We were all captivated by the descriptions of the Coral Beach right near us on Loch Dunvegan. And the book of local walks that had been left at the Farmhouse was even more insistent that we needed to go there. And of course, we had to go see Dunvegan Castle and Gardens itself at some point, so we pencilled that in for the afternoon, since the weather forecast was again not great.
We were running out of provisions and so couldn’t pack lunches, and we wanted to do something about that later that day. But after breakfast we loaded up with tea and water anyway, and this time turned right out our driveway, heading up the Claigan Road. We passed a couple of small lochs, and some intriguing looking turnoffs, then eventually made it to the small group of houses and farms called Claigan, and beyond it to the car park for the Coral Beach walk.
Wait, where did all these cars come from?!? The car park wasn’t packed to overflowing, yet … but again, there are tourists crawling all over Skye, like us. It’s a fun mile-long walk along the shore and the meadows to the beach, and we saw many birds (ringed plovers, hooded crows, et al.), shells, rocks, seaside cliffs, old stone walls, and sheep of course. Made it out to the crescent of the coral beach at the end of the trail, and it was as lovely as we’d expected. The day was mostly cloudy, but the water was sparkling between the white of the coral (actually algae skeletons) and the turquoise of the depths in between the sand bars.
You may have noticed that every time I mention the tide in Scotland, I say it was low. I was frustrated, I wanted to see high tide, and the charts I found online (I used several sources to be sure) told me that it would be high in Loch Dunvegan that morning at 10:55. Well yeah, it kind of peaked then and then got lower. But this “high tide” was nowhere near the high water mark that was obvious on the shore. I guess that tides vary a lot in Scotland and that we were just in the wrong phase of the moon, or something. Oh well, it was a beautiful beach, and SarahP even took off her shoes and waded in the water.
I climbed the hill at the end of the point, avoiding sheep shit, and then down the back of it and around back to the beach. Right across from us was the little island of Lampay, and out in the bay was the island of Isay (old chap), with some dramatic cliffs. We got lovely views of the coast along the rest of the Waternish Peninsula, and again we could see across The Minch to the Outer Hebrides.
This was a peaceful, lovely spot, and we met some dogs and found lots of shells, strange seaweed (some looked like plastic but was not), and brightly colored, small pebbles in the white coral and sand. We eventually dragged ourselves away and started back up the pretty walk to the car park at the end of the Claigan Road. This was yet another spot on Skye we really liked, and it didn’t have the feel of an industrial tourist spot. Maybe it was all the mud, which sometimes you couldn’t really distinguish from the sheep and cow shit.
Ok, back down the road and we decided it was lunchtime and we should head to the café at the entrance to Dunvegan Castle, and then tour that. I had a brie and bacon croissant in the MacLeod Tables Café, that didn’t really have much brie or bacon or croissant in it, and a citrus drink, though I was tempted to try the Moxie of Scotland, Irn-Bru.
Renting the Farmhouse entitled us to free admission to the Dunvegan Castle and Gardens, and the experience was worth the price. Actually, we did the gardens first and they were very enjoyable. They have a variety of gardens, and I particularly liked the Water Garden, which cleverly used a local stream as a water feature, and the Round Garden, which featured a huge and venerable monkey puzzle tree and the biggest yew hedge I’ve ever seen.
The others enjoyed the Walled Garden most. I had an amusing conversation there. A guy near me was on the phone with his mate, updating him on Dunvegan and getting his mate’s advice on what else to see on Skye. He reported to his companion that his friend had told him, “There are three things you should see in Portree: the road out of town to the North, the road out to the West, and the road out to the South.” I laughed and told him that had been my impression of Portree too, and he was glad to get confirmation.
We wandered around down to the dock from which Dunvegan offers seal-watching trips and were glad we hadn’t rented Dunvegan’s Laundry Cottage, which is in a very busy spot right next to the dock. Circled back up to the entrance to the Castle after that and went in. This is the ancestral home of one branch of the MacLeod clan (note that the personal name is spelled with a capital “L”, but the mountains named after the clan are not). It’s a nice place, but the outside of the Castle is really much dingier than you’d think from its many well-lit pictures, and the interior is a little worn too. They’ve got some nice rooms and some nice views, but it’s a mishmash of weird architectural styles that Victorians tried to unify into a storybook “castle,” and is not really successful at being anything.
Another strange thing is that their collection of artifacts is all over the place. This is possibly because the MacLeod clan had to abandon their ancestral home when times got bad for them, then were able to get it back, but in the meantime much of their legacy was scattered to the winds. Note that Clan MacLeod is descended (the prefix “mac” means “son of”) from a Norseman named Leòd, which in Old Norse means “ugly.”
Anyway, the Castle is in a lovely spot. Next up was the rest of the gardens on the other side of the Castle, the Rhododendron Garden, which was a little past, and the Wild Wood and kids’ play area, which was one of the best parts of the castle! We played.
Enough of that, back to the car and it started spitting rain, so our timing was great. We drove into town again to the Fasgadh Stores and loaded up with provisions. This was harder than it sounds because we knew we’d have to finish everything we got since there was no way we could bring it back on the plane. We did a good job. The store is one of those places that sells food and also sells everything from shoelaces to phone charge cables. If they don’t have it there, you don’t need it.
Back to the house, and then soon out to dinner again, this time at one of the remaining restaurants in Dunvegan we hadn’t visited, The Old Schoolhouse, which is an old schoolhouse. This place was full and busy, and we had to wait a bit more than we would have liked, but the undermanned staff was doing as well as they could. And SarahE and I loved it because we both got the lamb shank and found it excellent, I can still taste it. Jim got langoustines and SarahP got an array of starters, that was enough for lunch the next day for her as well.
So that was pretty much it for Dunvegan, a really nice, very small town. We missed Jann’s Cakes and the most expensive restaurant in town, The Dunvegan. We also missed the Giant MacAskill Museum, which looked kind of like a hole in the ground and never had any cars in their lot.
Back to the house for the typical evening’s entertainment and soon to bed.
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