Monday, September 12, 2016

Saturday 10th September - Isle of Skye to Ballachulish

The weather looking more settled this morning, the sun shone intermingled with threatening clouds, but no rain.

On the road early, we travelled south via The Cuillin Hills to the mainland, destination the Fort William area.  The Cuillin Hills were very impressive, remote/sparse looking and hardly a tree to be seen (Skye generally is like this).

We had read about the Fairy Ponds and weren't disappointed.  We were there early and still the car park was fill, but luck was on our side - as we came in someone was going out. We walked for about 30 minutes;  the tracks in places were very boggy after all the recent rain.  Attractive waterfalls/ponds repeated for quite some distance.  But well worth it - today is the first time I have used the tripod so far, trying to get a long exposure to make the water smooth and milky.  

From there we stumbled on a gorgeous bridge in the Sligachan Glen, the light was amazing with the Cuillin Hills behind.

We then mooched on to the Skye Bridge, an impressive structure, very tall and quite a climb up and down the other side.  My photo below doesn't do it justice. Sun was shining here, then on to a very attractive seaside town of Plonkton (a little off the beaten track, but had been told to call as a pretty place, they were right)  We had a terrible lunch here.

Driving on, the next stop was the gorgeous and photogenic Eilean Donan Castle.  Thousands of tourist, we didn't go in but I took a few (no, make that lots) of pictures.  I've seen this in books, but being there at 2 pm with the winds howling meant there weren't any reflections.  Not to worry, just happy to see it.

The drive to our destination took us over forested hills, along lochs (five I think) until arriving at Fort William....OMG, not a BnB to be had, weekend so very busy.  We ust kept driving finally arriving a North Ballachulish and finding a lovely wee BnB on the shores of the sea.  Such a welcomed sigh.

We settled in then walked down the road to Loch Leven Hotel.  A beautiful old home converted to a hotel, the meal was classy but not too expensive.  The lovely views looking over the water, with the big impressive bridge in the distance.


The Cuillin Hill, with Doug walking the track to the falls and ponds.

One of the falls and ponds, loved the colours in the rock face.

Sligachan Glen with arched bridge.

The Skye bridge, opened in 1995

Little village of Plonkton, very pretty with teeny weeny streets

Eilean Donan Castle

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