The West Coast & Isle of Skye

Scottish West Coast & Isle of Skye

Last May our good friends, Chris & Rachel Green and their 2 boys, took a trip to the West Coast of Scotland.  Rachel was kind enough to post lovely pictures and supply me great references for lodging and points of interest.  My mom is here and is kind enough to help us finance the trip.  So, we packed up Wednesday night and headed out Thursday morning as soon as we were ready and fed, which was 8am.  We drove straight out to the West Coast, which was a lovely 5-hour drive.  As usual, the kids were champs as long as a “moo-mie” was in.  My poor mom had to wedge herself in the backseat- I get massively car sick when not driving, so the back seat on Scottish twisty-turny backwoods roads was not ideal.  Thus, I drove, Josh and Tom-Tom navigated, and Mamama and the kids survived in the backseat.

The backseat was quite cozy!

Getting there

As I said, the drive was beautiful.  We passed Dean’s Shortbread Factory, as well as Walker’s.  Since it was a 5-hour drive, we opted to shortbread it up on the way back when we broke up the trip.  We arrived on the West Coast, near Plockton, at 1pm on Thursday.  The lodge Rachel recommended was everything we hoped- spacious, lovely, and fully-equipped for all our needs.  So, we napped Luke (unfortunately, Rebekah fell asleep 5 minutes away from our destination, so she missed a much-needed nap) and headed out to Kyle of Lockalsh that afternoon just to see what was there.

Kyle of Lochalsh

The boys

Beks loved all the TIMBER!

Luke was too busy splashing in puddles to appear in this photo.

Day 1: Friday

Friday morning, Luke woke up at 5:40am.  Um, no thank you.  So, we waited it out, then had to wake him at 8:30.  Bless his sleepy heart- he was all curled up in a ball in a corner of his tent.  The second he woke up, he caught sight of his shoes and insisted on wearing them immediately, if not sooner.  So funny.  Anyway, we hit the road for a 1.5 hour jaunt across the sea to the Isle of Skye, and more specifically, to Dunvegan Castle.  In all honesty, I didn’t love the castle- it was in process of being restored and it felt expensive at 8 GBP apiece for adults to see a few rooms we couldn’t photograph.  Regardless, the drive across the Isle was worth every minute and penny.  The terrain was both beautiful and rugged.  We could picture the Scottish clans trekking across the harsh terrain in their tartans…as for us, we were pretty miserable in the frigid rain.  Such Americans.

Dunvegan Castle- Josh joked that it was hill (dun) of the vegetarians (vegan). It ws funnier in the car.

The view was much better than the actual castle. I loved all the deep reds and browns.

Such rugged terrain.

Again, I was super-impressed with how well Rebekah and Luke behaved in the car.  Luke was excited to get in the car every time because there were so many moo-mies, while Rebekah was happy as long as she got to be seatmates with Mamama.  Every time I glanced back at the kids, Luke just grinned at me and then said something funny, like “Hi, Nessie!”  Love that kid.  Speaking of Nessie, evidently Rebekah prioritized spotting her during our trip, regardless of the fact that we weren’t going to Inverness and the famed Loch Ness until Sunday.  So, every river, loch, or sea we passed, she strained to see Nessie.  At first, she was really intent on actually spotting her, growing increasingly more agitated as we moved away from water.  Eventually, she relaxed and began to joke that every rock grouping was Nessie….then, laughingly saying, “Or maybe it’s just rocks,” at which point Josh started calling her the Rock Ness Monster.  Fun memories.  I am guessing this is when Luke picked up on Nessie- clever little boy.

Eilean Donan Castle- first time (we went back on a clearer day)

We made it home in time for everyone to take a snooze- Luke, Josh, and I crashed pretty long, but it took some convincing on Mamama’s part and finally a shared bunk bed for Rebekah to succumb to sleep.  So, by the time we were all awake, we only had a few minutes to make it out to Eilean Donan Castle in Dornie.  Their last entry was 5pm, so we just walked around and enjoyed the view.  Gorgeous.

{side note: Luke’s 2-year-old vocabulary is fairly limited- it usually includes references to self-serving words, such as movie/TV, all kinds of foods, and things he wants.  Now he can say castle.  That’s how you know they’re growing up in Scotland.}

LOVED this castle. It was restored in the 1930's.

The kids loved the bridge.

Our family.