A Day In The Highlands - My First Time On The Isle Of Skye

 

I spent a week in Munlochy and on the Saturday my dad told me that we could go to Skye, I had never been to the legendary Isle of Skye before and to be honest I have only seen very few places in the Highlands. I had heard so much about this place and now that I have been there myself I have to say it is a very magical place that you should definitely visit.

Visiting Skye isn't so easy, even now, the hotels are booking up all over the isle and it is very far from anywhere else. If you have a car, getting there is as easy as eating a bowl of cheerios as all you need to do is drive there. However, if you want to get there on public transport, there is no train, however you can get the bus from Inverness to Portree. However, exploring Skye by car will give you the best possible experience. 

We were going to climb a Corbett, but as the weather was dreich, we decided to just go to Portree to see what it's like. A 2 hour drive from Munlochy brought us there and the scenery of the Highlands made it a very interesting journey. As we came nearer to Skye, it got more and more scenic and then we crossed the bridge. While crossing the bridge, I looked out the window and was overwhelmed with insanely beautiful views all around. Once we were heading towards Portree, the landscapes looked out of this world, like nothing I had ever seen in Scotland. Hills as far as the eye could see and views of the shores worthy of postcards. 

When we finally got to Portree, the largest town on the isle, we parked at the car park in the main square and I stopped to take some pictures of some the the buildings. On the streets of Portree, you can find some great shops and it feels like it's thriving thanks to tourism.

 We took a look around a very nice souvenir shop, it sold some really cool Scottish-themed homewares and I bought a magnet. The shopkeeper told us that more and more people are coming to Skye and I told her it was even my first visit to Portree. We went to a place called Cafe Arriba for lunch, if you go there, you can take in some amazing views from the windows and the cafe itself has a very nice aesthetic. I had a decent chicken sandwich as well and even though it took ages for them to bring it to me, the service was still excellent. 

 We then headed down to the scenic harbour, the houses along the harbour are painted in different colours and there is an amazing view of the town of Portree. Even though going on a boat tour is extremely expensive, it's still nice to see all the different fishing boats in the harbour. 

After taking a walk through Portree, we got back in the car and headed back to Munlochy, but before getting back to the black Isle, we took a detour to see Eilean Donan Castle. This hugely well-known castle is amazing to see up close and I had always seen it in pictures, but this was my first time ever seeing it for real. I only stopped off to gaze at it for a distance, so I definitely have to come back to go inside, it's fascinating that the castle has stood there for hundreds of years and the landscape around it is absolutely stunning. 

It was a very interesting day, seeing some places I had never been to before in the highlands, I highly recommend visiting the Isle of Skye, it is fantastic and only a 5 hour drive away from Glasgow. During this time it's much harder to go abroad, so why not discover some amazing places in Scotland?