After the Cuillins of the Isle of Skye (Old norse for “cloud island” - with good reason) we went in yet another fruitless search for the mythical basking sharks said to be found in the area of Neist Point before heading into Loch Dunvegan for a visit to the much advertised castle. Our experience of this was something akin to widely promoted premiere movies - the greater the hype, the less compelling the show.
We were abused by a local seal tour boat operator for getting too close to “his” seals in the anchorage. We then went by dinghy to the rusty dock at the castle with the intention of doing the castle tour, only to be told that there would be a 10 pound fee to tie the dinghy to the dock, in addition to the 24 pounds for the castle tour. Interestingly the car park is free, as we discovered after driving the dinghy about one km into town and then walking back along the roads to do the tour. The castle itself is remarkably unattractive and little of it is open to the public. There is really very little sense of the claimed 800 years of continuous habitation by the Macleods and in fact it appeared uninhabited, with no lights on at night. However, the gardens were excellent. I would not bother going out of my way to visit this site if doing a tour of Scotland.
Having not yet learned the above lesson about advertising hype in tourist brochures, we motored around to the the nearby Loch Bay with the “oldest inn on Skye” at Steinn. Not a protected anchorage in SW flow we nonetheless went ashore to be greeted by a monosyllabic and surly barmaid who managed to create the most tasteless and appalling hot chocolates we have had. That was the wind up signal and we took the favourable wind for a fast ride out to Loch Maddy. For this, our second visit, the weather remained excellent.
Squelch, slop, slither, splash, mud, gloop, and water in the boot. The Scottish bog experience. This walk was to the highest peak on the Uist islands, the exquisitely named Beinn Mor, or Big Mountain. (Similarly there are many Eilean Mor and Eilean Beags to be found - that is Big Island and Little Island.) Still it was an attractive peak of 620m, but unfortunately surrounded by low lying boggy land, through which your intrepid authors were required to pass. Hint: avoid the bits where the Bog Cotton plant grows. The summit provided stunning views of the Outer Hebrides and really was the highlight of the week, especially given the sunny days.
Despite quite sore legs, we followed this up with a walk out to Bronze age structures in the machair of the west coast of South Uist. Like many parts of these islands, there was habitation from about 6500 BC or so. Mummies had been unearthed during excavations.
The following day was a lap of North Uist by car, visiting more ancient piles of rocks, stopping at the Hebridean Smokehouse for coffee and local foods, getting remarkably good views of St Kilda island (100km away), and doing a quite nice coastal ramble through a wilderness nature reserve which was populated by domestic animals. The final fun of the tour was the stepping stone approach to the the old fortress of Dun an Sticer, one of the ancient bastions built on islands in either fresh or salt water lochs. Time for a nice meal at Hamersay house - what will I have - Haddock or Hake?