The Isle of Skye

Trip Start Feb 15, 2008
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Trip End May 31, 2008


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Saturday, April 5, 2008

On this day we toured the Isle of Skye and this place is impressive. An extremely exposed environment of jagged cliff faces, windswept, treeless hills and snow capped mountains. Our first stop was the river Sligeachan where, legend has it, a great warrior woman lived and trained other women in the arts of beating and killing, sounds kind of like xenia. There was this fantastic fable that I'm not going to try and repeat, though from this came a tradition of dunking your head in the river when passing through the location. Apparently doing this will give you eternal beauty; well it probably won't make you any uglier. Everyone in our group gave it a try and it was a little cold though invigorating.
Portree is a pretty little seaside town and the largest town on the island. The residents, shopkeepers and local council appear to have worked hard to bring about a certain charm, no doubt with the intention of attracting tourists. Taking a stroll through the town's streets and down to the jetty is a lovely way to pass an hour or so.
The island was previously used to mine diatomite which comes from compressed shells and is used in the production of dynamite among other purposes. The shell matter is mined further inland on the island, usually from locations around the lochs then carried over to the coast and down to a drying facility. We took a short hike down to see the ruins of one of these old drying facilities.
Our ascent to the lunch location was spectacular and as it turns out our Scotsman was a bit of an old Star Wars enthusiast. River Sligeachan - river of eternal youth.
River Sligeachan - river of eternal youth.
 Our short drive up the hill was accompanied by the theme music from these great works of cinema history. The location of our lunch and hike was Quirang which is an awesome location and was certainly one of the highlights of the trip.
Scots living in these locations generally lived in stone houses with thatched roofs. The problem with the design of these homes was the building's lack of windows and centrally located open fireplace with no chimney. With nowhere to escape much of the smoke filled the lounges of the house's inhabitants giving them a life expectancy of only around 45 years. Then in addition to the insides of these people's lounges, the inside walls of the houses also became black and hence the name Black Houses were given to these dwellings. We had a short stop at an original preserved Black House to gain a better idea of how these people once lived.
On our return to Kyleakin we stopped at a mysterious location called the Fairy Glen at Balnanoch. This location has many weird and wonderful stories associated with it. Be thee believeth in such superstitions or not, this is a place of peace, tranquillity and beauty. The location's central feature is the fairy castle, a prominent towering rock formation which can easily be climbed offering stunning views of the surrounding area.
We then returned to Skye Backpackers at Kalaquen for the night.
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