Up Early to End Early

Today we got a packed breakfast to go from the B&B so we could be out the door by 7:00 AM headed towards the “Fairy Pools.” The B&B does breakfast at 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM which would have been too late for us to get to the Fairy Pools and manage to get a parking spot.  Thus we asked the hotel to pack a to-go breakfast, I was surprised it didn’t come with a thermos of hot tea, instead we got juice boxes. The breakfast also included for each person a ham sandwich, a smoked salmon sandwich, yogurt, a piece of fruit, and candy.  It was a decent to-go breakfast.

Near End of  Fairy Pool Path (cell phone)

On to the fairy pools; we got to the fairy pools around 7:30 AM and hiked to and from the pools before eating our packed breakfast.  The hike is a out and back trail along a mountain highland stream that has several small waterfalls and pools. Once you hit the end of the trail there is a sign that says this is the end of the fairy pool trail, beyond this point is dangerous back-country. I would say we took about two hours to walk the path to the end and back which includes stopping and taking photos along the way.  Honestly I was expecting something a little more spectacular based on everyone saying you have to see it, but is really just a long babbling brook coming down from the mountain.  Now it might have been better if the sky did not have heavy dark cloud cover causing the sunlight to be dispersed causing the day to appear dreary.  It was a good thing we arrived early, because by the time we got back from the hike the parking lot was full and people were waiting for parking spots.  We decided to pull out of the parking lot and go down the road to another parking pull off to eat our breakfast before continuing on to our next destination.

Near beginning of pool path (cell phone)

Along pool path (cell phone)

 

Entrance to Dunvegan Castle

Our next major stop was Dunvegan Castle, with a quick stop at the Talisker Distillery visitor  along the way. Dunvegan Castle was nice, however you could not take pictures inside.  They also provided seal tours because they have 300+ seals living in the loch that castle sits on. Sadly we did not go on a seal tour because they were all booked up.  From there we had lunch at an art gallery/cafe. The cafe had a lovely view of the loch and decent food.  From there it was up to Uig to see the “Fairy Glen.”

The Fair Glen is lush green hilly pasture land, whose mounds look like broughs that the fey used to live in.  The glen is also covered with grazing sheep.  That was basically the last planned thing, so we headed back to the B&B.  

Panoramic view of Fairy Glen from one of the mounds. (cell phone)

After spending a little bit at the B&B we walked down to Portree so I could get the traditional post card picture you see of the town. The whole town does not look like the postcard, it is just one row of buildings along the bay.  Sadly my picture did not turn out how I wanted since the light was coming from the wrong direction and not illuminating the buildings.  That basically ended the day.  We are eating at the hotel today because, we determined if you want to eat in town you need a reservation and we still cannot find the Chinese place.

Post card view of Portree (cell phone)

Tomorrow head to Trossachs National Forest.