Christmas in the Highlands: The Isle of Skye

After a few days exploring the beautiful Highlands around Fort William, we headed further west to the Isle of Skye, one of the most well known islands in the Inner Hebrides.

Skye is one of the most easily accessible islands in Scotland, you have the choice of a ferry from Mallaig, which we had visited the previous day, or there is a bridge from Kyle of Lochalsch on the mainland.

In light of the horrendous winds we had been having over the last few days, we chose to go by land and left Fort William after breakfast to begin the three hour trip to Skye.

Going by road meant we got to explore more of the Highlands, and we passed through some beautiful valleys and drove up mountains covered in snow, giving us a spectacular view over the Loch's below.

We stopped at Eliean Donan Castle as we got closer to Skye. The Castle is located on a tiny island in Loch Duich, and a footbridge built in the 20th century when the Castle was being restored provides easy access.

Whilst you have to pay to enter the Castle, it's free to wander around the grounds. We always find the outside of a Castle is more interesting than the inside anyway, we very rarely go inside.

We also had a wander around the gift shop, and made use of the bathroom while we could. One thing we discovered whilst in Scotland is that there are hardly any bathrooms around when you need one!

We left the Castle and soon approached Skye. We were staying at the very top end of Skye, in Staffin on the Trotternish Peninsula. As we only had one full day on Skye we chose to stay in an area that is considered to be one of the most beautiful on the island.

We stopped in Portree for lunch, the biggest town on the island, which isn't saying too much as all the towns on Skye are tiny!

Portree is a cute town perched on the water, with brightly coloured buildings overlooking the harbour. we spent some time exploring the town before continuing onto Staffin.

Upon arrival in Staffin, we drove along a tiny one lane road to our Bed and Breakfast, located in the middle of nowhere. Skye is known for being windy and wild and we found this was definitely true during our stay. We woke up the next morning with no water after listening to a ferocious storm blowing outside all night.

Luckily the water came back on after breakfast, but no such luck with the hot water. We had a freezing cold shower before rugging up and heading out to explore the island.

Our first stop was to the Quiraing, which we could see from our bedroom window. When we woke up it was bucketing down with heavy rain, and we weren't sure if we'd be able to get out and do any walking, but luckily by the time we'd had our cold shower and departed, the rain had cleared away to mist.

The Quiraing is a mountain range, and one of the most visited and most photographed places on Skye.

The landscape is made up of amazing rock formations, caused by a landslide thousands of years ago. Waterfalls cascade down the side of sheer cliff faces, and small Loch's have popped up all over the place. The views from the top are spectacular and give an amazing view over Skye and the surrounding islands.

There is a road that takes you all the way up to the top, otherwise you can park at the bottom and walk. We chose to drive since it was so windy and drizzly, but stopped often to take photos of the landscape below.

Once up the top we had the mountain almost to ourselves, aside from a tour group who were on their way back down. Skye seems to be popular with tour groups, we passed lots of small vans as we drove around the island.

After taking about 200 photos of the mountain range and its surroundings, we continued driving over the mountains toward Dunvegan Castle.

Unfortunately the castle was closed for the Christmas period, but we drove a bit further up the road and got some great views of the castle and Loch Dunvegan.

We also had a visit from a little robin, who desperately wanted to come inside our car, hopping to and from the wing mirror's on each side of the car for several minutes. Perhaps he'd had just about enough of the wind and rain just as we had!

With the castle closed, we were now starting to get hungry for lunch, so we headed back down the road to Waternish, which had a huge sign declaring everything remained open for the Winter.

Lots of places in Scotland close between November and February, as their main tourist season runs from March to October, so we were glad to find somewhere that was open!

We stopped at the Stein Inn, the oldest Inn on Skye, and had a Ploughman's Platter each, there were only a few other people there when we arrived and we had a great view out the window looking over the Loch.

After lunch we continued our drive around the island and stopped in at Portree for another wander before continuing on our way.

Our next stop was the Old Man of Storr. The summit of Storr is the highest point on the Trotternish Ridge and overlooks the stunning Sound of Raasay.

The Old Man of Storr is a 50m high rock perched on the side of Storr and is a popular walking route. We arrived in the late afternoon to find only a few other cars in the car park.

The walk up isn't too hard, just a continuous uphill, but the route is extremely muddy, and we had to stop several times to try and find a better way around a huge boggy patch.

We didn't make it all the way up to the Old Man, we stopped about three quarters of the way as it was just too muddy. We had a great view out over Skye and the surrounding islands whilst watching the sun going down.

Trying to navigate the muddy path

Our last stop for the day was Kilt Rock, named because it looks similar to the pleats on a Kilt. There is a sheer drop off the side so we stayed well back.

Our main point of interest was the Mealt Falls, a huge waterfall plunging off the side of the cliff and the water is fed from nearby Mealt Loch. They were spectacular and roaring with water after the torrential rains earlier in the day.

The next day we had an early breakfast before starting the three hour drive from Skye to Inverness. We left early so we had plenty of time to explore our surroundings on the way, and went a different route again, we very rarely saw the same part of the Highlands twice.

As we left Skye the sun came out and it turned into the first clear, sunny day we'd had since arriving in Scotland. It gave us some amazing views of the Loch's as we passed them, and the rain from earlier in the morning gave us some beautiful rainbows.