Our last day on Skye dawned sunny and we didn’t want to leave but had to move on to other adventures. We successfully finished all breakfast food, and then made sandwiches with whatever was left. I was last and made a three-decker masterpiece of sandwiches, with ham, prosciutto, cucumber, red pepper, hummus, and all the remaining Branston pickle. We’d pretty much done it and consumed all we’d bought, only a half-full jar of mustard remained!
Stripped the beds, folded up the brochures and maps they’d left for us and returned them to their stand, cleaned the last dishes and put them away, slammed the doors shut, put the key back in the key box, and then said goodbye to the Farmhouse, and piled into the SEAT for the drive to Inverness.
We pulled through Dunvegan and continued down the A863 past lovely Loch Bracadale, shimmering in the sun, Dun Beag Broch, and then down to Sligachan, where we saw the old bridge (one of the most popular sites on Skye) swarming with people, and joined the A87 to cross to Minginish and the Southern part of the huge island. This was the route we’d come up a few days ago when we’d first come to the Isle, but this time we saw it with more jaded eyes. It was different, but just as beautiful, especially the huge mountains of The Cuillin to our right, the port of Sconser where you catch the ferry to Raasay, and the kyle over to Scalpay. We stopped in Broadford to fill up with petrol (£59.25), and soon we were crossing the Skye Bridge back into the Kyle of Lochalsh. A few miles past that, we turned left on the A890 to take the Northern route back to Inverness (we’d arrived via the Southern route).
We pulled over and took a break at the lovely Loch Carron overlook, and then continued North and East, parallelling the train tracks that run from the Kyle Of Lochalsh to Inverness, surrounded by more breathtaking mountains, occasional farms and towns, and lots of sheep. This was as breathtaking as any other part of the Highlands we’d seen, and even more deserted. Eventually the farms and repair shops started to occur more often and we knew we were getting close to Inverness, though we were still in the middle of nowhere, and we had a decision to make: to get back into town and stop for lunch there, or to find a rural spot before that. SarahE consulted the map and saw a place called Rogie Falls a bit ahead, and we decided to stop there.
This small car park was about half full, and we grabbed the only picnic table and had an odd lunch. My sandwich masterpiece was delicious but wanted to slide apart. After that we walked down the steep trail through a beautiful, sunny and shady forest, to the falls. They were pretty spectacular, seen both from an overlook and then from the cable bridge just downstream, lots of water (the “Black Water”) running over tumbled rocks and cascading into a pool at the bottom.
Didn’t linger long, because we had to go catch a plane, and before we knew it, we had joined the A9 and were back in the suburbs, and then crossing the Kessock Bridge over the strait between Beauly Firth and Moray Firth into Inverness. We turned left on the A96 for the last stretch, between large farms and fields of crops up to the airport.
Returned the SEAT to the Avis lot and then trundled into the airport, where we passed through the small security check and settled in at the North end of the terminal, waiting for our 2:55PM flight. There were only three gates and plenty of room in the terminal. I went over to their bar, the Thistle and Stag, and had a nice pint of porter. Soon it was time to queue up for the last baggage size check, and then out on the tarmac to board the plane. Goodbye to Scotland!
Got into Gatwick on time at around 4:35PM, and probably had a less stressful journey back to Friern Barnet than we had had on the way down, but it was close! We took the shuttle to the South Terminal, stopped at the Marks & Spencer in Gatwick to get meals to heat up for supper, and then got some good advice from a rail employee about what platform to wait at for an express train back to London. Returned to St. Pancras, took the tube to Arnos Grove, the SL1 back to the lane, and stopped at the Tesco Express for beer before finally getting back to the house at about 7:30PM. Phew!
Heated up the meals for supper, watched a bit of TV, and then to bed. One phase of our UK adventure was over.
Short Glossary of Scottish Place Names/Prefixes
- Beag (or bheag when it is lenited to pair with a feminine noun – small (Loch Snizort has a small inner part named “Loch Snizort Beag”)
- Cnoc - hill
- Dun – fortress or castle; note that this can be used as a separate word or as a prefix (“Dun Fiadhairt,” “Dunvegan”)
- Glen- - this prefix means glen
- Inver- - this prefix means confluence of waters or river-mouth (“Inverness,” “Invermoriston”), akin to the Gaelic prefix “Aber-”
- -ish – no idea! but many peninsulas and other areas have proper names ending in “ish,” such as Trotternish, Waternish, Minginish, and Uiginish
- Kyle – strait or channel of water (“Kyle of Lochalsh”)
- Loch – lake or fjord, note that this word is used for both fresh and salt water, makes no difference
- Rubha – point, cape, headland (Brothers Point is also called “Rubha nam Brathairean”)
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