Ray with one of the goodies Margaret & Colin sent him--a tiny birthday cake!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Extras for Tuesday--Duntulm, Fairy Glen, and Rainbows
Extras: Sunset from our side window,
Double Rainbow!
our valley in Staffin,
Fairy Glen,
Ray at Duntulm Castle ruins
Tuesday, May 26--Rainbows, Hail, & Fairies
Tuesday, May 26—The Day of Rainbows
Happy Birthday to Ray!!!
I was treated to an incredible sight this morning. Before we ever left the cottage, out our side window, going from one house far on the mountainside to another on this end of the mountain was a huge, complete rainbow!! A complete arch--end to end! And soon after that another half rainbow formed on top of it! It was the most amazing sight with the mountains in the background.
Then within a five minute period, we had sunshine then wind, then horizontal rain with Hail!! You just never know what to expect here. Even the weather person only says that the weather is “unsettled.” Guess that could mean hurricane, tornado, blizzard……
The most northerly peninsula on Skye is Trotternish, where our cottage is situated. It has at its heart the high ridge of volcanic rock known as the Trotternish Ridge. This ridge, which is one of the most popular walking areas on the island, runs from the peak of The Storr in the south east, through the striking Quiraing near Staffin, to end abruptly near Flodigarry in the north. On the way it produces some of the most memorable sights on Skye, most notably the approach to the Old Man of Storr in the south, and The Needle and The Prison in the Quiraing. The main road sticks closely to the sea, avoiding the high ground of the ridge itself, and this route makes for a magnificent drive through some of the best scenery Scotland has to offer. But we decided to take the more adventurous road this morning as we had on our recent visit and turned onto the narrow, winding road that runs from Staffin to Uig. It climbs to the top of the ridge, past the grandeur of the Quiraing and runs across the high Trotternish plateau covered with heather and peat before finally dropping back down to the sea. There is a great feeling of openness as you drive along, as if the sky has receded into the distance, and you are driving along on the top of the world. When you reach the western end of the road, the vista of Uig Bay opens up suddenly beneath you, with views across to the lovely Waternish peninsula opposite. There is nothing in the world like driving this route.
Our first stop today was at the Fairy Glen in Uig—where we saw yet another rainbow near the folly built by Captain Fraser to collect rents from the local crofters. The Fairy Glen is a small valley of striking rock formations, oddly-shaped hills, and tumbling burns--just like the Quiraings and Storr, only in miniature. It was formed by the land being disrupted by a series of landslides on a smaller scale than the huge ones that formed the Storr and the Quiraing, with the results then smoothed by glaciers and erosion. Here there were perfect cone-shaped hills, small lochs, waterfalls on the opposite shore, and amazing stone ruins. There is also a rocky tower perched high on a hill that looks like a castle for the fairies. It is called Castle Ewen or the Fairy Castle. There is a magical feel to the landscape.
Then we drove out the Waternish Peninsula to take a look at the Trumpan Church. This was the site of a terrible event. The history says that in 1577, the MacLeods massacred 395 MacDonalds on the Isle of Eigg by setting fire to the entrance of the cave they were in and burning them all to death. So the MacDonalds of Uist decided to exact revenge. In 1578, they landed in Waternish at Ardmore Point and set fire to the thatched roof of the church where MacLeods were worshipping. One young woman escaped by squeezing herself between some rocks, severing her breast in the process, and ran to warn the MacLeod chief. He captured the invaders and killed them all, taking the corpses and tumbling a dyke over them for burial. There is also a Trial Stone with a hole in it here in the graveyard. If a person was accused of a crime, he was blindfolded and if he could find the stone and stick his finger in the hole, he was declared not guilty. The church and graveyard gave me such a sad feeling, thinking of all the clans that have fought each other over the years and all the lives lost. Just below here at Ardmore Point, there is a hill once used for hangings. And Bonnie Prince Charles tried to land here but was fired upon. Ruins of a fort can be seen below, but the private road was gated.
Ray reminded me that there is an 11-mile walk out to Waternish Point, but it would take all day to complete it. He added, “And as my good friend, Tony, would say, “Fuh-ged-aboudit.”
Using the Ordinance Map—which I have total converted over to Ray’s way of doing things—I mark up maps like crazy now with places to see. Used to be that I thought this was totally off-limits, thinking that I would later mistake some circle for a perimeter highway and be driving around a city forever trying to find things, but now I see the validity of knowing where things are so that you don’t forget to do something while you are in the area.
