Plank Road: Lochalsh to Isle of Skye

When you travel in Scotland, you have to just once, at least, have a full Scottish breakfast, the whole nine yards. Our Scottish hosts at the guest house in Spean Bridge obliged in the most unbridled manner. A small buffet table was laid out with boxes of cereal, yogurt, fruit plate, nuts, flax-seed mix, fruit compote and dried fruit and two jugs of juice, all of which, we didn’t dare touch, as we knew what was to come. Along came a pot of tea and two large bowls of Scottish porridge accompanied by a little pot of cream. As were we going whole hog, we dumped our pots of cream into our porridge and dug in. I have no clue what the secret is to Scottish porridge, but it is excellent and unlike any oatmeal or steel cut oats we have ever made. The taste and texture are totally different. The host came along and told us to go ahead and add nuts or seeds to our bowls, so we did.

After the bowl of porridge we could have stopped as we are not normally breakfast eaters, but I was pining for the Scottish fry-up so we carried on. Our plate came with bacon, sausage, egg and black pudding, we could also have had haggis, tomato, toast, jams etc. but held off on all that. What a breakfast, we were totally stuffed.

Our hosts have their own little flock of hens, so a long discussion ensued regarding chickens as we asked to buy eggs, they obliged, and we happily left with a little carton of eggs.

Back on the highway, the landscape of the Highlands is extraordinary. Our first stop was the site of the Battle of Glen Shiel, where the Jacobites lost to the government forces in 1719. Then it was on to Eilean Donan Castle which was held by the Jacobites and Spanish marines in 1719, but it was blown up by government forces. The castle remained a ruin until a rebuild began in 1913, the castle was completed as recently as 1932. We didn’t go into the castle as we don’t normally visit a lot of intact castles as we prefer ruins; however, it would likely have been a better idea to visit Eilean Donan as it looks like a more interesting castle than the Inveraray Castle, armoury excepted, of course.

Invariably, I tend to take us on some skinny little road when we are in Scotland and today it was a little loop from the main highway up a tiny single track to the village of Plockton. Plockton is a really interesting village with rows of old fishing cottages, gable-end to gable-end down the street, I think they actually share the end walls. The cottages are usually white with different coloured trim and down spouts but there are a few coloured or stone cottages here and there.

We were off to the Skye Bridge, a much more convenient route to Skye than the ferry from Mallaig, although the route to Mallaig is said to be gorgeous. But we have had enough of ferry travel for now, although we may take a tiny ferry back across the sea from Skye, to take us through a splendid mountain range on the mainland.

Skye is deceptively large, we drove a long way just to get to Portree, the main town. In Portree, we stopped for tea and purchased a few groceries. I have chosen a really remote location to stay, way up on the Waternish peninsula, but the view from our cottage widows is unreal! The cottage is exceptional, it is owned by an artist and you can see that in her colour and design choices, the decor is a bit more feminine than we are accustomed to, but it is not overly girly.

The cottage actually has a dryer, which is odd for Scotland cottages, although I don’t now how they dry clothes in this weather. The heated towel racks in the bathrooms come in handy but here I have the luxury of a real clothes dryer.

After behaving like gorging sloths for the past two days, we are looking forward to walking Skye.

Battle of Glen Shiel