a NOLA girl in a Big world

Yesterday we packed are bags early and tackled a number of different places we planned on hitting the day before but were too busy licking our wounds from our defeat against the Falls to get to. This would pay off later.

Our first order of business was the Eilean Donan castle. This castle, which is the most recognized in Scotland due to its use in several movies, was recreated from the ground up following its destruction in 1719 by the Brits. Get this, the family that rebuilt it, the McCrae clan, blocked off a section of the castle specifically for the family to vacation in – that’d be a pretty awesome way to spend spring break.

After this we made our trek over to the Isle of Skye. The isle is known for its fresh seafood, beautiful landscape, Talisker scotch whisky, and more sheep than you’ve ever seen in your life. People on the island say without a doubt the sheep population outnumbers the inhabitants.

Our itinerary led us to the west of the island by Broadford, to a roofless church called Cill Chriosd. Our destinations were the ruins of Boreraig and Suisnish. The proof of the sheep overpopulation lies in the story of how the ruins came about – they were both cleared out by Lord Macdonald to make way for MORE sheep!

Not to bore you with all the history involved but the trek gave us an opportunity to see the full scope of the landscape while giving us a taste of what made the Scottish people who they are today. The trek took us through sheep poop filled grassy fields spotted by ruins and an old marble quarry, a forest preserve with 240,000 trees, the coast of the island and ending with the Broadford red hills and the loch Cill Chriosd. In 11 miles we crossed 4 different backdrops, each unique in its own way and as a whole I think we saw 10 people and what had to be hundreds of sheep.

We arrived back at the car around 6:30 and checked into our B&B in the little harbor town of Portree. As if by design, we pulled into town for dinner just in time to hear the local bagpipe band put on a show for everyone in the city center. I wish all of you could be here to see the magnificence of the landscape here and the great people we’ve encountered on the way. We took today to celebrate Linds’ birthday and opted out of our hike due to unexpected changes in the weather. More to come later on!
~ Bowen