Isle of Skye, Part 1

After a good night's rest in the Tongadale Hotel in Portree (where we each had our own twin bed), we attended the Church of Scotland for a worship service (the closest Latter-day Saint branch was several hours away and we thought it would be interesting to see what the majority of Scottish Christians experience on Sunday). I (Mark) found the procedural aspect of the whole meeting quite fascinating (they are in the middle of combining three parishes into two because they are growing too small in number). There was one young family in attendance with three children—everyone else were older adults over the age of fifty (it was charming the way the whole congregation rallied around and was attentive to those kids—like they had scores of grandparents). The preaching, unfortunately wasn't much to write home about—our sacrament meetings aren't doing too bad!

One joke the priest made was how you tell the weather in Portree. If you can't see the Quiraing mountains—it's raining. If you can, then it's about to rain. This was apropos because that's where we were off to next—through sheep pastures and hills on a single track road to the Quiraing Mountains on the very north of the Isle of Skye. The trail we were taking followed the base of these cliffs and then looped back across the top:

The view out to the valley below and the sea between Skye and Scotland in the distance:

Many stunning mountains to enjoy with the telephoto lens:

The wide view! It was really spectacular!

A lone tree clinging to the side of the cliff:

A good view of the winding road making its way up to the top:

Really, we couldn't take enough pictures of it:

Though sunny, it was quite breezy and still in the 50s, so we were dressed warmly:

More views:

Cell phone shot—still awesome! Definitely one of the more stunning places we saw. One native Scot we spoke with said he'd been walking in the Quiraing for 50 years and that back in those days he wouldn't see a soul the whole day. We definitely saw more people than that:

You can see how muddy it was. Luckily, we had noticed in videos and such that people were ALWAYS wearing boots when out and about in the highlands and isles. Squishy, squelchy mud was everywhere. We heard someone describe the whole of Scotland as a continual landslide in slow motion. Definitely different from what we're used to in Utah:

This folding of the turf is evidence of that landslide in slow motion. The grass would start to slide under the weight of the wet soil behind it, but then would hold as more grass grew over the top, strengthening it. Over time, you'd get this folded look on steep slopes:

The last full view as we are about to wrap around the corner:

Wool tangled in the thistles:

Making our way on top of the cliffs as it started to rain:

Cute villages down below:

Walking through misty pastures on top of the cliffs (we couldn't see much, so it was nice to have the GPS and trail track on my watch to know we were heading in the right direction):

Sheep nonchalantly grazing next to the cliffs:

The view from the top:

More sheep ♥️:

From the Quiraing, we went straight to Neist Point Lighthouse so we could get some great pictures of sunset (we had a quick dinner of items we'd purchased at the supermarket). Here's the lighthouse captured from the top of the cliffs using the telephoto lens:

Wider shot from the same spot. I had initially thought I'd take our sunset shot from up there (I liked how the upward slope of the shore leads your eye to the lighthouse and how the cliff doesn't appear so overwhelmingly tall from this angle), but I didn't like how high the horizon line was. It made me feel detached from the scene:

I ended up moving down to the base of the cliff. I appreciated the low cliff with the sheep on the left, but I wanted to let the cliffs spread out across the image more. I also didn't love how low the horizon was now, so I did end up moving further up the slope I was on and further down the coast:

Liking this angle a little better, but then I started wanting something to highlight in the nearer foreground:

Lighthouse closeup:

While I was taking those pictures, Amanda got this view the other direction. She spent most of this time walking around the large cliff in the pictures to get closer to the lighthouse:

Loving the way the cliffs are spreading out more as the sun gets lower:

Some self portraits:

Experimenting with more foreground elements (sunset lasts forever during Scottish summer):

Cairn Amanda got a shot of as she got closer to the lighthouse:

More shots from Amanda—straight out to the sunset:

The path leading down to the lighthouse on the other side of the tall cliff:

Brave sheep silhouetted by sunset:

Awwwwww:

By this point, the wind had essentially stopped, which was nice. However, no wind meant the midges (biting gnats or no-see-ums) could come out. I had every part of my body covered except the gap exposing my forehead between my hat and my eyes. The next day, the entire area was COVERED in itchy, red bites. Luckily this was our only run-in with the infamous Scottish midges.

As the sun sinks beyond the horizon—a purple foxglove in the foreground:

Twilight sky as the light fades:

Probably my favorite shot from the evening (notice those cute sheeps posing for me):

Aaaaaand a fun sign on our way back to Portree from Neist Point: