The Ham Nomads

21 Jul 2014. <GB-SCT> Isle of Skye —

Still on Skye. This morning, we drove a couple of miles from our overnight stop and came upon two points of interest in the same place — the Monument to Flora MacDonald (remember — she was the one who whisked Bonny Prince Charlie 'over the sea to Skye') and the Skye Museum of Island Life, a series of crofts that have been set up so demonstrate the way the people of Skye lived about a hundred years ago.

Flora MacDonald's monument is in the Kilmuir Graveyard (Cladh Chille Mhoire) up the hill behind the museum. Actually, it's not entirely the original monument — there was a marble slab over the MacDonald family mausoleum placed there in 1831, but "every fragment of this memorial has been carried away by tourists" — the slab was reconstituted in 1955! The cross itself also appears to be a reconstruction, as there is a stone fragment suspiciously similar to part of the top of the cross lying in the ground near the foot of the tomb.

The Skye Museum of Island Life is refreshingly downbeat. The crofts are in superb condition — at least one is original. The collections of items within each — the croft itself, the smithy, the dairy, the ceilidh house (meeting/party house), and so on — are pretty comprehensive and well displayed. While we were there, the inevitable tourist buses arrived, and we found ourselves wandering the place with people from a P&O cruise.

By the way, the view from the museum is out to the northwest, towards the Outer Hebrides. Spectacular!

From the museum, we continued southwards down the western side of Trotternish Peninsula (at the top of Skye), and came upon the town of Uig (pronounced oo-ig or, for the phonetically literate, u:'ig). Another spectacular view. (Is it becoming clear that the description 'spectacular' is appropriate throughout Skye?)

After this, we continued southwards to Portree (mainly to get a paper), then we did another circuit, this time out to Dunvegan. Good choice (again)! Dunvegan Castle is a most photogenic site, it has a beautiful garden to wander through, but more especially, Loch Dunvegan is the permanent home of a colony of over 300 seals, who had been calving only three weeks earlier, so there were a lot of youngsters about. We went out on 45 minute cruise in a little dinghy, up close and personal with the seals, and also with some egrets.

In the garden

On the way — Loch Harport

After this, we drove down to the Cuillins, where we found a layby near Bheinn Breac, where we put up for the night with the intention of a little walk in the Cuillins first thing in the morning. (Bheinn Breac may not be a Munro, but it is a Marilyn.)

Distance driven — today, 74 miles ( 119 km ); to date, 4,749 miles ( 7,643 km )