September 23 - A Light Day of Hiking, Driving, and Music

Hiking the Quirang

Feeling a little bit run down so Rick and I slept in this morning and then had breakfast, me, poached eggs and poached smoked haddock, delicious (it is so easy to eat fish here), and Rick, his regular of eggs, sausage, bacon, and "tattie" (potato) scones.  We also had sauteed pears with cinnamon in crepes.

View of Skye Sound from Quairang

The Rock Maze

We then set out to hike the Quiraing.  We arrived at the trailhead around 11:30 and, being a Sunday, it was chaos.  Locals and tourists alike were out walking the trail.  The guidebook wasn't kidding when it said that the Quiraing is the most visited area on Skye.  Nonetheless, we set off and the crowds thinned a bit as we proceeded down the path.  As we hiked northeast, we entered a maze of stone outcrops called the "Table", "Needle", and "Prison".  Soon after we reached the summit and were able to see clearly into the Sound of Skye on the east side of Skye.  At the pass we turned around and headed back, scoping out possible sunrise photogrpahy spots.

Harvesting Peat

Neist Lighthouse

We then headed over to the westernmost part of Skye, Neist Point Lighthouse, on the Waternish peninsula, to see the dramatic scenery of  high cliffs and waterfalls plunging into the ocean.

Harvest Peat to be Collected

As I tromped around, I discovered a place where they mine peat.  As one who obtains environmental clearances for projects I found this amusing, because in the United States, peat bogs (also described as a specific kind of wetland called a fen) are very rare and are protected under the Clean Water Act.  I doubt that the US government would let you mine peat bogs if you wished and if the government did let you do this, then you'd have to mitigate the impacts at a ratio of 15 acres, or more, to one.  Here, like in Alaska, peat bogs are plentiful, it is the dry uplands that are rare.  As such, the peat is mined for fuel.

Live Music in Edinbane Pub, Isle of Skye

We then headed back to the B&B to clean up for dinner at a nearby pub called the Edinbane Inn.  Marie guided us to this location and the selling point for me was that it had local Celtic Music and the performance was between 4:00 pm and 6:30 pm . . . not some ungodly hour of 10:00 pm.  What's more the music was so local that Marie's own 13-year old son was playing.  When we got to the small pub, the music was in full swing, a guitar, a fiddle, and Marie's son playing a very simplified form of the bagpipes.  We ordered whiskey for me and a beer for Rick and sat a table, occupied by a single woman drinking a glass of white wine, who, as it turns out, is Marie's mother.  Soon a couple of women, who were on holiday from Glasgow and were staying at the same B&B as us came in and joined our group.  We struck up a conversation with the couple next to us and we learned that they were also from Portland, Oregon, and lived near our rental property.   Rick remarked how ironic it was to travel 7000 miles and end up knowing half the people in the pub on the Isle of Skye.

When the music ended at 6:30, we excused ourselves to the dining room where we ended up dining near the folks from Portland and the women from the B&B.  As it turns out, the other third couple from the B&B was dining there as well, though we didn't know that at the time.  Rick had a dinner of lamb (very good) and I had smoked salmon, also delicious.  For dessert it was more whiskey, sticky toffee putting and a frozen Talisker whiskey and butterscotch custard.  I am not typically a dessert person, but I've really enjoyed the desserts here.

We then headed back to the B&B where we ran into all the guests and Marie and Ian in the entryway having a spirited conversation.  We all shared our adventures for the day, quite a nice thing to do, and then thrilled that we were actually back "home" before 9:00 pm we excused ourselves and, once again, fell into bed.