Skye: Off to the Northwest

Today, we headed off to the northwest part of the Isle.  We had several places on our list for stops, but we were completely open to whatever would come.  The drive was amazing.  There are proper mountains on Skye and because on all of the lochs, you wind your way to everywhere you go.

The heather is in bloom and all of the hills were riotous shades of pink and purple.  I really didn't think any of my pictures (and I tried by taking 165) captured the color in front of us.

Heather, thistles and a crumpled can of Irn Bru - THE soda of Scotland

When we got past Roshill, the road narrowed.  We laughed that there were these big signs that would announce you had entered a place, but then there was nothing there and then there would be another sign announcing the next place.  Honestly, without the signs we'd have had no idea that we were entering these 'places.'

A car in front of us stopped.  There was a sheep sitting in the middle of the road, and a guy got out and shooed it away.  After they pulled away, the same sheep went back to its spot.  It was down on its knees by the time I got out of the car to shoo it myself.  It got up and stood there for a minute wondering if maybe I would go away, but when I didn't it, ambled off.  My companions thought this was extremely funny.

All the Isle sheep with the spotted socks were fairly confident, about everything

Our first destination was the Toy Museum.  This was the 25th and final year for the toy museum, and it was located in Glendale.  Once in Glendale, we followed the signs further into the country side; the road getting smaller and smaller.  We eventually got to a house and a gate.  Gill opened it up, and we climbed up this steep hill.  

Inside was a cool old man that gave us a tour of the museum.  One room was old toys and one room was new toys.  The toys were pretty neat, but his presentation made it.  He showed us how everything worked and he had solid repertoire of jokes and one liners.  It was completely priceless and given that after this year, they are going to sell the toys on ebay and retire - I am so glad that we made it.

As we were leaving, he told us that there was a great cafe further down the road.  I thought further down the road - how can that be - be we went and discovered the Redroof Cafe.   

Gill and I had these fantastic cheese boards and most of Sarah's cheese scone, which I had to assume failed to meet her standards because it had green bits of chives in it.

Redroof Cafe/Gallery and The Road

After the cafe, we hit Skye Silver and then Dunvegan Castle.  I thought the castle was a complete dud, but the gardens were spectacular, and they had a little 20 minute boat tour to see a resident seal colony.  Gill was very brave and got in the boat with no trouble.

Pregnant grey seal

 We also spooked a heron and our way to the seals.

I love his reflection in the water

Dunvegan Castle

All in all, a very good trip to the north.