Isle of Skye-Loch Ness-Inverness: the remote Scotland..

Next morning I got up very early and left when it was still dark. When I came out of the hostel, there was a layer of ice on the car. Having never faced this situation before, I dint know what to do. Foolishly I tried turning the wipers on. But they were also frozen and made such a harsh noise that I thought that I had scratched the windscreen. Thankfully no damage. Then I turned on the heating and defogging. This worked and the ice melted. The car meter showed the temperature as 1 degree. When I finally left, it was 6.30am. The sun was just beginning to rise..

i could see snow on top of distance mountains..


the mountains all around..

The plan was to go around Isle of Skye and then to Loch Ness. First stop was the mountains after Portree. As I drove, the sun started rising.
Near Portree..

From a wider angle..

But the temperature was not increasing, Sometimes the car meter even showed -1 degress.

8miles after Portree there are a number of weirdly shaped rock pinnacles.

One of the most famous of these is known as the Old Man of Storr. Its the leftmost single peak in the pic above. Here I waited for the sun to rise.



As I drove on I saw a beautiful rainbow.


Next destination was the Kilt Rock, 200ft high cliffs marked in a pattern by the rock strata which looks like a pleated kilt, and with a waterfall tumbling down to the pebbled shore below.


Near the Kilt Rock, there was a beautiful lake..

Next was a town named Staffin. Here i saw a small road going towards thw sea. I followed it to get a glimpse of a beach before it ended in the driveway of a huge house.

After Staffin I took the road to Uig through the Quiraing, a set of mountains formed due to landslip.

The road was a narrow single lane road. It was at a higher elevation, and so it became cooler. Infact there were even some snow flakes on the way. But this was nothing compared to what was coming later in the day. On the way i saw there sheep on the road..


At the top, there is a coffee stall. I got out and took some pictures.

another angle..

But it was too cold to stay out very long. One good thing about touring in the car is AC/Heater. Some water had gone into my shoes but when my toes started feeling cold, I could simply divert the heater to my feet and problem solved. Uig is another place where one can stay and explore the countryside around. There are some good walks, waterfall etc. My next destination was Dunvegan castle which was 30miles away. But on the next turn, the sky flashed warning from the weather gods..

Throughout the day the rain had been following me. Whenever I stopped at a place, the clouds would catch up and it started raining. When I reached Dunvegan Castle, the sign said “closed for repair”. That was really disappointing. The detour to the castle had cost me 60 extra miles and atleast 2 hours. There are some coral beaches 1mi ahead of the castle but as I started going towards them, it started raining. So I turned around started for my next destination Eilean Donan Castle. the rain..

the cold turned the rain to snow at some places..


soon i outran the rain..

and it was sunny again..

Again the road was lovely to drive on, with some high speed twisties.

the view..

I crossed from Isle of Skye to Kyle Of Lochalsh..

The Loch Alsh View point..


Finally i reached the Eilean Donan Castle..

a closer look..

as i spent time in clicking pics, the clouds re-appeared and the sky started turning black..

the dark clouds..

Soon it started raining, so instead of going inside the castle, i decided to move on for Loch Ness.

again the snow on the peak tops..

It rained a lot but finally i was able to outrun it.

The road was mostly through dense forests with huge trees draped in autumn colors on both sides of the road.


On the way I stopped at the ruins of the Urquhart Castle. this seemed to me the mosted over-hyped monument in the country. There was nothing but a few walls standing on the shore of Loch Ness but still it had an entry fee of 7.5 pounds. I just took pics over the wall and moved on.

Plan was to stay at the Loch Ness youth hostel which is right on the banks of the lake. But as the tourist season was over, the hostel was closed.
The famous Loch Ness.. Couldn't find Nessie though.. :(

So I decided to stay at the hostel in Inverness. Inverness, called the capital of the Highlands, is one of the bigger towns of Scotland. From here you can go for cruises on Loch Ness and there are also many activities to do. In the rain there was no point in going for the cruise. Also in the guide to Scotland hostels I saw a hostel called Carbisdale Castle which was in Culrain, 42miles from Inverness. Hostel was in an actual castle which seemed really interesting, so decided to drive to it. It was starting to get dark. A few miles after Inverness, GPS directed me to turn right to highway B9176. After taking the turn I saw that I was on a narrow road where only one vehicle could pass at one time. First I thought I took a wrong turn because the GPS could never be wrong (the next day broke this belief of mine). But then I saw the name of the highway written on a board and was surprised. Later in my journey I realized that the highways starting with “b” are such small roads. The ones marked with “a” and 3 digits have one lane on each side. the ones marked “a” plus 2 digits also have one lane on each side but are much broader. The ones starting with “m” are the high speed motorways with 2-3 lanes. Coming back to the “highway”. As I said this was a narrow road with forests on both sides. Thankfully there was not much traffic, so could drive at a good speed. Then I reached a broader road passing through fields. On the horizon I could see snow covered hills. Seeing snow is always exciting for me. I tried to find a place to stop to click pictures but there wasn’t any space on the road to stop without blocking the traffic. That’s an advantage of touring on a bike. You can stop where ever you want without disturbing the traffic. Also it was getting dark and I dint want to be in such an isolated place after dark. Then I realized that the road was turning towards those hills. Wow and oh-no.. I would be seeing snow.. but I have no experience of driving in snow. Well I have experience of riding a bike on ice but lets say that’s an experience I’d like to forget. Soon there was snow on both sides of the road. My hands where itching to stop and take a pic but I could not afford the delay. Then the forests became denser, the road became narrower. This road seems to lead to nowhere. Should I turn around? If I have to do that later, then I will have to return through this road in dark. Nahi yaar, this is not India; roads are safe here. For last few miles there was jungle on one side and lake on other. Finally I saw a sign indicating the village Culrain. There I saw a sign for the Carbisdale Castle.

Relieved that i was on the right track, I entered the huge stone gates.

But then also I could not see any castle. There was more trees and narrow roads. I was expecting people with guns to jump out any minute from the trees and loot me. Finally I reached the castle. I had made it in time. The sky was just starting to turn black. I was expecting the castle to be empty. Who the hell would come to it here in the middle of nowhere. Honestly I don’t think anyone could even make it there without a GPS. Infact i was expecting to find an empty haunted castle with a senile caretaker and was dreading staying there alone. But to my surprise there were around 15 cars parked there.

I booked a room which was for 19 pounds. Then I also had to book the dinner as there was no other place to eat for miles. They served a nice 3 course meal. It was a beautiful palace with a statue gallery (containing mostly nude ladies) and with paintings on all the walls (also mostly depicting nude ladies).



My room was in the tower on the second floor. Sounded simple. But reaching it wasn’t. The castle was like a maze. On door after another, leading to another. it took good 2 minutes from the ground floor to reach the room on the second floor. But it was exciting staying in a castle. Having the dinner in the royal dining room. Then sitting in the library and deciding the next days itinerary (and chatting for hours with some really cute austrian chics..)
the library..

The receptionist, a French guy with a Scottish accent was also very helpful.

the shot of the castle at night..

it was really quiet and peaceful, being surrounded by dense forests. I would have loved to stay a few more days in this place..

Total distance in the day: 258mi


< previous page
# back to main page

> next page