the end of scotland

On a whim, we changed our plans for our final day of Scotland and decided to drive to the nearby Isle of Skye, which is connected to the mainland by a bridge. I like remote, desolate locations, and the Isle of Skye sounded like it would fit the bill, with tall peaks and wind-swept coasts. Although we would see little of the former (more heavy rain), we saw plenty of the latter.

We decided for this day that we would stop if something looked cool, since we only had a few specific destinations. This waterfall happened to be on the side of the road:





Across the street from the waterfall was some fairly typical non-mountainous Isle of Skye terrain:


Not far from the waterfall, we stopped at a scenic overlook to check out the cliffs and the ocean below. Would have been nice if it had been sunny, but it was still impressive...and besides, I get the impression it's never sunny in this part of Scotland anyway.







We continued on the road for a while. Here's a small town (typical of the island) that we drove through:





After a couple of hours of driving, we made it to our first destination, a small, broken castle at the north end of the island. There wasn't much left to see of Duntulm Castle, but the location was pretty cool.









After wandering around for a bit, we got back in the car and drove to the nearby Faeries' Glen, a place with odd-shaped hills that was a ways off the road. Some people say it has mystical powers, but we didn't feel anything special when we were there. It was pretty cool looking, though.







Our final stop on the Isle of Skye would be Dunvegan Castle, which has been the home of the chiefs of the MacLeod clan for hundreds of years. Once again, no pictures were allowed inside.





Dunvegan had some decent gardens on its grounds as well, but we didn't spend a ton of time in them. It was raining, and it was getting to be late afternoon. We still had five hours to drive back to Glasgow, and I didn't want to drive in the dark.

In the gardens:






After a quick meal in the castle cafe, we got on the road and started heading back to the bridge back to the Scottish mainland. It's really too bad that it was raining so much, because the scenery was really pretty. Tall, black peaks could occasionally be seen in the mist, but the weather didn't make for good pictures, so I didn't take any. Things didn't start clearing up again until we were almost to the bridge. Here's some scenery that we saw after we were back on the mainland:



We had to drive back through Dornie and by Eilean Donan on our way back south, and that ended up being a good thing, as the weather made for the best pictures I was able to get of the area.





The scenery that we saw on the way back was probably the best we saw the whole trip.



I wish I could have taken more pictures, but I was in a bit of a hurry. Becca took some, and maybe I'll get them and post them later.

We ended up getting to Glasgow after 8pm, so we never actually saw any of the city. We checked in, got some room service, and passed out. We flew home the next day, and thus ended our European vacation.

All in all, we had a great time, despite the weather and some other problems. We especially liked Scotland, but would definitely go back to Scotland or Ireland. If you have the means, we highly recommend checking them out.

If you haven't seen my other entries on Scotland and Ireland, check 'em out.