As I am unable to write every day, I am post-dating this post for Monday, September 3, 2007. Pictures to follow...
At breakfast we noticed a common theme on most Scottish breakfast menus: kippers and smoked fishes--Haddock and Salmon to be exact. When you are near the sea, prepare for seafood to be a main staple of all meals. So it is with breakfast. Kippers-- for those of you unfamiliar as of yet--are fish. I've already eatien so much seafood, what's a few more salmon breakfasts? Okay, so breakfast brought with it talk of last night and the second great conversation we had with the Harley-riding Dutch couple. They own a business in Belgium, which led us to spend lots of time absorbed in exchanging disgruntled gab about taxes. More than this topic, though, we talked about motorcycles (again) and discussed the mertis of touring Skye on a Harley on a day such as yesterday. Really, if you are a motorcyclist, this is a truly lovely place to tour. The roads are (generally) good, but bad weather can creep up suddenly and change the quality of the drive. So be well prepared. Today we were going to go out sailing in the Toravaig House owners new sailing vessel. Only one problem: the pump was broke. Which was a real shame, because today was gloriously sunny and would have been absolutely smashing enjoyed from the sea. But so it was not meant to be. Pumps take days to fix when you live on an island and have to order the part from the mainland and wait for it to arrive. And we can't know for sure if the pump excuse is really true, but we were not going sailing, even if it was not true.
So we decided to follow plan B and make our way south on the Sleat peninsular to Armadale castle. We arrived at Armadale at opening and made our way on to the grounds before anyone else had arrived. It's an absolute "must stop" if you are visiting Skye, because this place is gorgeous and has the best museum around. Bar none.
There are the ruins of the old Armadale Castle, home of--but who else?--the MacDonald chiefs. A beautiful shell of a speciman, we walked around the castle, and took in the views out over the sea towards the highlands (Mallaig to be exact). Then we walked around the best castle garden grounds we've seen. Well kept and well planted, the grounds are a marvelous collection of trees and plants from all over the world--aoo fo wich seem to like the weather here.
Beyond this is the Clan MacDonald Center--an homage to Clan MacDonald throughout the world. The most beautifully exhibited little museum I've EVER seen, Dave and I had a great time taking in the full exhibit and learning all about the clan MacDonald and Scottish history, in general. Like the interesting tidbit about one of Napoleon's officers being called the French MacDonald--having been a second generation Frenchman of Scot heritage. Who'd have thought? And I wasn't very "up" on my Jacobite history, and the exhibition filled me in. I learned about the clan changes that came about 200 years ago from the feudal system to the crofting, or farming, system. The lands worked by clansmen for their chiefs were becoming too crowded, so the chiefs divided up land an gave families their own land to work. Hence the birth of crofting. It was the beginning of the breakdown of the clan system becuase clansmen had more freedom and were more independant from one another. They no longer relied on the chief and each other for basic needs. Anyway, we also learned that the name MacDonald came from the grandson of the famous celtic hero Somerled. Somerled's grandson's name was Donald, and "mac" means "son of". There was a large immigraiton of MacDonalds to North Carolina in the mid 1700s. From what I can glean from the exhibition, taxes were becoming more oppressive and th epopulation too large, so people left in droves and headed for a new, uncertain life in America (though some left for Canada and others for Australia). The Argyl Colony was established in North Carolina and even the famed Jacobean heroine Flora MacDonald (of Bonnie Prince Charlie fame) made her way from Skye and ended up in North Carolina. She and her husband cultivated a plantation there until their loyalities to the British crown led North Carolina authorities to "reposess" , as it were, the plantation sending them, eventually, back to Scotland were she later died. Dave and I remember having seen a painting by an 18th or 19th Century artist done of a Cherokee Indian Chief in Scottish clan garb. While in this museum we came across lineage trees, one of which showed that a MacDonald clan chief had married a Cheroke princess. I had spent years wondering about that particular painting and now the mystery was solved with a conclusion more interesting than I could have imagined! So we left Armadale with heads full of newly found knowledge and headed out toward the much anticipated Talisker distillery.
