First Look at Isle of Skye

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day. The temp was in the low 70s and the sun was shining. Unfortunately tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy and rainy again so that made today even more special.

The first stop today was Eilean Donan (pronounced Ail-en Do-nan) which is the most photographed castle in all of Scotland and was the site of the Scottish HQ of MI6 in several James Bond movies. Not being a James Bond movie fan I wouldn’t know but maybe some of you recognize it.

The original castle was built in the 13th century and became a stronghold for the powerful Clan Mackenzie and its ally, Clan Macrae. In response to the Mackenzie support of the Jacobite rebellion, the castle was destroyed in 1719. The current castle is a 20th century reconstruction of the old castle. It is still privately owned but the family no longer lives there.

We chose not to go into the castle as there are 100 steep stairs on the self-guided tour and we just didn’t feel up to dealing with them today. Since we’ve seen so many castles in the last few weeks, we don’t feel like we could have missed too much.

The castle was surrounded by a beautiful marsh, some of which you can see in this video.

In case you don’t feel like watching the video, here are a few pics.

After having our lunch at the castle, we drove another 40 minutes to the Torabhaig Distillery on the Isle of Skye. We tried several times to go on a distillery tour but could never get in so we’re glad we were able to do this one.

We’ve been to lots of wine and beer places but this is the first time we’ve toured a whiskey distillery and it was very interesting. It’s only a 3 step process but then the whiskey must age at least 3 years and 1 day. Longer is better but that’s the minimum.

At the end of the tour it was time for the tasting. I don’t like Scotch whiskey but didn’t want to be rude so I gave it a try. It was horrible. I mean even worse than other Scotch whiskey I’ve tasted. It was very smokey, which is their thing, but it tasted like I had put a piece of burnt firewood in my mouth. The guide said to try adding a few drops of water to dilute the smokey taste. Well, my thought was unless the water turned it into a Pina Colada, I’d take a pass. Peter tried it with water and said it didn’t help much. Even though we didn’t like the product, it was still fun to see how it was made.

After the tour we headed back off the island to just the other side of the bridge where we’re staying at a B&B for the next 2 nights. This is a first for us as we’ve always either stayed in an Airbnb flat or a hotel. But, we couldn’t find anything either on or close to the island that was reasonably priced so we decided to try something different. Rasa Sayang has a 9.5 (out of 10) rating on booking.com and the photos looked nice so we booked it. When Gracie was leading us here, we thought she’d gone bonkers again but when she said “You have arrived” my first thought was, arrived where??? This is where we were at the time.

But when we drove about 50 feet farther down the road, we found this on the opposite side of the street.

Our host, Joan, said that when they bought the house it they could see the bay but then a few years later the government built the military base right across the street. So, the view isn’t much but the home is lovely and our room is very nice.

The town of Kyle of Lochalsh is very tiny and doesn’t have a restaurant, so we went back across the bridge to the Isle of Skye to eat at a place called The Moils Restaurant. The food was very good but the view was spectacular.

Tomorrow we’re off to explore the Isle of Skye in more detail, stopping to see some of its most famous sights. It’s a beautiful island so we’re looking forward to the day.