Road Trip Day 3: Skye, Eilean Donan, and Fort William

The next morning, there was no rush to get out of the house. The heavy wind and rain mad the warm bed so much more appealing. The hosts made us all a proper fry-up, meaning eggs, toast, stewed tomatoes, mushrooms, and haggis. The only thing missing was the beans (but that was totally fine with me). We had planned to take the ferry back to the mainland, but when we called it was shut down. Though the website fails to mention it, some of my Scottish friends later told me that the ferries are often shut down going to and from Skye. The bridge is a much safer bet. The rain lightened significantly and we decided to head out to the town's distillery.


I had been hoping to go on a whiskey distillery tour for a while so I was very excited. The tour took us from the mixing of the ingredients to the mash room to the fermentation room and ended in a storage room. We all had a taste of the Tallisker whiskey at the beginning, but none of us were too fond of it. Kathleen and Charlotte had been sampling a couple different types and favored Dalwhinnie's. The tour was a little underwhelming, but I can now tell you why the Tallisker whiskey has a peppery, smokey flavor. 

We walked outside and it was immediately obvious why Skye is such a vacation destination. The sun was shining on the hills off in the distance. 

In the summer, the water gets pretty warm because of the Gulf Stream. People from all over Great Britain drive here to enjoy the warm sea-lochs and Cuillen Mountain Range.

We checked a few more times over following hours, but no ferry was running before 2:30pm. We decided to drive back over the bridge before going down to Fort William. On the way to Skye, I had noticed a castle that looked familiar. My mom and Charlotte looked it up and found that it was the Eilean Donan Castle. It's out in the middle of a loch and possibly the most photographed castle in Scotland. The man who rebuild it in 1912 did so after having an image of it in a dream--and it still looks like it's out of a dream.

Once we got to Fort William, we stopped to book rooms for the night and ended up at a guest house. They suggested we try out the Alexandra Hotel, which is supposed to have authentic Scottish music in the evenings. We actually spent most of dinner listening to 90s and Top 40 music. When the local performer did come on, it seemed like she was going to be doing more American country than Scottish folk. Still, the food was good.

After dinner, we wandered around the small town. It's main attraction for tourists is a base for those visiting Ben Nevis and other outdoor attractions.