29th February - Off to Skye

As my visit to Scotland was relatively short, I planned to spend only 1 day and night on the Isle of Skye, the island where I grew up and where many of my relations still live. The weather on the west of Scotland was pretty unpleasant with constant drizzle and strong winds. I did not mind to be honest, and felt the unforgiving Scottish weather rather refreshing.

On the 29th February, my schedule was pretty light and stress free. I visited my Auntie Marie in Braes, paid a brief visit to the cemetery to see the new headstone at the grave of my grandparents, collected some stuff for my mum, and went for a brisk walk over to Scorrybreac and the Black Rock.

The Scorrybreac walk brings back a flood of good memories, making it pleasant to retrace steps made many years previously. I did not mind the wind and rain at all, in fact it made the walk seem more of an achievement. Portree looked typically foreboding considering the weather conditions, as the below photo shows, but I was extremely satisfied to take a little time for this walk.Towards late afternoon, I drove a short distance to the Skeabost House Hotel to check into my room. Once again, the hotel is another place which brings old memories rushing back.Skeabost Hotel has (or had) the reputation of being one of the higher quality hotels on Skye. From my experience staying the night, I felt it was very average indeed. The menu appeared very limited, the staff did not bother to make you feel particularly welcome nor did they seem particularly interested in their guests, and the crisps were months out of date. A fairly disappointing stay, although I was not overly surprised. The hotel is a lovely old building in a great location next to the sea and a salmon river, but the need for heavy investment is readily apparent.

The following morning, I had a rather pleasant breakfast chatting to a couple of other hotel guests. I then made a visit to see my Great Auntie Annie - the welcome is typically warm and Highland. Always a pleasure!! I really feel like I am back home when I speak to Annie and I am sure she would be pleased to hear that.

And that was that - time to drive back to my parents' home in Inverness, albeit with a brief stop at the West Highland Free Press in Broadford to give them my views one year after the large earthquake and tsunami which struck Japan. Perhaps there will be a small article in the next copy of the newspaper.I stopped off a couple of times on the drive back to Inverness. The mountains around Kintail were dark and moody - I found their permanence extremely compelling. Wonderful to see the fantastic Scottish scenery, irrespective of the weather.