Neist Point Lighthouse

It was a grey and windy day but we wanted to go and visit Neist Point Lighthouse – which is on the most westerly point of Skye. It took about an hour to drive there from our cottage in Fernilea.

There is a very steep concrete path at the start of the walk which was fine going down – we knew it would be hard work returning to the car – but the views of the coastline are lovely.

At first you can’t see the lighthouse but it eventually comes into view.

^{First views of Neist Point Lighthouse.}

It is a very safe path but there are steep cliffs to the side of it so you can’t wander off too far! We walked round the lighthouse and I was quite excited as there was a fog horn! We then saw all the stone towers that lots of other walkers had built.

^{Stone towers behind the lighthouse!}

As you keep walking towards the sea there is a large area of exposed rocks and rockpools so we explored them for quite a while. Neist Point is probably one of my favourite lighthouses.

^{Rocks behind the lighthouse}

We then had to make our way back to the car up the really steep path

Portree

It felt a bit early to return to our cottage so we popped into Portree (the main town in Skye) on the way home. The sun had made an appearance at this point so we parked near the harbour and found a little beach to play on for half an hour or so. Tom and Izzy did skimming stones whilst Stu and I took photos.

^{Portree, Skye}

Isle of Raasay

Any chance to take a boat from an island to another smaller island I will – so we had to do a trip to Raasay. The Isle of Raasay is a small island between Skye and Scotland. Stuart is not a fan of sailing but as the boat crossing was only a couple of kilometers in a sheltered waterway and there was a distillery on the island he was happy to go! We watched our ferry dock at port and then boarded with our car for the 25 minute crossing.

We drove off the ferry and headed north along a single track road. We stopped to take some photos but quickly got back in the car when we were chased by a wasp!

^{Views of Skye from Raasay}

We headed to Brochel Castle – a ruined castle from the 15th century – where we walked down a grass path and then ended up at the beach.

^{Brochel Castle ruins}

The beach was pebbly and we had it to ourselves. There were views of Applecross, Scotland and Tom & Izzy spent ages playing on the rocks.

^{Beach overlooking Scotland}

We then headed to Raasay distillery where we did a whiskey tour before heading home to Skye.

Sligachan Old Bridge

It was another grey day (and our final day on Skye) so we headed to Kylerhea Otter hide for some wildlife spotting. On route we stopped at Sligachan Old Bridge (a bridge built in the early 1800’s) where we played on the rocks in the river for half an hour.

^{Playing in the river}

Kylerhea Otter Hide

The drive to Kylerhea was along narrow track roads. We parked up and walked the wildlife trail. Unfortunately we didn’t see any otters but there were lots of seals in the water. There is also a small manually operated turntable ferry (the last one of its kind in the world) that goes back and forth between Skye and Scotland which we watched for quite a while.

We headed back to our cottage as the next morning we had to take an early ferry to Scotland to begin our journey home.