Scotland day 4

Busy day to say the least!

started off with a early breakfast at 8:00 AM.  figured with us wanting to hit as much as we had planned, with a full scottish breakfast - sausage, bacon, egg, beans, mushrooms.  Deb opted for the the continental.

We hit the road right around 8:30 or so.  the first sight we saw was the Skye bridge.  it used to be a toll but was later purchased and made free. the winds were fierce to start with. guessing we had gusts up in excess of 45mph.

the roads here - especially on skye - have a lot of single lane roads - going from two lane, to 1 1/2 lane to single to one that is just enough room for the four tires.

first stop was talisker. being the third distillery, we were more interested in how it's dried and the tastes from that. talisker is a bit smokey for me - deb liked it. it's much like dalwhinny as it's owned by the same group. they do not fill any casks there - rather they ship the liquid off and then at another site and do the bottling off site as well.  I still think tomatin has been the best so far.  picked up a three pack, a bottle for deb as she liked it (and it's from skye) and a jersey for me. only place we have see them.

next we headed off to the skye weavers.  again, the roads kept getting smaller until we arrived down their drive - the sign on the gate said "CLOSED". Deb said "oh no, they may not be here" - i called bullshit and said we are going down the trail, and to the house to see if anyone was there. not going to drive all that way for a closed sign.

Yep - Roger was there and Deb got the tour she wanted. she got to "drive" the weaving machine.  Roger gave her some scraps from the shop. she picked up a couple big balls of scraps and nice scarf.

from there we headed to Ballmacqueen. our trail took us over between the hills - again via some of the narrowest roads i've been on. but we got to the A885.  along the way we saw some great waterfalls, rainbows and scenery in general. i'll try to post here.  we stopped along the way to see the Old Man of Storr and Kilt Rock.

We didn't stop at James MacQueen Construction but we did have to pull off  to the side of the road to allow one of his trucks come by.

Made it up to Ballmacqueen and drove down the road to the ocean front.  during the day, deb was a bit choked up at times. - thinking that she could actually come to the place that part of her family actually came from.  pretty cool.. the bigger question is now why did they leave the area?  Was it because of the calling for better opportunity ? were they forced?  that will be something she can research.

after tromping around the beach, we headed back. stopping at portree, deb wanted to see if she could find a knitter that has aberdeen sheep - they are the black sheep.  stopping at the tourist information office, they gave her a call and got directions. We hit the road and again and found the place.  Deb got to meet the sheep, the owners (whose house had burned down 3 years ago and now rebuilding) and purchase some yarn.

On the road again, we head back to kyle.  wanting to stop at hector's dinner but were closed. so we hit the hector's to go and brought back to the room. got back right about 7 and at dinner (fish and chips).
Showered and then relaxing bit.  tomorrow we are off to our last b&b down by edinburgh.  about 4 - 5 hours away. hope to get in, get some dinner with clem and diana.