Talisker is Skye's only distillery. in fact, most of Scotland's distilleries are not on islands (excepting Islay which has many of the most peaty versions of whiskey) but on the mainland. David had been waiting to visit here for months. Talisker lies on Loch Harport in the Minginish peninsular area of Skye. It was traditionally known for its "sweet water" which came forth from a plethora of underground springs. Many people historically noted the "curative" ( I use this word loosely) powers of the water. But this idea stuck and gave the future whiskey--which used the water in its making--its name "water of life" or aqua vitae, in Latin. In all whiskey production the most important ingredient is the quality of the spring water used. The other ingredients used in the creation of a whiskey are barley and yeast, though (in my opinion) peat is the ingredient which really makes a whiskey. Peat is a coal like piece of earth dug out of the ground about 1 foot down. It has a very smokey scent, and it is this peat which is smoked to give whiskey its smokey, earthy flavor. Talisker is one of the peaty whiskey and one of my favorites. I'm not much for whiskey, in general, but I love Talsiker because it's made well and tastes fabulous with a splash of spring water added in. If you've never had it, try it. It's like drinking in the land. It's unlike anything you'll ever drink. So we lined up for the tour. It was another "not to be missed" stop on Skye and being that we had never been to a distillery before, we found that we thoroughly enjoyed our tour and learning how whiskey is made. It's a very intense process, so I'll leave it for you to learn for yourself. But i will say that the end product is delicious (if not truly the aqua vitae). After a wee tasteing we remembered we were hungry and so headed down to The Old Inn pub in the village of Carbost just below Talisker for some fish and chips. It's a great food stop if you are here around lunch or dinner. After thoroughly filling up we got back in our trusted Vauxhall and headed for the Cuillin mountain range, just beyond us. At the recommendation of our receptionist/host at Toravaig House, we headed down the one lane road to Glenbrittle beach at the base of the Cuillins.
The name Cuillins came from the mythic Irish giant Cuchullin. Over the years the name became Cuillin, though many locals still refer to the mountains as Cuchullins. The Cuillins are the larest mountain range in the UK. Their peaks are dark, jagged and dramatic, and usually covered in a veil of fog. Today, however, we were unusally graced with really warm sunshine and no clouds over the range.
I was able to snap some lovely shots. We were eager to stretch our legs so we parked at the sea shore and took the VERY well marked trail up to the base of the Black Cuillins. There's a natural dividing line between the red and black Cuillins, being the natural color of each. One is more blackish gray, the other more rusty colored. Though locals call the red Cuillins the red hills, and don't really consider them part of the Cuillins themself. We headed towards the darker and more dramatic mountains of the black Cuillins. The trail was lovely and had ben well prepared by a trail service like TRAILS in the US. So, no sinking in the bogs! Yeah! Dry feet and terrific views, lots of sun. I couldn't be happier.
We were determined to hike only till we wanted to hike no more, and so the hike was free and easy and our elevation gain was splendid. Glenbrittle beach below is a terrifically large beach and the scenery around the Cuillins stunning in its own right.
In Colorado, one spends so much time hiking in to a mountian base in order to climb it, but here in Skye the mountains fall at your feet, so hiking them is easy--no wasted time hiking to them. You are there. After our hike we got back into the car and headed home for dinner and rest. We dined at the sister hotel to Travaig House--Duisdale House Hotel. In the midst of refurbishment, the food was delicious none the less. They seated us by the window, in their restaurant's solarium, where we had views of their lovely garden and out to the highland mountains across the sea. We had the best mussels we've ever had and a "to die for" duck confit which I could have eaten a bowl of. It was yummy. A great conclusion to our day. We curled into bed bellies full and warm ready for a good night of sleep.
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