Raasay

We headed over on the ferry to Raasay today, another place in Skye we've not visited before. It is a fairly long island running up in parallel to the east of Skye and we thought we would first head up to the top and work our way down to make sure we caught the last ferry back.

First up was a stop at the ruins of Brochel Castle which looked over to Applecross. We hadn't realised until we walked to the castle that there was a pebble beach below and as soon as Arlo saw it he was champing at the bit to get down there so we ran down the pebbles. The noise of the pebbles seemed to wake someone up and 3 seals popped their heads up to watch us wondering what all the commotion was about. It was nice down there.

Just on a bit was Calum's Road... Calum was an assistant lighthouse keeper and part time post man who, in his third job, between 1964 and 1974, built a 2 mile road in order to reach their village of Arnish where a number of families lived, because the local council were not prepared to pay for it. 3 years after it was built, the council took control of it and tarmacked it, but by then all the other families had left the area. The photo shows his tools - a shovel, pick and wheelbarrow!

When we reached the end of that road, we walked about a mile along a track to Torran then back. It was then back in the car and down to Clachan to visit the Raasay Distillery and shop, they produce both whisky and gin there although we'd already bought their gin in Portree. Clachan is actually right across from our holiday cottage, which is in the distance behind the ferry in the last photo.

Back over the sea on the ferry, dinner in Sligachan before getting back to base and everybody crashed out. I think a 2 or 3 day trip to Raasay might be on the cards in the future.