the top. It was good to be stretching our legs after a lot of time in the car. We were lucky to find a restaurant open and with a spot for two, and had fresh mussels for lunch again. We spent the afternoon driving around the coastline for some great views and then back down to Coral Beach near Dunvegan. We walked along the very windy beach that was shelly and pretty.  I could imagine in summer the water would be turquoise blue. 

The drive to dinner at the Stein Inn in Waternish was lovely - we saw the sun setting against the ocean and this small harbour town (where there were more palm trees!). I had fish & chips and ice cream for dinner.

A great view

The Old Man of Storr

A Highland Cooo!

Coral Beach

Coral Beach

Stein Inn

On Easter Monday we had a long drive ahead of us back to Glasgow. The scenery was brilliant but what should have taken 5 hours took 7.5 hours thanks to a lot off traffic on single track roads and a few accidents. We stopped off at a cafe for lunch on the way and eventually made it back to Glasgow in the early evening. 

Some more impressive scenery!

We had a fun night checking out as much of Glasgow as we could in a short space of time. We had a drink at the 13th Note in Merchant City, drinks at Kelvin Grove Hotel in Finnieston, and then dinner at the Ubiquitous Chip in the West End.

Tuesday was another travel day but this time on the train back to London. We had time for a great brunch at Wilson Street Pantry before heading back.

It was a great 5 days - fresh air, impressive scenery, great seafood and black pudding, a few G&Ts.