Thursday, September 29
On Thursday we took a tourist bus day tour from Inverness to Eilean Donan Castle & then on to the Isle of Skye. This gave us a “day off” from driving ourselves & we figured that we would cover a lot more ground & gain a lot more knowledge & information from our tour guide. It was a good decision!
The company we chose was “Highland Experience Tours” & our driver, Ian, was a great host & guide.
We were on a small bus with only about 20 other people. Ian had lots of stories to tell & interesting facts to share along their way.
It took us about 2 hours to get from Inverness to the castle. Along the way Ian took the time to tell us about daily life in Scotland for city folk & rural folk too. He explained that most of the Scottish longhair cattle that we were seeing along the way were kept by farmers for their heritage rather than as cattle for profit. As we approached a particular field Ian slowed the bus down & honked his horn. The cows all started galloping across the field towards the bus, which was now stopped. Ian explained that each of their tour busses stops daily at this field & the driver gives a treat to the cows. Unfortunately there were no cow treats on the bus today. Rather than disappoint them Catherine came to the rescue & offered up the rest of our package of digestive biscuit cookies. They were a hit with the locals! We seem to be encountering cows quite frequently on this holiday!
Our next stop was Eilean Donan Castle, which is located just a couple of kilometres from the bridge to the Isle of Skye. This castle is stunning. My photos do it little justice.
It has been featured in several movies, including Highlander & James Bond in “The World Is Not Enough”.
Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any photos insider the castle. It was originally built in the 6th century & then expanded in the 1300s. In the early 1700s the castle was partially destroyed during the Jacobite revolution & lay in ruins until it was bought by Colonel John MacRae in 1911. He restored it over the next few decades & family members still live in it on a regular basis.
The next stop on our trip was the Town of Portree on the Isle of Skye. As we crossed the bridge to Skye Ian pointed out the ruins of the castle for Clan MacKinnon. Sadly, this castle is not in very good shape. It was too far from the bus to get a good photo so I’ve “cheated” a bit & copied the photo below from the Internet. There were several to choose from on the web. I chose this particular one because the ruins of the castle are framed in the rigging of a sailboat. 😉
Ian explained that the MacKinnon clan helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape from the British after the major defeat of the Scottish Jacobites at Culloden. To show his appreciation the Prince gave the Clan chief his recipe for Drambuie. Well, the clan MacKinnon castle may not be in very good shape but at least we have a bit of a connection to a very famous & tasty liqueur!
Portree is a really beautiful town that has a lot of visitors during prime tourist season.
We only had a hour to look around before the bus had to head back home but we had time enough to do a bit of site seeing & shopping.
And, I even found time to have my first “filled sausage roll” – a Scottish treat for sure!
We left Inverness at 9:00am & got back around 7:00pm. This was a great day & we sure slept well that night.
Cheers!