Neist Point and the Red Roof Cafe

As I said in my last post about our holiday on Skye, we visited Neist Point and the Red Roof Cafe on several occasions. As well as some other places too, of course!

Well, first of all, Neist Point. Although we've been going to Skye regularly, it was only last May that we first went to Neist Point, the most westerly point on the Isle of Skye. There's an old lighthouse which is now unmanned since it was automated in 1990. The first afternoon we walked right down, past the lighthouse and out to the rocks. We just sat there watching and enjoying the total peace and calm. The husband did a bit of photography and I had brought a few things to keep me occupied too. The scenery is spectacular so just have a browse through the pictures I took, with a little bit of description along the way.

You park at the end of the road; there's nowhere else to go. At this stage you can't see the lighthouse nor the path down to it.

There are great views from the road across Moonen Bay.

You can see the way down here; first steep steps leading to that path right across - though there's still farther to go.

 

Finally the lighthouse is in sight.

 

We carried on past the lighthouse to the rocks below; the reason for the lighthouse being situated here.

Previous visitors had built these strange stacks from the loose stones lying about.

We made ourselves comfortable on the rocks. If sitting on rocks can ever be comfortable!

It struck me how alike the rock formations are to the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. Apparently, it is said the the causeway extends under the sea from Northern Ireland to the Isle of Skye.

This is the place to be for seeing all manner of sea-birds and is regarded as the best place on Skye for spotting whales, dolphins, porpoises and basking shark. When we were here last May we saw dolphins and a minke whale! I couldn't believe my eyes!! Alas, we didn't see anything like that this year.

The husband did his thing.....

.... and I did mine.

This is the start of my 'heather basket' that I'll tell you about later. I'm not sure why my hair is in such a state in this picture as it wasn't windy!

It was so relaxing there.

But then it was time to head back to our house. Back past the lighthouse ...

... back along the path ...

... back past the sheep (this is common grazing land) ...

... and back up all the steps.

We re-visited Neist Point on several evenings after that though we stayed up on the head rather than walking down to the lighthouse again. The views were just amazing as we listened to all the sea-birds coming in to roost.

The Western Isles in the distance.

Now the multi award-winning Red Roof Cafe Gallery. This is a real gem of a place just a short distance from where we were staying. We enjoyed going almost every day we were on Skye. They offer fairly traded, freshly ground coffees and luxury loose leaf teas. Most days I took heather tea and the husband stuck to chai made with milk. They do great cheese scones and delicious lunches. We treated ourselves to the Laird's lunch on our last day. Basically a bit of everything; cheeses, smoked beef and salmon, patés, salad, home baked bread, caramelised red onion marmalade and oat cakes. Delicious! And all eaten before I thought to take a picture! The cafe is small, being a restored blackhouse. The original house had a red roof so the restored one also has. It serves as a gallery too because one of the owners is a painter and her artwork is displayed in the cafe. We have bought a couple of the prints as souvenirs. I'd better let you see the place, I suppose!

 

Heather tea

Milky chai

There's still more to tell you about Skye!! I'll leave it until my next post though. Thanks for all your comments and it's nice to have a few more followers.

All the best for now.

Over the Sea to Skye

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my Yarndale post and especially about my skirt. And welcome to my new followers; nice to have you join in.

As I said in my last post, Yarndale was really the end of our holiday so now I need to go back to the start and tell you about the rest (basically all) of our holiday from the start.

The husband's holiday started a day before mine. Early (before 7 a.m.) on Thursday morning (11th of September) I left him to the ferry terminal in Larne. He was taking the ferry to Troon and then cycling to Arrochar, a few miles from Loch Lomond, in Scotland. I was going to work and then finishing the packing on Thursday evening!

On Friday morning I was up early again and back to Larne to catch the same ferry to Troon. It was a pleasant journey and I spent most of it reading my Country Living magazine and crocheting. When I arrived in Troon, I then drove to Arrochar to meet up with the husband. The weather was good though a bit misty at times. Arrochar is a beautiful village situated at the top of Loch Long, just a couple of miles from Loch Lomond. We had a bit of time for a drive and a leisurely walk before having a lovely meal in the Village Inn, celebrating the husband's special birthday. This is also where we stayed for the night. Here are some photos of Arrochar, the Village Inn and some of the locals that we met on our walk.

Another couple of pictures as the sun was going down. The mist was also coming down more and more.

On Saturday morning we started our journey to the Isle of Skye. The scenery driving through the Highlands is spectacular. We had a quick stop in Fortwilliam for a coffee and then didn't stop again until we reached Eilean Donan Castle. The castle is situated on an island at the point where three sea lochs meet, and is surrounded by some majestic scenery. It has been used in various films including Highlander and The World is not Enough, where is was used as the Scottish headquarters of MI6. I was able to get a few pictures for you.

Isn't it magnificent? Anyway, we carried on with our journey to Skye; it wasn't much further to go. We crossed the Skye bridge and felt that our holiday was really starting. This is where we spent our honeymoon and a few days later it is where we celebrated our wedding anniversary.

We had hired a house in Glendale, a tiny village on the north-western coastline of the Duirinish peninsula on Skye. This is the house we stayed in; a typical one for the area. It was built from stone and the walls are about two feet thick.

We had great views both to the village and across the bay.

This beautiful flower was growing in the garden and the neighbouring field. Neither of us knows what it is called.

There were several ruins of blackhouses round us. Glendale used to have a much bigger population before the clearances.

This place is so peaceful and quiet. We were able to relax and really chill out, especially as the weather was exceptionally good. We did plenty of sight seeing while we were there which I'll tell you about in another post (this one is getting too long!). There were two places we visited more than once during the week; the Red Roof Cafe and Neist Point. They deserve another post rather than squeezing them into this one. And there are a few other views to show you, as well as what I got up to craft-wise.

So that's it for this time. Hopefully it won't be too long before I'm back with the next instalment. The holiday washing is done but there's a mountain of ironing!