Roadtrip: Scottish Highlands Part Four

Other articles in the series:
Roadtrip: Scottish Highlands Part One
Roadtrip: Scottish Highlands Part Two
Roadtrip: Scottish Highlands Part Three

I had agreed to get @goblinknackers some scotch from the Talisker distillery, and so after a full and very unhealthy breakfast we packed our sparse belongings, took a few more shots of the Kyleakin surroundings, before making our way into Skye proper.

It was a 60 mile round trip to the Talisker distillery, so I hope you appreciate it @goblinknackers!

The roads were mostly 60MPH ones and for the first few miles we made good time, but then the terrain became most mountainous, with windy roads going up and down and around these huge peaks.

The further into Skye we went, the worse the weather it seemed. So far, it had been blue skies and little else. Clouds hung over these enormous peaks and made for some stunning photography. There were few others on the roads, but the people we saw were pulling over to take shots too.

The distillery is on the far side of the village of Carbost, and is at the bottom of a rather steep road. The weather here was verging on rain and you can see all the low clouds forming over Loch Harport.

We arrived reasonably early and the tourists were already starting to flock. The visitor car park is quite small, but we managed to get a spot. Inside was a typical tourist affair, the whiskies lined up one on side, and tours available at £10 each, or kids at £5.

I can’t really imagine an 8 year old wanting a swig of Taliskar Storm or Skye though it is included in the tour. We skipped the tour as we were short on time.

Most of these spirits are available in the shops and supermarkets. I was looking for something more exclusive and found a limited edition run of 6000 bottles at a cool £90. This is what @goblinknackers was looking for, him being a collector of these limited editions.

Having grabbed one, we headed out and back to the Scottish mainland. I didn’t buy any whisky at the point. Another customer mentioned to us, ‘These are £25 in Tesco, don’t buy them here’, while pointing to the large bottles of Taliskar Skye and Storm.

We found out later that this was in fact not true. The prices are pretty much the same. I guess the supermarkets have these distilleries over a barrel regarding costs and mark-up. No pun intended.

I noticed the further we got to the mainland, the better the weather. Good! We don’t get this kind of extended good weather in the UK and I was thinking we were going to be cursed with rain and grey skies again.

Having passed Eilean Donan castle the day before, we were not going to miss this famous landmark again. Arriving at 11am, the tourists were in full flow and the sky was blue again.

Several movies have been shot at this castle, the most famous being the original Highlander starring Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert.

While Highlander is a work of fiction, the castle is very real and looks just like it does in this YouTube clip that is scenes from the movie that incorporate the castle.

I don’t know how many photographs I took, but it was a LOT. I have never seen such a picturesque castle before, and so we paid the admission fee and headed into the grounds.

Unfortunately there were quite a lot of tourists around, with it being a lovely day as well as a weekend one.

The outside areas, we could photograph, but the inside ones we could not. I could see why as the main castle area contained several very old oil paintings.

There was quite a lot to the interior, many floors, narrow passages, very steep winding steps as you would normally expect from a 12th century building.

The history of this one is extensive, but until the early 1900’s it was a ruin and was salvaged and bought by a private owner. You can see some of the brickwork is obviously not 800 years old, but it doesn’t really detract from the sense of ancientness and history that has happened here.

I looked out over the Loch and felt what others must have hundreds of years ago. Anticipation of the invading Vikings arriving, to conquer, pillage and rape the locals. Thankfully it didn’t happen that day.

The kitchen was the most interesting room. Lifelike pieces of meat, fruit, banquet food, ducks, rabbits, pigs hung up and waiting to be cooked and a very real stern looking lady making sure you didn’t take any snaps.

I did check out the realistic meat when she was distracted and found it not surprisingly to be plastic. They did a great job with those models.

I made the decision not to break the rules and steal some snaps, though there were no paintings in this room. I didn’t want to get thrown out.

There were no boasting rights about the famous movies that were shot inside the castle. Apparently,’ The World is Not Enough’ Bond Movie has some footage there too!

Visiting Eilean Donan was the highlight of the trip, it is simply something that is out of the past, has that atmosphere and character but is somehow still with us. It did not disappoint and I will always remember my visit.

This post was created in #esteem thanks @good-karma

All Photographs were taken by myself.