We are total opposites on books still, though. He will not mark in a book. If it’s a really good book, I mark it up like crazy. Ray says that is a sacrilege. He asked me what I would think of someone writing in a book I had written, and I answered that I thought it would be an honor, that it meant that the book really meant something to them. He just rolled his eyes. He refuses to read a book that I have marked in.
We found the Stein Inn sitting on the coast. It’s an eighteenth-century inn that that supposedly has really good food and over 99 malt whiskies, but seeing as we were here at 10:30am, there was none of that for us. In its present state, the Stein Inn dates from 1790, although parts are known to predate this, making it the oldest inn on the Isle of Skye. If the stone walls could speak, the tales they could tell would be amazing, I am sure.
Greshornish Point was off to our left as we headed back over to the Trotternish Peninsula. This is a site with quite a history. There was one summer when the waters here were so full of sharks, that no one dared go swimming. In 1920, there was a terrific storm that, in one night, took out all of the trees in Orbost, half the trees at Greshornish, and 4000 trees at Dunvegan. And in World War I, depth charges were dropped from a seaplane here onto a German U-boat that was hiding in the loch.
Kilmuir Cemetery was next on our list. This is the site of Flora MacDonald's grave. The cemetery is full of fascinating graves, the most famous of which is the Victorian era memorial to Flora MacDonald, who risked her life to save Bonnie Prince Charlie from capture by the English after the unfortunate prince had been beaten by the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Culloden on April 16, 1746. Flora MacDonald dressed Prince Charlie as her maid and helped him to reach Skye from where he eventually escaped to France.
MacDonald later married and emigrated to North Carolina, but eventually returned with to Skye, where she died in 1790. The tall cross of her gravestone towers above all the others. It is engraved with the title "Preserver of Prince Charles Edward Stuart" and is complete with an epitaph written by the notable author Samuel Johnson (who, with James Boswell had met Flora in life during their tour of the Highlands). This reads, "Her name will be mentioned in history and if courage and fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour." Seven other members of her family are also buried here. It is said that Flora's funeral in 1790 was attended by 3,000 mourners, who between them drank 300 gallons of whisky. She was buried in a shroud said to have been made from a bed-sheet in which Bonnie Prince Charlie had slept.
There is another magnificent grave marker here with a carved effigy of a knight in armour that lies close to the very old chapel/burial enclosure at the far end of the main graveyard. This marks the grave of Angus Martin, or Aonghas na Geoithe ("Angus of the Wind"). Angus is said to have earned his nickname by insisting on going to sea whatever the weather, and he is believed to have married a Danish princess with whom he had seven sons. Angus is said to have stolen the grave slab over his grave from the island of Iona, where it had previously been used to mark the grave of one of the Scottish kings buried there, but no one knows if this is true. It is said to look more like it came from the grave of a clan chief from the late medieval period, and one tale says that he brought it up to this site himself, carrying it on his back.
The fascinating grave marker of Charles MacArthur, the last hereditary piper to the MacDonalds of Duntulm Castle, is also here. The inscription reads: "Here lie the remains of Charles MacKarter whose fame as an honest man and remarkable piper will survive this generation for his manners were easy and regular as his music and the melody of his fingers will" And there the inscription ends, leaving the bottom 40% of the grave marker blank. It is said that the stone was commissioned by Charles' son, but when the son drowned in the Minch on a voyage from Uist to Skye, the mason doing the work concluded he was unlikely to be paid, so simply stopped work at the point he had reached. There is no record of what the missing part of the inscription would have said.
Sign on road just after we left cemetery said: “Road Liable to Subsidence.” Oh dear.
Then just up the road awaiting my return was the romantic ruins of Duntulm Castle. It is perched in a dramatic cliff-top location looking out towards the Outer Hebrides. Access to the castle is by way of a short track across the top of a sheep pasture that can be very slippery and muddy in wet weather. But this path is SO much easier than the one I took before. I did not know about this track on my visit alone in September of 2007, so I took the super steep, super muddy, and super wet path from the beach on the opposite side, climbing straight up to the castle ruins. This is the side the bus let me off on and I just assumed this was the only way to go up.
