Visit Lochalsh & the Isle of Skye. Scottish Highlands part 3
In Part 1 of this short series of blog post I wrote about heading off to Scotland to stay in Sallachy, a small hamlet just a few miles away from the Isle of Skye. Part 2 continues my account of our trip and then this third part wraps up the trip with some woodland walking at Balmacar and a trip to the Otter Hyde near Kylerhea before heading back to the North West and home.
Plenty of photographs and some woodland walking
As ever with most of my blog posts there are plenty of photo’s in this third section. Some of the morning drone shots over Loch Long (in Picture set 2) are my favourites from this trip.
We decided we would head for Balmacara alongside the north shore Lock Alsh which is actually a sea inlet between the isle of Skye and the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. Along with our trip to Balmacara we stopped at Eilean Donan castle for a few more pictures in the brighter light and against a lovely blue sky.
The woodland walks were close to the Skye Bridge that we had crossed when we had driven to Portree on Skye earlier in the week. The woodland walk are owned and managed by the National Trust for Scotland.
The trails were easy and at the time of our visit there we were the only people around so it made for a really pleasant and easy walk of just a few miles. Later we had a coffee and wander around Kyle of Lochalsh before we healed back to our accomodation
There are pictures from the day in the picture set below.
Picture set 1
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Heading for Glenelg
On our last full day of the trip we decided that we would head for Glenelg and take the short ferry crossing to Skye. We were going to head for the Kylerhea Otter hide which is said to be one of the best places in Britain to spot otters and other marine mammals including dolphins and sharks.
Unfortunately we were a couple of weeks in advance of the ferry starting its Spring and Summer operating timetable.
This was a little disappointing for us. We’ve been on a number of the small ferries along the west coast but this ferry would have been a different, as it’s quite unique.
The Glenelg ferry is the last manually operated turntable ferry in the world.
The boat used is the MV Glenachulish (built in 1969) and has a capacity of just six cars. There is plenty of information online about it and it’s unique crossing and turntable method of operating.
Although the ferry wasn’t operating we still went to the Otter Hide – it just meant going the long way round, so back to Kyle of Lochalsh and over the Skye Bridge via some pretty ‘interesting’ B roads, that at times were not for the faint hearted but were more than worth the effort, as the isolation and views were simply exceptional.
Unfortunately during out visit to the hide in Kylerhea we didn’t get lucky and see any otters but we enjoyed our trip and we did see seals in Loch Long again as we made out way back to our accommodation.
All in all we had enjoyed another decent and relaxing day out.
Picture set 2
Clicking on any of the images below will open a picture gallery that can be clicked or scrolled through – pictures here include some favourite drone pictures above Loch Long, the ferry at Glenelg and the otter hide (minus otters) at Kylerhea.
Time for home
Our time in Scotland seemed to have passed in a flash and before we knew it our time at Island Bay was just about done and it was time to head for home.
We had booked to stay another night but in between times the quarter final draw for the FA Cup had taken place and put Manchester City at home to Newcastle in the weekends Saturday evening kick off.
So with that in mind we headed home on Friday which in turn meant I had plenty of time and wasn’t in a rush to get to the game at the Etihad stadium the following day.
City went on to win the game, and all being well there will be a post in few weeks from a day out at Wembley for the semi finals – which always provides for decent photo opportunities.
Our journey home was straightforward and the first 140 miles or so down through Glenshiel, Glencoe and down past Loch Lomond was spectacular, with the remainder of the journey being pretty much motorway based and routine.
Picture set 3
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