The Holiday
Posted By Judith on 9th March 2020
And so the Isle of Skye adventure began. We travelled up over 2 days with tea in Carlisle and an overnight stay in Glasgow, home of the red Tardis.
The weather was pretty awful, in fact a Range Rover was being winched from Loch Lomond as we drove passed and further along at Glencoe parts of the mountain were being washed across the road with the heavy rain. Small waterfalls were appearing at every turn pouring water and debris across the road.
We arrived safely at the house around 7pm,
too dark to see it or it’s stunning location,
and magnificent views.
It was just as spectacular on the inside.
We even had our own beach. Sadly not the sandy kind, but a pebble and seaweed one where it would have been quite easy to slip and turn an ankle, particularly when searching for crabs by torchlight whilst hanging on to a 4-year-old, (not quite sure who was holding who up!) but excellent for beachcombing and shell collecting.
Our beach of choice was actually a few miles away just north of Dunvegan. The Coral Beach was spectacular and beautiful,
the view from the top of the cliffs was amazing,
and we found some of these little chaps in the rock pools. Beadlet anemones.
We even had a nice day for it, as we had when we’d visited Portree the previous afternoon.
But my absolute favourite place of all was the lighthouse at Neist Point, not only because of the rugged beauty of it’s surroundings but also because of the epic walk to get to it.
Perhaps I should mention here that in the space of our week we experienced every kind of weather possible. Hail, sleet, snow, rain and brilliant sunshine, whipping through in quick succession on an ever-present Force 9 gale, and our visit to Neist Point was no exception.
Much too windy for the children who were quite happy to stay in the van with their Dad, watching DVDs.
The walk is strenuous in good weather, but the day we went the wind was ferocious making the waterfalls flow upwards
but the scenery was exceptional,
and the changing weather conditions made for some dramatic photos, all taken by my niece, I was too busy trying not to get blown out to sea!
Here I am during a brief lull.
The lighthouse revealed itself gradually
and was well worth the wait.
The walk down had been tricky due to the strong wind making our eyes stream, the walk back up got the heart pounding and the muscles in our legs aching, all trimmed up by a hail storm which, as it approached from the sea, sounded like thunder.
On reaching relative safety at the top by the car park, all I could think was, ‘if I have a heart attack and die here, it will have been worth it’!
And it would have too.
I wouldn’t have missed any of it for the world.