Duntulm Castle was a MacLeod possession but became the chief residence of the MacDonalds in 1539, who held it until their support for the Jacobite cause resulted in Duntulm and all of their Trotternish possessions being seized by the English crown. It is believed that there was a Norse fortress here even before the medieval castle here today. It is also possible that an earlier Iron Age fort lies under the ruins of the Norse stronghold and even a Pictish fort under that. The castle is defended by steep cliffs on three sides, with a drop of 50 feet to the rocks below. Supposedly you can see scars from the galleys on the rocks below and there is a Seagate that also provided entry. I finally got all the way into the castle this time so I could take pictures from the jagged-edged stone windows. Local legend tells that Duntulm was abandoned in 1730 after a careless nursemaid dropped the infant heir to the castle from a window onto the jagged rocks.
After sunset in twilight, ghostly armies of kilted warriors have been seen parading, between the Lodge and the Castle, ready for battle. At times they pass right through the Lodge as if it wasn’t even there. It is also said to be haunted by the ghosts of Hugh MacDonald who was imprisoned here, a woman named Margaret who was shunned by her husband after losing an eye, and the nursemaid who dropped the baby, whose screams can be heard clearly at night.
The wind was so strong as we climbed back down, I was really glad that it was an onshore one and not an offshore one as I would’ve been in fear of blowing right off the cliff! As it was, the wind just threw me about a bit. The castle itself collapses more every year. No doubt, the wind has a part in this.
We came back to the cottage for lunch then went to Columba to check emails. Then it was time for low tide at An Corran, the dinosaur fossil beach. We were determined to find the elusive fossilized dinosaur footprints on the nearby rocks. The directions were very simple: The 170 million year old footprints of the three-toed Hadrosaur (a carnivore or herbivore—read two different accounts) are sometimes exposed to the right of the large boulders on the flat mud stone. Well, we stayed on that beach for over an hour, searching, climbing, falling off slippery rocks and seaweed, checking and rechecking the diagrams on the sign, but we never did see the footprints. Either they were under the sand or under the seaweed. Paleontologists think that because of the way the footprints are clustered together—adult and young—that the dinosaurs actively raised their young. Well, if they were clustered THAT much, I would think we would have seen at least one of them. Very disappointed that we couldn’t find them.
We bought a few groceries at the little convenience store in Staffin—like shopping in the old grocery store at my grandmother’s little town when I was a little girl.
We plan to go for Ray’s birthday dinner at Columba 1400.
***pictures from top: Sunset from our front window, Rainbow at our cottage!, Quiraing from the Staffin to Uig road, Ardmore Point on Waternish Peninsula, Duntulm Castle window with view towards Outer Hebrides
Happy Birthday to Ray!!!
I was treated to an incredible sight this morning. Before we ever left the cottage, out our side window, going from one house far on the mountainside to another on this end of the mountain was a huge, complete rainbow!! A complete arch--end to end! And soon after that another half rainbow formed on top of it! It was the most amazing sight with the mountains in the background.
Then within a five minute period, we had sunshine then wind, then horizontal rain with Hail!! You just never know what to expect here. Even the weather person only says that the weather is “unsettled.” Guess that could mean hurricane, tornado, blizzard……
The most northerly peninsula on Skye is Trotternish, where our cottage is situated. It has at its heart the high ridge of volcanic rock known as the Trotternish Ridge. This ridge, which is one of the most popular walking areas on the island, runs from the peak of The Storr in the south east, through the striking Quiraing near Staffin, to end abruptly near Flodigarry in the north. On the way it produces some of the most memorable sights on Skye, most notably the approach to the Old Man of Storr in the south, and The Needle and The Prison in the Quiraing. The main road sticks closely to the sea, avoiding the high ground of the ridge itself, and this route makes for a magnificent drive through some of the best scenery Scotland has to offer. But we decided to take the more adventurous road this morning as we had on our recent visit and turned onto the narrow, winding road that runs from Staffin to Uig. It climbs to the top of the ridge, past the grandeur of the Quiraing and runs across the high Trotternish plateau covered with heather and peat before finally dropping back down to the sea. There is a great feeling of openness as you drive along, as if the sky has receded into the distance, and you are driving along on the top of the world. When you reach the western end of the road, the vista of Uig Bay opens up suddenly beneath you, with views across to the lovely Waternish peninsula opposite. There is nothing in the world like driving this route.
