Paying our Respects to Flora MacDonald

Who, you may ask, was Flora MacDonald? 

Flora MacDonald is a respected Highland heroine for it was Flora that helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape to the Isle of Skye. With the search for Charlie in full swing, in a conspiracy with others it was arrange for Flora to go to Skye to visit her mother. On the perilous boat journey, Flora took with Charlie disguised as her maid. He went into hiding on Skye and eventually escaped to France.

Our B&B out at Old Corry

So to our day on Skye. The weather was much better that yesterday as we headed north along the main road to Portree (for simplicity, I am using the English form of the location names). We continued along a single track road up the east coast of Skye passing by Loch Fada and Loch Leathan until we came to the River Lealt. Here we stopped to look at the remains of a 19th century venture to process and export Skye Diatomite (diatomaceous earth) that were at the bottom of a cliff face.

The remains of the Skye Diatomite venture

We continued of through Staffin to Kilmuir at the northern end of the island. Here we found a rather quaint Skye Museum of Island Life which really did demonstrate just how hard life would have been centuries ago. Nearby, in the Kilmuir Graveyard, is then grave and a monument to Flora MacDonald. As a measure of the esteem held for her, it is said that over 3,000 people attended her funeral.

 The Skye Museum of Island Life - life would have been very tough

The monument to Flora MacDonald

After leaving Kilmuir, we made our way to Uig, a ferry port for some of the nearby islands. From here we were back on a main road while we headed south for a while before turning west to Dunvegan. We decided that is was a little too late to visit Dunvegan Castle so instead, we drove out to Neist Point which is the most westerly point of the island.

 Looking down on Uig

 Neist Point 

We then headed over the range to Portree to pick up our washing before heading back to Broadford. On the last leg of our journey, we drove down a "scenic alternative route" through Mol. This was quite bizarre as not only was single track, it seemed to go through the middle of a quarry, the bush on both sides of the track was higher than the car a lot of the time and often was just wide enough for a small car to go through. Still, it was a n interesting drive along what was probably once the main road. We went back to the Broadford Hotel for dinner.

Looking across to Old Corry from the Elgol Road - our B&B is the middle house of the three