Goodbye Skye

Written May 17th

Goodbye Skye! I will miss you. Here’s what I did on my last couple days (Thursday and Friday).

Thursday after breakfast I drove to the Uig Pottery, Idrigal point (which overlooks Uig bay) and then a stop at the Museum of Island Life. Idrigal point below:

The museum was cool! You can tour original Crofters land and homes (farmers) and see how the people of Skye lived in the late 1800s into the early 1900s. Everything was alarmingly intact and well preserved and there were little creepy mannequins that were supposed to resemble the people who lived there. If you know me you may or may not know I have a slight fear of mannequins… put me in a department store at night and it’s my own version of Five Nights at Freddy’s. Besides the weird mannequins there was a good amount of island history!

Then I drove to Rubha Hunish - a path on the cliff leading to a Bothy (a free place to stay, enclosure) on the northern-most point of Skye. It was another beautiful day! I spent a couple hours wandering around and I saw a little seal down below! It’s a whale watching spot but I didn’t see any. I did see cows though!

Then I kind of hit a wall, it’s been a lot of traveling and walking over the last couple of weeks and I think it’s catching up to me. Also sleeping in a new place nearly every night and living out of a suitcase, also being by myself and having to rely on myself too for everything and every choice I make. But as my friend Camden said, I have to push through the wall, like Miley Cyrus herself said, it’s the climb. And she came in like a wrecking ball. I still have more to go and yet another ~50 mile trail next week, but so far this trip I’ve recorded about 79.5 miles worth of hikes. I also just hit 150 miles of hikes recorded this year (all on AllTrails if you wanna follow me there). The app says that’s 34 hours and 38 minutes of outdoor hiking time this month so far which sounds insane to me 🤪

After dinner I got invited to play guitar with  my bed and breakfast hosts in their little band. They were practicing in the kitchen and welcomed me to join so I picked up a guitar and played some songs with them! I’m the one in the black hat. Jk in the black shirt of course.

Today, Friday, was my last day on Skye so I wanted to hit everything possible. I told my hosts what I wanted to do and they said I couldn’t do it, that it would be way too much, but I had to try, and I actually did cross everything off my list 😎

• I drove to Sligachan Old Bridge, which goes over a river right in front of the Red and Black Cuillin. It was awesome, I really wanted to see the Cuillin (pronounced Coolin’) because I had heard so much about them. They are a range of jagged Rocky Mountains so high that their peaks were the only things above the ice shelf that covered the entire island during the ice age. Since the ice didn’t cover them, their peaks remained razor sharp, compared to the surrounding mountains which were smothed over by the ice over time - like the MacLeod’s Tables - flat topped tall hills (pic below).
  

The Cullin formed from the remains of magma chambers which fed volcanic eruptions. These are apparently the hardest mountains to climb in the entire UK because they are so sharp, steep and rugged.

I enjoyed finding this on the map of the area:

• I drove over to the Fairy Pools nearby. These were even closer to the other side of the Cuillin and were awesome. A bit touristy but actually worth it. You walk along a path towards the mountain inside a Glen next to a very long cascading waterfall/ river. The water is presumably falling from the mountain and creates these magical calm pools of water contrasted with gushing springs for about 2 miles out and 2 miles back. People and dogs were swimming in the pools, I was bummed I didn’t bring my swimsuit!

Doesn’t it look like fairies would like it there?

• Then I drove an hour on a single lane road to Neist Point. This was super out of the way but I really wanted to see it because it’s one of the most iconic views on the entire island. Also the drive was enjoyable because the scenery is amazing the entire time! It’s a little bit rough with the tight roads but everyone gives way and there are passing lanes. I walked to the point and explored the lighthouse there as well as these rock piles people made. I added a couple rock piles to the collection.

^ this isn’t even the point, it’s just the view from the car park. Typical Skye. It’s also a huge cliff, it looks much smaller than it is in person. It’s just far away.

Okay this is the point: I walked up that and it’s also way bigger than this photo makes it look. Check out the little people on the path for size. The lighthouse is behind this even further.

^rugged Basalt cliffs off the point that I’m sure mermaids frequent

Below, the lighthouse on the point (no longer used)

^Rock piles by the lighthouse

• Then I drove to Coral Beach. Also out of the way but I really wanted to go there. I didn’t know much about it, just that it was a pretty beach, and I hoped to see some coral. But actually, it was amazing! A short and easy mile walk took me to a white sand beach with light blue water - or so I thought.

When I got to the beach and stepped on the “sand” I was delighted to find that the sand wasn’t sand at all, it was little pieces of white coral! It’s actually corraline, a type of hard seaweed that is shaped by waves and bleached by the sun. The whole beach was a mixture of the corraline and seashells. It felt like a dream! This island has so many different terrains, its mind boggling! I think this was my fave stop of the day. The coralline “sand” made me feel like a kid again and it also felt very tropical.

• Then it was already 7pm so I drove 45 mins back to the B&B and had dinner.

This island is so cool I’m sad to leave tomorrow. We had amazing weather the last few days, it was a real gift. I can’t imagine actually living here full time though (it’s a little too remote for me) but a full week would be amazing. I’d love to come back and do the other islands around here and the outer Hebrides. I’m convinced Skye is a mini version of the Scotland mainland. It’s not even difficult to get to!