Our first stop today was at the Fairy Glen in Uig—where we saw yet another rainbow near the folly built by Captain Fraser to collect rents from the local crofters. The Fairy Glen is a small valley of striking rock formations, oddly-shaped hills, and tumbling burns--just like the Quiraings and Storr, only in miniature. It was formed by the land being disrupted by a series of landslides on a smaller scale than the huge ones that formed the Storr and the Quiraing, with the results then smoothed by glaciers and erosion. Here there were perfect cone-shaped hills, small lochs, waterfalls on the opposite shore, and amazing stone ruins. There is also a rocky tower perched high on a hill that looks like a castle for the fairies. It is called Castle Ewen or the Fairy Castle. There is a magical feel to the landscape.
Then we drove out the Waternish Peninsula to take a look at the Trumpan Church. This was the site of a terrible event. The history says that in 1577, the MacLeods massacred 395 MacDonalds on the Isle of Eigg by setting fire to the entrance of the cave they were in and burning them all to death. So the MacDonalds of Uist decided to exact revenge. In 1578, they landed in Waternish at Ardmore Point and set fire to the thatched roof of the church where MacLeods were worshipping. One young woman escaped by squeezing herself between some rocks, severing her breast in the process, and ran to warn the MacLeod chief. He captured the invaders and killed them all, taking the corpses and tumbling a dyke over them for burial. There is also a Trial Stone with a hole in it here in the graveyard. If a person was accused of a crime, he was blindfolded and if he could find the stone and stick his finger in the hole, he was declared not guilty. The church and graveyard gave me such a sad feeling, thinking of all the clans that have fought each other over the years and all the lives lost. Just below here at Ardmore Point, there is a hill once used for hangings. And Bonnie Prince Charles tried to land here but was fired upon. Ruins of a fort can be seen below, but the private road was gated.
Ray reminded me that there is an 11-mile walk out to Waternish Point, but it would take all day to complete it. He added, “And as my good friend, Tony, would say, “Fuh-ged-aboudit.”
Using the Ordinance Map—which I have total converted over to Ray’s way of doing things—I mark up maps like crazy now with places to see. Used to be that I thought this was totally off-limits, thinking that I would later mistake some circle for a perimeter highway and be driving around a city forever trying to find things, but now I see the validity of knowing where things are so that you don’t forget to do something while you are in the area.
We are total opposites on books still, though. He will not mark in a book. If it’s a really good book, I mark it up like crazy. Ray says that is a sacrilege. He asked me what I would think of someone writing in a book I had written, and I answered that I thought it would be an honor, that it meant that the book really meant something to them. He just rolled his eyes. He refuses to read a book that I have marked in.
We found the Stein Inn sitting on the coast. It’s an eighteenth-century inn that that supposedly has really good food and over 99 malt whiskies, but seeing as we were here at 10:30am, there was none of that for us. In its present state, the Stein Inn dates from 1790, although parts are known to predate this, making it the oldest inn on the Isle of Skye. If the stone walls could speak, the tales they could tell would be amazing, I am sure.
Greshornish Point was off to our left as we headed back over to the Trotternish Peninsula. This is a site with quite a history. There was one summer when the waters here were so full of sharks, that no one dared go swimming. In 1920, there was a terrific storm that, in one night, took out all of the trees in Orbost, half the trees at Greshornish, and 4000 trees at Dunvegan. And in World War I, depth charges were dropped from a seaplane here onto a German U-boat that was hiding in the loch.
Kilmuir Cemetery was next on our list. This is the site of Flora MacDonald's grave. The cemetery is full of fascinating graves, the most famous of which is the Victorian era memorial to Flora MacDonald, who risked her life to save Bonnie Prince Charlie from capture by the English after the unfortunate prince had been beaten by the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Culloden on April 16, 1746. Flora MacDonald dressed Prince Charlie as her maid and helped him to reach Skye from where he eventually escaped to France.
MacDonald later married and emigrated to North Carolina, but eventually returned with to Skye, where she died in 1790. The tall cross of her gravestone towers above all the others. It is engraved with the title "Preserver of Prince Charles Edward Stuart" and is complete with an epitaph written by the notable author Samuel Johnson (who, with James Boswell had met Flora in life during their tour of the Highlands). This reads, "Her name will be mentioned in history and if courage and fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour." Seven other members of her family are also buried here. It is said that Flora's funeral in 1790 was attended by 3,000 mourners, who between them drank 300 gallons of whisky. She was buried in a shroud said to have been made from a bed-sheet in which Bonnie Prince Charlie had slept.
