I have a bit of a thing for islands, as anyone who has seen earlier posts on my blog will probably realise.  One of the ways I want to feed my ‘thing’ is to visit all the main islands around the Scottish coast.  So far, I’ve visited Arran, Islay, Jura and Mull, and this week I’m adding Skye to the list.

I drove to Glasgow yesterday evening after work and spent the night under the flight path to the airport – getting disturbed every so often throughout the night wasn’t exactly a relaxing start to my trip!

Setting off this morning, there was fog lying thick across the land and it was only as I reached Loch Lomond that it lifted to reveal a cloudless sky and that’s how it remained all day until after sunset.

I love long drives and the four hours to Mallaig were spectacular; some stretches were familiar, previously driven routes whilst the last stretch from Fort William to the port was all new to me.

As well as a liking for islands, I also love a nice ferry trip, so whilst I could have crossed to Skye via the bridge, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to catch the boat across.  I wandered around Mallaig while I had a short wait for the ferry to come in; the weather making the port look particularly picturesque.

I’m staying for a week in a small cottage, about seven miles north of Portree, the main town on Skye. Up a small single-track side road, the cottage is very quiet and has a nice view to the distant coast.

Skye is a lot bigger than I thought and it takes quite a while to drive from the southern end at Armadale, where the Mallaig ferry arrives, to Portree and beyond.  However, unlike some of the other islands I been to, the main roads are good standard single carriageways and the single-track roads are limited to the more remote areas of the island.

After a bit of unpacking, I headed off to do a bit of familiarisation and ended up at Claigan at sunset, walking along the coral beach – I just wish I’d got there earlier to take some more photos.  Here’s hoping that the weather stays as good as it has been today for the coming week!