Peter served breakfast while Marina worked in the kitchen. There was a nice assortment of jams and the blackcurrant was Petros’ favourite flavour. We enjoyed our cooked breakfast, and then it was time to set off on our next adventure. It was a slightly overcast morning with low cloud cover and a fine mist. We set out for Waternish, enroute to the Shilasdair Shop, a store which sells naturally-dyed yarn, designer garments and knit kits and craft accessories. The shop is located in Lower Halistra. We drove along the A850, went over the Bay River and north along Loch Bay and passed a number of pretty villages before we got to Halistra. The road was dotted with various kinds of sheep – we passed some with black face and leg markings and some that were all black. We had to take a small road to get to Shilasdair, but we did find it.
The Shilasdair Shop, 10 Carnach,
Waternish, Isle of Skye, IV55 8GL, 44 01470 592297; 10 am to 6 pm; The view from Shilasdair was beautiful. There are 3 islands off the coast, the
smallest one, Mingay, Sgeir nam Biast
and the largest one, Isay Island.
Surprisingly, unlike the many buildings that we passed, the store was
not white. It was built with red and
brown stone blocks. We spent quite a lot
of time in the store, touching the various yarns, admiring the many knitted
garments which were all way too big for us, and visiting the Dyehouse
Exhibition to get some insight into natural dyeing, the variety of dyestuffs
and the equipment used. Irene bought a
nice selection of yarn, including some local yarns, before we continued on our
way.
We drove further along the coast,
admiring the scenery and made a short stop when the road ended at a rocky
beach. It was pretty windy and cold by
the water. We then went back the same
way that we had come and stopped at Skyeskyns, Scotland’s only traditional
tannery. Irene and I visited the tannery
and a very nice guy, Dave, showed us around and explained the tanning process
to us. After that, he took us up to the
showroom, where we joined Florine and Petros.
We looked at the various sheepskins and rugs and Florine and Petros
bought a rug and a reindeer skin and made arrangements for them to be mailed
home. I bought a Jacob hat for
Chris. From Skyeskyns, we drove south to
the Stein Inn, where we had lunch. The Stein Inn is an eighteenth-century inn
with a traditional highland bar offering over 99 malt whiskies and serving
freshly prepared meals from local produce, meats and seafood. We had oysters on the half shell, smoked
salmon and a crab sandwich. After lunch,
we walked along the shore for a bit but it was too windy and cold for us to
walk for too long.
Back into the car and on towards
Dunvegan. We decided to skip the castle and head south towards Elgol. We drove through
Sligachan and made a stop in Broadford, where I was able to buy a
thimble from Craft Encounters, which also housed a post office with very helpful
staff. From there, we drove to Duncan
House, the workshop of Garth Duncan, master goldsmith, design jeweller and
knife maker. Duncan House is located in the old Strathaird Steading overlooking
Loch Slapin. There was a young couple in
the shop, choosing a design for their engagement and wedding rings. We looked at the jewellery and knives before
leaving. We drove along a single track
road with passing spots until we got to Elgol. Elgol is a sparsely populated
crofting and fishing village along the final mile of the road from
Broadford. It is located on the shores
of Loch Scavaig towards the end of the Strathaird peninsula. Bella Jane and Misty Isle Boat Trips are two
private companies that offer tours to Loch Coruisk in the heart of the Cuillins. The boat tours visit the common seal colony
at Loch na Cuilce and the nearly abandoned shark fishing station on the island
of Soay. On the way back from Elgol, we
stopped at Mary’s Thatched Cottages, a group of four luxurious self-catering
cottages combining the charm of “black house” dwelling with modern comforts (or
so their advertising claims).
From Elgol, we drove to Satran and then
south to Bualintur. We could have taken the road to Talisker at that point but
decided not to. The road we took followed
the River Gleann for a while. We stopped
at Glen Brittle with the thought of perhaps walking over to the Fairy Pools but
a long walk in the wind and cold did not hold much appeal. We admired the scenery with its cloud covered
mountain tops from a distance in the comfort of our rental car.
We drove back up north to Glenview
Restaurant in Culnaknock, where we were to have dinner in celebration of
Florine’s birthday. We passed The Storr,
a rocky hill with a steep rocky eastern face overlookin the Sound of Raasay.
The Storr is a prime example of the Trotternish landslip, the longest of its
kind in Great Britain. The area in front
of the cliffs of the Storr is known as the Sanctuary, and it has a number of
weirdly shaped rock pinnacles, the remnants of ancient landslips. The most famous of these, and by far the
largest and most apparent when approaching from the south (which we were), is
known as the Old Man of Storr (Bod an Stoir, literally ‘the Penis of Storr’). On a clear day, it would have been a great
hike with great views. As we drove along
the A856, we could see the Old Man of Storr on our left and Bearreraig Bay on
the right. Across the bay, we could see
the Isle of Raasay.
We had made dinner reservations for
8:00 pm at the Glenview. We went to see
if they could accommodate us earlier, but not a chance. They suggested that we went for a drive to
Staffin to while away the time. Staffin
calls itself the dinosaur stamping ground of Scotland. Dinosaur remains have
been found in the Jurassic rocks on the coast.
The footprint of an ornithopod was discovered at Brothers’ Point in
1982. The world’s smallest dianosau
footprint was also discovered locally in 2004.
We saw Kilt Rock, which is named after the tartan-like folds in the 105m
(344 ft) cliffs. The Kilt Rock waterfall
is also nearby though the angle from the fenced viewpoint does not give a
really good look at the waterfall as it tumbles from the nearby loch over the
precipitous cliff edge in dramatic fashion. We went for a walk on the pier at
Staffin Bay, hoping that we could get a glimpse of an otter in the water.
We drove back to Glenview and had
drinks (Campari and soda for Irene and me, gin and tonic for Florine and a beer
for Petros) while we waited for our table.
We waited in the front room, where Irene contributed to a piece of
knitting in a basket. We were told that
all the strips were eventually sewn together into blankets.
We started our dinner with a dozen Isle
of Skye oysters. For our starters, we
picked both the dishes on offer, Skye shellfish risotto with herb salad and
preserved lemons and the warm salad of wild highland game with quinoa, Glendale
leaves and thyme oil. Florine had the
roasted hake fillet with fennel and mustard butter, sautéed potatoes and spring
greens while the rest of us opted for the Skye Soay mutton with spiced red wine
sauce, roasted garlic mashed potates and spring greens. Dessert was Perthshire strawberry and vanilla
cream meringue and a chocolate & mint tart with fresh mint & chocolate
chip ice cream. Everything was really
delicious. We had a bottle of red wine,
Ribas, Negre 2009; vid de la terra Mallorca.
This was recommended by our sommelier, and it was a great bottle of
wine, given that Mallorca wines were not even part of our consciousness. It was a very harmonious blend of Montenegro,
cabernet sauvignon, syrah and merlot grapes.
After our dinner, I drove
back to Cruinn Bheinn. It was pretty
late by the time we got back so we went straight to our rooms, after agreeing
to have an early breakfast in the morning.
Where we stayed: Cruinn Bheinn
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