Way back in November, I abandoned my diary of our summer trip to Dornie in the North West Highlands. Even further back, in October, I wrote about our first, abortive, attempt to visit Skye via the Glenelg ferry. That was scuppered by a puncture. Now it’s time to resume the tale. A few days later, we made it to Skye by simply driving over the bridge from Kyle of Lochalsh to Kyleakin.
Both Kyle and Kyleakin would have been much busier before the bridge was built in 1995, with ferries shuttling back and forth on the five-minute crossing between their harbours. Now both can be easily by-passed, although Kyleakin seems still to be a popular stop for coach trips. However, most tourists headed straight for the coffee shops so wandering the village was a peaceful pastime.
First we climbed to the War Memorial where we had good views of Castle Moil.
Then we made our way towards the castle, enjoying the quirky art work, gnome-decorated gardens, and signs that Kyleakin has not given up on the dream of Scottish independence. The sculpture of Teko the Otter is a nod to Gavin Maxwell who wrote Ring of Bright Water and once lived on Eilean Ban, the island which now joins the two parts of the Skye Bridge.
Castle Moil, or Maol, stands on a promontory a few hundred yards from the village’s slipway. There’s not much left of it, especially after it was damaged by lightening a couple of years ago and lost about four metres from one of its towers. The warning signs are there, about both falling masonry and the dangers of being cut off by the tide. Still, it’s a pleasant climb and the views back to the village and bridge are pretty.
Just outside Kyleakin we stopped to climb Cnoc a’Mhadaidh-ruaidh (hill of the fox). As on many walks last summer, we found there had been a lot of logging, which rather detracted from the appeal, but the views back to the bridge were interesting. It looked very odd from this angle. In the wider view you can see Eilean Ban (with the lighthouse) which the road crosses before continuing over the second part of the bridge beyond.
From here, we drove to Broadford, the next village, where we explored a small park and the harbour, then partook of a welcome coffee – next to a bookshop, which I managed to resist.
Beyond Broadford, we found another forestry trail which took us in a loop above the sea, and back past the cemetery.
After our walk, we set off back to the mainland and our base in Dornie. If you think of Skye as a mountainous island, you are right, which means you might be puzzled by this post as it looks quite flat. However, if Skye were a house we would barely have made it into the entrance hall. We’d had a lovely time though, and it wasn’t over yet.
In the next village to Dornie, Ardelve, there is a ‘pizza hut’ which we had promised ourselves we would try before we left. Pizza Jo has to be the quirkiest pizza place ever, and if you visit the area I highly recommend it.
Also on site is Manuela’s Wee Bakery (closed by the time we got there) and the Fairytale Distillery, all run by the same German family. While our pizzas were being made we sampled some gin and, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, we left with a bottle. The pizzas were absolutely delicious too! A lovely end to a lovely day.
Although we’d visited Islay before, we’d never been to its neighbour, Jura. It’s a short hop on the ferry from Port Askaig to Feolin – there’s a timetable, but no booking. However, if there are too many cars for one trip, as there were the day we travelled, the boat will make the five minute crossing several times to clear the queue.
We chose two contrasting distilleries for our tours – one small and privately owned, the other large and owned by a multi-national. O
Next, we had a couple of hours in Bowmore, the island’s main settlement, to have lunch, look around the distillery (no tour) and explore the unusual Kilarrow Parish Church (1767), otherwise known as the Round Church for obvious reasons. That’s it at the top of the hill, above. There was a great view over the distillery roofs from its upper windows.
At 2pm we met Donald again and set off for our afternoon visits. The morning had been spent in the north of the island, now we were heading back south where three distilleries lie in close proximity to each other. The furthest away is 
We didn’t visit Lagavulin next – we drove past it because we had a 3pm tour booked at 
In truth, there’s not much to see of the ruins, but we enjoyed our visit all the same. We started in the small visitor centre which has an interesting display of artefacts discovered during archaeological excavations, along with a fabulous new virtual-reality reconstruction of the settlement in the early 15th century. You can see John totally immersed in it above.
From the Visitor Centre, we took the path down to the site, crossing the reed beds of the loch on duckboards.
From the loch, we crossed an area of open moorland to take a parallel track back – this took us through the village of Keills. The name derives from the Gaelic for church, Cill, and the graveyard here contains the ruins of an old chapel attributed to St Columba. I can never resist an old graveyard, especially one with a view like this. Headstones which caught my eye included one for a father and son who died a fortnight apart, and the memorial to Piper Lily MacDougall aged 100 years. There must be interesting stories attached to both of those.
Oh well, we pressed on regardless. The Mull is an RSPB reserve, so we left the car in its parking area and set off on a waymarked circular tour (3.5km). If there were birds, we couldn’t see them.
From here, we turned inland again towards Upper Killeyan Farm and the path back to the carpark. There were several highland cattle in the field who were not bothered by us at all. Even the one almost blocking the gate barely looked at us as we sidled past. Scary horns though!
After an early start, we were in the ferry queue at 7am ready to depart Castlebay at 0755. Once on board, we positioned ourselves near the restaurant ready to beat the rush for breakfast when it opened. That rush didn’t materialise, and wandering round the ship later we found out why. Many people had brought their pillows and duvets and were catching up on sleep! When we got to the top deck, we were amazed to have it to ourselves most of the time. The howling wind might also have had something to do with that …
