Departing the David Livingstone Birthplace museum, we still had a long drive ahead of us to Skye. That night we stopped off at Fort Williams, and on the way there were treated to stunning view after stunning view. Every time we stopped to get out of the car and take pictures we felt very silly because another kilometer down the road would be a view even more stunning and dramatic. We pulled into Fort Williams with just enough time to visit the Highland Soap Company and buy some Highland Lotion. On the way to their parking lot you can admire Inverlochy Castle, but we could only admire it from afar because it was undergoing some stabilization at the time. Instead of having a big night out we had a very British night in, picking up a variety of microwavable fare from Aldi and settling on in.

The next day we continued our journey to Skye, once again stopping to take in all the stunning views. We stopped at one point in a little parking area to take pictures of the clouds over a loch and it was ridiculous man, it should be illegal to be that pretty. There was also a food truck called “Burger Queen” and I got a coffee from them mostly in appreciation of their name. The road eventually brought us to one of the more famous sights in Scotland: the Eilean Donan Castle.

We went because of course you have to go. It is not too big though, constrained as it is by the island it sits on. We sprung to take the inside tour, and I was surprised to learn that despite its long history the castle as it stands today is pretty much a 20^th century reconstruction. As I was enjoying a haggis sandwich in their café I wondered if Lt. Col. John MacRae-Gilstrap’s vision in restoring it included a visitors’ center and gift shop. The inside of the castle is very cozy though, it seems like a great sorta loch-side cabin. Around the outside they have signs with QR codes to link you to more information about the local lore and wildlife, my favorite one being about the Boobries (heh heh). It’s gotta be a little bit weird though, that it was a stronghold for the Clans Mackenzie and MacRae and is now most famous for being the home of Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. This fact is discussed neither at Eilean Donan nor Dunvegan Castle.

Dunvegan Castle of course being not only the actual seat of the MacLeod of MacLeod, chief of the Clan MacLeod, but our next destination. After Eilean we finally, finally drove the final bit of the way to Skye and Dunvegan was our first destination. Despite having made my super amazing wife watch Highlander, neither of us were really actually all that into any of the MacLeodiness of either site and were in fact visiting Dunvegan primarily for their seal tours. This is where Bob the seal tour skipper and wildlife photographer takes you out on the Loch and gets you up close to the colonies of seals on the estate. But tickets in hand we had some time before boarding, so why not we visited the castle.

Like Eilean Donan, this is also a cozy castle. It’s got a nice library and nice portraits and nice bedroom furniture. As we wandered around this place I mostly wondered what Leod would have thought, as he scratched out his defensive position atop an island bluff, about his descendants like, wearing nice outfits and holding dinner parties. But I suppose one works hard so one’s kids can be artists. There was more Walter Scott ephemera and they did have a dungeon you could check out. We also of course saw the Fairy Flag and I am pleased that my blog will now safely return from WWII.

But now it was time for the seal tour. That was lots of fun. Bob is both a skilled skipper and skilled seal tour-er, and we were on one of the last ones of the season. The tour got us real close to two different seal colonies where the seals, used to basking in the glow of fame, are unperturbed as you watch them bask in what little sun there was. Bob also told us about Vlad, which I thought Bob said was a sea lion but upon Googling that doesn’t seem right, but whatever Vlad is he is big and has been eating all the seal colony pups. Bob took this in as just the circle of life. But Vlad is also eating all the otter pups, which had Bob concerned. We did not spot Vlad on this trip or else we would have given him a stern talking-to. Despite learning about predator-prey relationships the tour was a great time and it was gorgeous out there on the water.

The tour over and our feet back on dry (well kinda damp) land, we exited the castle via the gardens there. They are very nice gardens and look like the sorta place a fairy would hang out when not distributing flags. But it was getting late and finally time to make it to our accommodations for the night, after stopping by a fish & chips place to pick up some dinner. The final bit of driving was the most harrowing part of the day, as it finally brought us to some single-track roads. Although I had studied the YouTube videos about passing etiquette, and was trying desperately to be unfailingly polite, I still got it wrong and a man in a van I couldn’t see (his window was much higher than ours) stopped to tell me off about it. Although gruff I suppose this was really very kind of him and the rest of the time we were in Skye and Shetland the single-track roads were no problem, except that one time I kept pulling u-turns to look at a broch. But that was still some time away, and until then we were ensconced in the beautiful landscapes and looking forward to a couple more days in Skye.