Skye

I thought I would do a post about our recent holiday to Skye. It really is such a beautiful place, especially when the sun eventually shines!

We stayed just north of Portree, near Loch Snizort. My Uncle and Aunt live there, and my Aunt's sister has a holiday house that she rents to family and friends. So we had the perfect combo of staying near and visiting family but the independence of our own accommodation.

Warning: this is a very long and picture heavy post, which only features a smidgen of sewing.

Crossing the Skye Bridge which really feels like you are driving off the edge of the world:

The view from our holiday house:

Excellent kite flying weather

Coral Beach, near Dunvegan (the white beach below) is said to be covered, not in sand, but in tiny bits of coral. Apparently it's actully algae, but I guess "Algae Beach" doesn't have quite the same romanticism. It's about a mile's walk from the carpark, and as we didn't take the baby backpack with us, we had to carry Baby Boy all the way.

His first ever time on a beach. He quite liked it.

On Baby Boy's birthday we were looking for something local to do that wouldn't take too long, to allow us all to get some fresh air and burn off some energy before the next rain shower. We discovered St Columba's Isle, a very small island in the River Snizort, on which St Columba founded the cathedral of the bishops of the Isles. The island has remains of several buildings and graves ranging in age from 11th century to the 1960s.

On the Thursday, my Uncle and Aunt very generously not only babysat the boys, but also treated P and I to lunch at the Three Chimneys, a Michelin starred restaurant. It was amazing. Afterwards, as it was a beautiful day, we took a drive out to Neist Point, which has gorgeous views and an abandoned lighthouse. Unfortunately we forgot the camera, so these are iphone pics.

The white blobs are seals.

The view from the restaurant

As it turned out, this sign was VERY out of date.

On our last full day, we went dinosaur hunting. Apparently Skye used to be attached to North America, back in the Cretaceous (or Jurassic or whatever) period, so there are lots of fossils and dinosaur remains, particularly around Staffin.

Fossil Museum at Staffin:

Ammonite fossils

Hadrosaur footprint, and a 4 year old's hand for comparison

Kilt Rock - a striated rock formation

Pretending to be dinosaurs

We went to a cafe called Skye Pie for lunch, which sold... you guessed it: pies. The cafe also had a crafty vibe to it. You could write your name on a tag, and they would embroider it (or, you could embroider it yourself), and they then hung it on the ceiling. See below. Funny how sewing seems to be incorporated in everything I do!!!

The pies were delicious too. We bought more to take home. 

On the stairs - there was wool wrapped around the main support pole

 We then went off to Staffin Beach, where there are Stegosaurus footprints in the rocks. We didn't find them, but we had great fun anyway.

i'll finish on the best photo of the holiday. I'm not sure where exactly this was, but it was in Trotternish, on the way back to Portree from Staffin. It was one of those "stop the car - I need to take a photo" moments. I'm glad I did.