A visit to Armadale on Skye and Eilean Donan

Earlier this week I joined a group for a visit to Armadale Castle and Gardens (within the Clan Donald Skye Estate) on the Sleat Peninsula of the Isle of Skye, my first visit to Skye, although I've looked across at it from Kyle of Lochalsh and other nearby points on the Scottish mainland a number of times before. However, nothing can compare with even a brief visit, so I was very pleased to take this opportunity. Of course Skye is quite a large island, so on this visit I saw only a very small part of it.

Armadale Castle and Gardens - 12th September 2012 Click here to see an enlargement, plus additional photographs. Click here to see an enlargement, plus additional photographs.

The other part of the trip was to visit Eilean Donan Castle at the head of Loch Duich (where it meets Loch Long and the eponymous Loch Alsh), certainly one of the most iconic images that most people take back from a visit to this part of Scotland.

Eilean Donan Castle, Loch Duich - 12th September 2012 Click here to see an enlargement, plus additional photographs. Click here to see an enlargement, plus additional photographs.

One of the attractions of this short trip was the beautiful scenery on offer. The journey there from Inverness was down the western side of Loch Ness (i.e. the main road, less attractive and busier than the road down most of the eastern shore), then down though Glen Moriston and on past Loch Cluanie and Loch Duich, stopping at Balmacara Hotel for refreshments, before crossing the Skye Bridge and finally Armadale Castle and Gardens, where we had time to have lunch and take an enjoyable and for me quite lengthy walk around the gardens as well as time for a visit to the Museum of the Isles.

I have visited Eilean Donan Castle a couple of times before, the weather can be 'variable', as indeed it was this week and of course there are always many other people visiting. However, there is now much better parking for both cars and coaches and whilst there were quite a few people around it did not seem quite so frenetic as on my previous visits.

The return trip to Inverness was via another route entirely - across to Loch Carron, up Glen Carron, to Achnasheen and along Strath Bran and on to Garve, Strathpeffer, Dingwall and finally to Inverness. The drive up along the shores of Loch Carron, through Glenn Carron and Strath Bran to Garve is in my view one of the most attractive in Scotland and when there are dramatic clouds with streaks of evening sunshine as there were this week it is even better.