There is another magnificent grave marker here with a carved effigy of a knight in armour that lies close to the very old chapel/burial enclosure at the far end of the main graveyard. This marks the grave of Angus Martin, or Aonghas na Geoithe ("Angus of the Wind"). Angus is said to have earned his nickname by insisting on going to sea whatever the weather, and he is believed to have married a Danish princess with whom he had seven sons. Angus is said to have stolen the grave slab over his grave from the island of Iona, where it had previously been used to mark the grave of one of the Scottish kings buried there, but no one knows if this is true. It is said to look more like it came from the grave of a clan chief from the late medieval period, and one tale says that he brought it up to this site himself, carrying it on his back.
The fascinating grave marker of Charles MacArthur, the last hereditary piper to the MacDonalds of Duntulm Castle, is also here. The inscription reads: "Here lie the remains of Charles MacKarter whose fame as an honest man and remarkable piper will survive this generation for his manners were easy and regular as his music and the melody of his fingers will" And there the inscription ends, leaving the bottom 40% of the grave marker blank. It is said that the stone was commissioned by Charles' son, but when the son drowned in the Minch on a voyage from Uist to Skye, the mason doing the work concluded he was unlikely to be paid, so simply stopped work at the point he had reached. There is no record of what the missing part of the inscription would have said.
Sign on road just after we left cemetery said: “Road Liable to Subsidence.” Oh dear.
Then just up the road awaiting my return was the romantic ruins of Duntulm Castle. It is perched in a dramatic cliff-top location looking out towards the Outer Hebrides. Access to the castle is by way of a short track across the top of a sheep pasture that can be very slippery and muddy in wet weather. But this path is SO much easier than the one I took before. I did not know about this track on my visit alone in September of 2007, so I took the super steep, super muddy, and super wet path from the beach on the opposite side, climbing straight up to the castle ruins. This is the side the bus let me off on and I just assumed this was the only way to go up.
Duntulm Castle was a MacLeod possession but became the chief residence of the MacDonalds in 1539, who held it until their support for the Jacobite cause resulted in Duntulm and all of their Trotternish possessions being seized by the English crown. It is believed that there was a Norse fortress here even before the medieval castle here today. It is also possible that an earlier Iron Age fort lies under the ruins of the Norse stronghold and even a Pictish fort under that. The castle is defended by steep cliffs on three sides, with a drop of 50 feet to the rocks below. Supposedly you can see scars from the galleys on the rocks below and there is a Seagate that also provided entry. I finally got all the way into the castle this time so I could take pictures from the jagged-edged stone windows. Local legend tells that Duntulm was abandoned in 1730 after a careless nursemaid dropped the infant heir to the castle from a window onto the jagged rocks.
After sunset in twilight, ghostly armies of kilted warriors have been seen parading, between the Lodge and the Castle, ready for battle. At times they pass right through the Lodge as if it wasn’t even there. It is also said to be haunted by the ghosts of Hugh MacDonald who was imprisoned here, a woman named Margaret who was shunned by her husband after losing an eye, and the nursemaid who dropped the baby, whose screams can be heard clearly at night.
The wind was so strong as we climbed back down, I was really glad that it was an onshore one and not an offshore one as I would’ve been in fear of blowing right off the cliff! As it was, the wind just threw me about a bit. The castle itself collapses more every year. No doubt, the wind has a part in this.
We came back to the cottage for lunch then went to Columba to check emails. Then it was time for low tide at An Corran, the dinosaur fossil beach. We were determined to find the elusive fossilized dinosaur footprints on the nearby rocks. The directions were very simple: The 170 million year old footprints of the three-toed Hadrosaur (a carnivore or herbivore—read two different accounts) are sometimes exposed to the right of the large boulders on the flat mud stone. Well, we stayed on that beach for over an hour, searching, climbing, falling off slippery rocks and seaweed, checking and rechecking the diagrams on the sign, but we never did see the footprints. Either they were under the sand or under the seaweed. Paleontologists think that because of the way the footprints are clustered together—adult and young—that the dinosaurs actively raised their young. Well, if they were clustered THAT much, I would think we would have seen at least one of them. Very disappointed that we couldn’t find them.
We bought a few groceries at the little convenience store in Staffin—like shopping in the old grocery store at my grandmother’s little town when I was a little girl.
We plan to go for Ray’s birthday dinner at Columba 1400.
***pictures from top: Sunset from our front window, Rainbow at our cottage!, Quiraing from the Staffin to Uig road, Ardmore Point on Waternish Peninsula, Duntulm Castle window with view towards Outer Hebrides
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