When I woke up after our first day in Scotland, I stepped out of the shepherd’s hut in Broadford and was greeted with this beautiful sight:
Before sailing to the Outer Hebrides, we had two places we wanted to visit on our drive to the ferry port.
The first place was the Old Man of Storr. When we reached the car park, we saw how busy it was. I spoke to a few people, and they’d come from all over the world. One Dutch woman had come with her dog (who I played with for a while) and some of her family, including her mum. They’d driven from the Netherlands! I don’t know why I was surprised that there were so many foreign tourists, even at this time of year.
We did a circular walk getting quite close to the pinnacles. We didn’t have time to go up to the Old Man itself, but the views were majestic from the viewpoint.
Our next stop was the Fairy Glen. On reading about the area, I learnt that there are no stories or legends associated with the glen. It just looks magical — just the sort of place fairies would live!
One of the hills looks like a ruin but is a natural formation. As you approach it, you wonder how people climbed up to the plateau. No climbing, however, is required. You can walk to the top quite easily.
We left the Fairy Glen to drive to Uig, where we grabbed a snack before getting the ferry to the Outer Hebrides.
The waters were calm for the ferry journey to Tarbert. It took about 90 minutes. The drive from Harris to Lewis in the north of the island took about an hour. We were happy to reach Stornoway, where a friend lived and with whom we were staying for a few days.
This was our journey from Broadford on the Isle of Skye to Stornoway:
The previous weekend, there had been a storm in the UK and parts of Scotland had been flooded. We were due to go to Scotland then but had to postpone our trip. It was a lucky change. So far, we’ve had two days of pleasant weather. Where was the famous Scottish rain?!