Scotland Day 4

8 September 2009

We departed to Isle of Skye from our hotel in Inverness. On the way to Isle of Skye, we stopped by at Loch Ness again to visit Urguhart Castle. It sits beside Loch Ness, between Fort William and Inverness. Though extensively ruined, it was in its day one of the largest strongholds of medieval Scotland, and remains an impressive structure, splendidly situated on a headland overlooking Loch Ness.

It is not known precisely when the castle was built, but records show the existence of a castle on this site from the early 1200s. The area had been granted to the Durward family in 1229, and they were probably the builders of the castle. This castle was then largely destroyed in 1692 by Williamite troops who had been holding the castle against Jacobite forces. The intention was to ensure that the castle could not become a Jacobite stronghold, an intention that was fully achieved as the castle was never repaired and remained as a ruin. It is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland.

Next, we headed to Isle of Skye. It is the largest and most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. At here, we visited The Storr, Lealt Fall, Kilt Rocks and Duntulm Castle.

The Storr is a rocky hill. It took us 45 minutes to walk up to The Sanctuary, the area in front of the cliffs. This has a number of weirdly shaped rock pinnacles, the remains of ancient volcanic plugs. One of the most famous of these is known as The Old Man of Storr.

Pic: The Storr

Pic: The giant rock behind me is The Old Man of Storr

The next stop was The Lealt. It is between the Old Man of Storr and Kilt Rock. The Lealt River rises in the foothills of Hartaval and flows north and east before plunging down two insurmountable drops into the Sound of Raasay. Each drop is about a hundred feet and only a hundred yards apart. From the foot of the lower it is only a few hundred paces to the sea, the last few dozen are a seductively deep channel, swelling with the spent waves from the shore. The water of the river is not clear and yellowish.

Pic: The Lealt River

Pic: Around The Lealt River, the steep cliff

You have to beware in this place. Do not fell because of a wrong step. Walking further towards the steep cliff, you will reach a place like below:



As mentioned, The Lealt is between the Old Man of Storr and Kilt Rock. We have visited The Storr and The Lealt, of course we did not want to miss the chance of visiting the Kilt Rock. Kilt Rock is black basalt columns that form what looks like Pleats in a Kilt on this cliff. This area was a viewing point that was fenced off. You know it's a DANGEROUS area when there is a fence; most cliff areas are not fenced or walled off in Scotland, Ireland or Northern Ireland! We also heard a strange noise that sounded like a boat but we didn't see any and it was almost Spooky.


Last but not least, we made our last stop at Duntulm Castle. Duntulm means "Fort on the green grassy headland" and is also "home of piping". It is supposedly severely Haunted with 3 ghost stories with a horrific history. One being of a a nursemaid that held a baby son out the window to see the ships & accidently dropped him to his death in the sea! As a punishment, the nursemaid was set adrift on the North Atlantic in a small boat. This castle was built in the 14th and 15th centuries and it was badly ruined.