Mom and Dad's Trip Recap: Ft. Augustus and the Highland Tourist Route

Sunday we headed back to Aberdeen and wanted to take a different route. It was another long day of driving but again worth it! Once we got back to Loch Ness we went south to Ft. Augustus before heading Northeast through the Cairngorm National Park. Ft. Augustus wasn't a planned stopped but when we figured out this was the home of the Caledonian Canal (think Panama Canal on a much smaller scale) and they were about to send the boats through, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see the amazing lock system that allows the boats to travel from Ft. William in the west to Inverness in the east.

It was pretty cool to watch and there are shops and restaurants lining the locks so you can grab a meal or a cuppa and enjoy watching the boats come through. I would like to go back and spend more time in this cute little town and of course Ryan has already researched how we can rent a boat and take it through the locks ourselves. :)

The rest of the ride back home was pretty uneventful but gorgeous none the less as we took the tourist route to Aberdeen. (note: tourist route=windy roads but beautiful scenery) Even now having seen the west coast and all of it's glorious beauty, it's the Cairngorms and Aberdeenshire that takes my breath away on almost a daily basis and will forever have my heart! I love Scotland (if you couldn't tell). :)

Mom and Dad's Trip Recap: Isle of Skye In A Day

I waited a little long on getting accommodation for our weekend to the Isle of Skye and everywhere I called was booked so we ended up having to stay just over the bridge from Skye in Kyle of Lochalsh. This ended up working out for the better but it did make for a long day since we did the whole Isle in just one day. It took 13 hours from the time we left our B&B and returned. We covered a lot of ground and though we were exhausted by the end and I think I speak for everyone when I say it was worth it. When you have just a short time to see so much you often come out exhausted but thankful that you did it. And this whirlwind of at trip sparked a fire in me and Ryan to explore more of the Inner and Outer Hebrides and the West Coast of Scotland.

Here is how we did the Isle of Skye in just one day!

Old Man of Storr-this is a very cool geological formation that can be seen from the main road. There is also a great hike up to the Storr but we opted out of the hike to give us more time in other places. And turns out that was a good decision considering how foggy it was up at the top.

Lealt Falls-Lealt means 'The burn (small stream or brook) with one high bank" in Gaelic. This was our first true taste of how beautiful Skye was going to be. These views took my breath away. I apologize because the pictures really don't do it justice.

 Kilt Rock-formed by a massive volcanic activity over 55 million years ago.

Faerie Glens- 'magical' cone shaped, grassy hills. A little off the main road but worth it to pretend you're in a fairy tale and to see how the sheep have formed these ridges in the sides of the formations. Had it not been raining at this time, it would have been nice to get out and climb to the top of the hills.

SkyeSkyns- a small, traditional tannery that offers a free tour. Unfortunately (for us), they don't do any actual tannery work on the weekends so we didn't get to see the tanner in action but still enjoyed learning about this time honored craft. You can only buy SkyeSkyn products at their store or online. A pretty unique gift, I came home with some slippers!

Coral Beach and Dunvegan Castle-this was my tour guide fail #2. The weather was ever changing throughout the day and at the moment it was time for this, it was windy, cool and looked like rain. The actual beach was about a mile hike which wasn't very scenic. Skye isn't known for their beaches but this one apparently is an exception. I'm sure it would have been lovely had we not been on a 'schedule' and had the weather been perfect (and had the tide not been out). We made it far enough to be able to see the beach from a distance but turned around afraid we were going to get rained on and lose time for our other sites. Upside to attempting this beach was a beautiful shot of Dunvegan Castle. In hindsight, we should have just spent the time touring the castle instead of in search for Coral Beach.

The white sandy beach in the distance is Coral Beach

Dunvegan Castle

Talisker Distillery-one might say this was fail #3. I didn't even think about needing to book a tour in advance but apparently you do. There was no room in any of the tours left for the day but I talked the guy into giving us a tasting. West Coast whisky is known for being peaty and I wanted Dad to be able to taste and compare to The Glenlivet. To us it didn't go down quite as smoothly as the others and I ended up having to hold my nose to get the 10 year down because I didn't want to waste it since the guy was kind enough to give it us. I'll stick to the Speysides for now :)

Fairy Pools- oh the Fairy Pools. Lives up to every bit of "save the best for last" and definitely made up for the 2 fails prior to this stop. I was hesitant about the Fairy Pools since all of the pictures I'd seen on line were super photo-shopped and I just knew they wouldn't live up to my expectations. Boy was I wrong. It's about a 3-5 miles hike depending on how far you want to go up. We probably went 3 miles round trip. The pools are really something else and had the weather been a little bit warmer, I probably would have jumped in for a swim! And again, my pictures don't do them justice, you really just need to go seem them for yourself ;-)

Mom 'gracefully' crossing the stream

Such a fun and memorable day on the Isle of Skye. I really can't wait to go back and do some more exploring of this part of Scotland and I'm thankful I was able to give my parents a taste of the West Coast!