Fort Augustus, SCOT

Continuing from our last post in Fort William, we walked back to our B&B via the lakeshore just in time to catch a bit of the sunset. While the B&B itself was very nice and comfortable, I was woken up suddenly in the middle of the night by some yelling outside. This was my first time I heard an angry Scotsman – I wasn’t quite sure what had him so upset, but he seemed to have been pretty mad at a couple of ‘punk kids… I’m coming for yea… I’m coming for the both of yea’ (his words, not mine). Unfortunately it took a little longer to fall back asleep the second time…

In the morning, we headed out of Fort William, towards Mallaig, where we caught a ferry over to the Isle of Skye, where Dan was pretty set on going. The fare was a little higher than what he had hoped for, so we decided to make the most of our 29 quid fare and go around the island (rather than taking a shorter route back onto the mainland), so we modified our plans a little – ahhh, the beauty of renting a car and the flexibility it provides! Apparently the word ‘Skye’ means ‘cloud’ in Gaelic, and the island completely lived up to its name.

While the Highlands looked like velvety versions of the Rockies, it was often difficult to see the peaks, due to the low hanging and heavy clouds. We started on the west coast of the island and made our way counter-clockwise.  The west side had much better scenery and had less traffic than the east coast (and the major A87 highway, leading to the Kyle of Lochalsh, the main bridge that connects the Island of Skye to mainland Scotland). We briefly stopped in Dunvegan to check out the castle, but the entrance fee somewhat detered us from staying any longer than 5 minutes.

The village didn’t seem like much, so we decided to press on to Portree, which was a much better village to stop for lunch. We ate at Cafe Arriba, which was recommended by the Lonely Planet and while the food was good, it was too expensive for the amount of food we received. I suppose we ended up paying for the view, since the cafe had a nice look out to the harbour.

After lunch we moved on and once we crossed the Skye Bridge, we were distracted by another castle, Glen Eilean Castle, which we were able to see without having to pay an admission fee – our kind of price! After that quick stop, we continued on (it had already passed 5pm and we wanted to make some more ground before stopping for the day).

So, a quick run down the A87 and onto the A82 northbound landed us in the small town of Fort Augustus, which is nestled right at the western banks of Loch Ness. Our first shot at looking for a B&B had us staying at the Nia Roo Lodge in the ‘Harry Potter’ room, because the doorway to the room is just under the stairs on the main floor. While the door was located under the stairs, the room itself was very nice with it’s own ensuite and a view into the back garden. We had dinner at the ‘Boathouse’ while enjoying our first views of the Loch Ness. Dan has mentioned over dinner that this is so far his most favorite village/town/city in Scotland thus far.