Day 4: Isle of Skye, Dunvegan Castle & Portree

Tuesday 16th August - 2022

Day 4: Our fourth day on the road we left the Scottish mainland at the Skye Crossing and headed across Loch Alsh to the Isle of Skye, where we had a tour of the remote Dunvegan Castle and then stopped for lunch in the island's largest settlement at Portree.

The Isle of Skye is the largest island of the Inner Hebrides group of islands, you access it by crossing the Skye Bridge or Skye Crossing from the Scottish mainland at Kyle of Lochalsh.

(Above) We stopped for lunch at the picturesque village of Portree, the biggest town on the island, where all the house are painted in bright colours.

Portree was chosen as one of the "20 most beautiful villages in the UK and Ireland" by Condé Nast Traveler, and is visited by many tourists each year.

(Above) On the Isle of Skye, we visited the Dunvegan Castle & Gardens which is remotely located 1-mile (1.6 km) to the north of Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye, off the west coast of Scotland. It's present architectural form dates back to about 1840.

Dunvegan Castle is the oldest continuously inhabited Castle in Scotland. The castle is built on an elevated rock overlooking an inlet on the eastern shore of Loch Dunvegan, a sea loch.

(Above) A lone piper plays along the clifftops high above the Sea of the Hebrides on the Isle of Skye.

 

(Above) The McCleods Clan have occupied this Castle continually for 800-years.

Clan MacLeod ruled the wild, mountainous and very beautiful islands in the north western edge of Scotland - Skye, Lewis, Harris and Raasay. The clan descend from seafaring Norse Kings and its rich clan history stretches back over 800 years.

Check out this impressive family crest (Above) consisting of bull's head cabossed sable, horned Or, between two flags gules, staved at the first.

(Above) A waterfall flowing off the rugged cliffs into the open ocean on the Atlantic side of the Isle of Skye.

(Above) Our fearless C·I·E Tour Group Guide, John, pouring shots of 'Isle of Skye Liqueur' Drambuie on the bus.

(Above) The potent Scottish bus medicine

(Above) Flora Macdonald grave site on the Isle of Skye.

Flora MacDonald was a member of Clan Macdonald of Sleat, best known for helping Charles Edward Stuart evade government troops after the Battle of Culloden in April 1746. Her family generally backed the government during the 1745 Rising and MacDonald later claimed to have assisted Charles out of sympathy for his situation.

Arrested and held in the Tower of London, she was released under a general amnesty in June 1747. She later married Allan MacDonald and the couple emigrated to North Carolina in 1773.

Their support for the British government during the American War of Independence meant the loss of their American estates and they returned to Scotland, where she died in 1790.