Extras II for Monday--Elgol

Little stone cottage right on water in Elgol--my new residence--I wish!

Trees near Elgol permanently blown over--not really windy today, but they stay that way anyway!

Road into Elgol across cattle gate and down 35% gradient:

Cute little lamb who obviously wanted his picture taken:

Interesting tree growing up side of church ruins:

Extras for Monday--Sites on Skye

Sign that Ray wants Butch to see--Yikes!

Old Man of Storr with head in the clouds:

Thatched roof house in Luib:

A road sign that I thought was a hammer for the first few days—warning of construction, then realized it was a car running onto the side of the road—warning of loose rocks on the “verges”:

Cool little toast holder in our cottage—we don’t have these in the States, but EVERYONE here has them:

Monday, May 25--The Cuillins & Elgol

I have forgotten to mention how confusing grocery shopping is here in Scotland. The grocers here organize so differently than what we are accustomed to. The eggs are on a shelf next to the cereals, not refrigerated. Some fresh bakery items are left out open to the air in big baskets and others are wrapped in packages, so who knows what the difference is. And the information on the labels of items such as cereals are not where you think it would be. We kept reading that every single cereal had 90g of sugar. Well, that just couldn’t be, so we kept reading and found the real amount, but it is not intuitively obvious to us when we are used to doing it another way. So grocery shopping takes FOREVER! But it is fun. I like doing things a different way.

The clouds were late to wake up and move off the jagged-edged Cuillin Mountains this morning, so their sawtooth ridges were peaking out from the fog. These mountains are 50-60 million years old and are said to mess up compasses while you are hiking because of the iron amounts in the rocks. And in the fog, that can be super dangerous. We passed through Luib with its pretty thatched cottage right by the road. Once all the houses here were beautifully thatched. This one even has the heavy rocks tied on to hold down the thatched roof.

We drove into Kyle of Lochalsh, checked with the Lifeboat Station to get a tide table, and had lunch at Hector’s Bothy, a cute and very busy café. We took pictures of Castle Moil on the opposite shore in Kyleakin. In olden days, the daughter of a Norwegian King stayed here in the castle to levy tolls on the passing ships. It is said that she blocked their passage with a chain stretched from Kyleakin to Kyle of Lochalsh and wouldn’t lower it until the toll was paid. Her nickname was Saucy Mary because once the toll was paid, she rewarded the ships by flashing her breasts.

Then we drove back to Skye and took the B851, going past the Isle Ornsay Lighthouse, to Ostaig where we took an even wee-er mad road towards Tarskavaig. Twisting roads, blind summits abounding, 20% grades, and very colorful. In Tokavaig, we went past Dunsgaith Castle from the 1300s, the oldest standing castle on Skye. The pre-history of the castle is very interesting. It was said to have been built in a single night with the help of a witch. This headland was also said to have been the location for the legendary "School for Heroes" run by the Celtic warrior queen, Scáthach, whose name is reflected in that of the castle. This is where, it is said, the Irish hero Cúchulainn learned the art of war. His name lives on in that of the Cuillins. We made the complete circle route and then drove over to the B8083 out of Broadford to head for Elgol.

Here we turned a corner and saw Bla Bheinn (Blaven) towering ahead of us along with the Black Cuillins (formed from crystalline volcanic rocks) and the Red Cuillins. Striking views. We drove on the edge of cliffs that went straight done to the sea—and remember, Ray is driving a 6-speed manual on the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road!!! AND his driving has improved SO much, that now he drives like a local—very aggressively. So every day is like a roller coaster ride to me, who just happens to be on the cliff-edge side of the car most of the time.

We saw the Skye Marble quarry on the way. Marble has been extracted from here since 1703. Marble from Skye was used for the high altar at Iona Abbey, the Vatican, and Versailles.

We made the steep descent into Elgol Village—a 1 in 3.5 gradient—and saw an island I didn’t even realize existed, the island of Soay. So steep that in earlier days, cars that drove down this hill had to return with the help of cart horses pulling them up. But the view at the bottom was spectacular. The bluest water, the steepest mountains, their summits covered in clouds. The whole scene was awe-inspiring. I would love to live in this one little stone cottage that was right there by the water’s edge. On the way back, we stopped by the Cill Chriosd (Christ’s Church). It sat on a hill like an amphitheatre stage in the circle of tall mountains. This church dates back to the 600s when St. Maelrubha preached from a rocky knoll here. In Medieval times, there was a stone church here then in the 1500s, the stone building we saw in ruins today.

In the history of the church is recorded a minister in 1627 named Neil MacKinnon who was known for his meanness and greed. He gave his workmen 2 meals a day during the week but only one on Sundays, because it was the day of rest. So they fooled him and worked on Sunday. The church was in use until 1840.

There were many gravestones here—along with a baby lamb that kept posing for me to take his picture—but the oldest graves, one of which was to Chief Lachlan Mor and carried obscure hieroglyphics, have mysteriously disappeared.

***pictures from top: the Cuillins lost in fog, Dunsgaith Castle ruins, and 3 views of Elgol