IMG_1183

Road Trip 2

Stacks Image 6426
This was the second large distance trip we made in the car and I think we done about 240 miles in total just cruising about, the object of the first part of the trip was to reach the isle of Skye. We made our way to Shiel Bridge and took the small Military road, it is a very windy and sometimes gets very narrow however there are loads of passing places so don’t worry. You will find the odd sign that says Ferry so just keep following it, the ferry you are after is the MV Glenachulish (map) this ferry operates a summer service betweenGlenelg and Kylerhea, on the Isle of Skye. Built in 1969, she is the last manually operated turntable ferry in Scotland. The 550 m crossing takes only 5 minutes and is the shortest sea crossing to Skye. There has been a ferry on this route for over 400 years, with a car ferry since 1934, take a look at the website here


After the crossing we made for the small town of Broadford (map) and after a while made our way across the Sky Bridge (map) towards the Kyle of Lochalsh (from the Scottish Gaelic Caol Loch Aillse, "strait of the foaming loch") this is a village on the northwest coast of Scotland, 63 miles (100 km) west of Inverness. It is located at the entrance to Loch Alsh, opposite the village of Kyleakin on the Isle of Skye. A ferry which used to connect the two villages was replaced by the Skye Bridge, about a mile (2 km) to the west, in 1995.


Eilean Donan castle
The highlight of the trip was the castle, which is one of the most visited places in the highlands, even on a wet day the place was rammed full of tourists. After paying a reasonable £7.50 each we walked along the keep towards the castle entrance. Eilean Donan (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Donnain) is a small tidal island where three lochs meet, Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh, in the westernHighlands of Scotland; since the castle's restoration in the early 20th Century, a footbridge has connected the island to the mainland. A picturesque castle that frequently appears in photographs, film and television dominates the island, which lies about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) from the village of Dornie. The castle was founded in the thirteenth century, and became a stronghold of the Clan Mackenzie and their allies the Clan Macrae. In the early eighteenth century the Mackenzies' involvement in the Jacobite rebellions led in 1719 to the castle's destruction by government ships. Lieutenant-Colonel John Macrae-Gilstrap's twentieth-century reconstruction of the ruins produced the present buildings.

Pictures

First Image