Talisker Distillery

Can not agree more 🙂

While on a holiday to Isle of Skye last year, it started to rain very heavily one morning and there was a windy storm. We were camping in the foothills of Cuillins and our tent was at the verge of knocking off and flying away from the ground. We had no choice but to get up, come out of tent and run some place where we have shelter on top of our head. We packed(wrong word, infact we dumped) everything into the car and decided to utilize this rainy day for a visit to Talisker Distillery in Carbost, Isle of Skye.

Ash is a whisky fan and he loves visiting distilleries to see what all process and efforts go in to to make that bottle of whisky.

Talisker is the only and oldest distillery on this island, that started in 1830 by Hugh and Kenneth Macaskill. It is located on the shores of Loch Harport in the village of Carbost, on the beautiful Minginish Peninsula, with enchanted views of the Black Cuillins. The location of the distillery works in its favour as Talisker’s water comes from springs directly above the distillery. More than half of the work force that works at the distillery is from the family owns the business, generation after generation took the ownership & pride in the family business.

The distillery operates five stills- two wash stills and three spirit stills. All the stills use worm tubs rather than a modern condenser, which are believed to give the whisky a “fuller” flavour. Now a days , the whisky is produced using conventional double distilling.

The team at distillery organises tour as well and they are lovely bunch of people who will answer to all your questions. At the end of the tour, you will get to taste some of their finest whiskies too. During the peak summer times, you might have to book a tour in advance if you are looking for a particular time, else there are ample no. of tours that runs around whole day. At the end you can buy some whiskies for your family, friends and ofcourse for yourself 🙂

Fairy Pools, Isle of Skye

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Fairy Pools, an another mystical place in Isle of Skye, it lies at the foot of black cuillins near Glenbrittle.It’s a pool of crystal blue water on the river brittle. As the name suggest this place is to be believed a pool of fairies. I have not seen any during my visit, but place itself is so magical that it will make you wonder and may be believe that after all fairy must have lived here.

Many people around the world visit this famous pool to experience wild swimming and stunning landscape around.

Me and my husband also visited Fairypool on a summer evening in June, it was partly cloudy and sunny weather, I was sure that I am not finishing this holiday without visiting this pool.

How to get there- The nearest village to the Fairy Pools is Carbost on the West of Skye, the start of the walk is on the road to Glenbrittle. You will notice a sign board for Fairy Pools on the way, and there is a free car park as well.

Weather- It rains almost all the year around in Isle of Skye.If you are the lucky one you may choose to visit this place on a dry day. Do not forget water will be icy cold, so you might want to carry a swim suit with you.

From the carpark, you will cross the road to opposite side with impressive views out towards the Black Cuillins, the source of the River Brittle. Your walk to fairy pool will start from the point, short walk to the first pools follows a gravel path that is in good condition most of the way, but does involve river crossings over stepping stones. It takes about 20 minutes to get the first and largest waterfall that marks the start of the pools. You can explore the pool in your own time as there are several of them some are very deep, some are shallow.

Me and my husband took dip in couple of pools, but as water was cold and it was getting dark and misty we head back to car park after spending a good hour over there.

Sharing some of the pictures.

Aug 13

Budget Travel: Fort Williams & Isle of Skye

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Last month me & my hubby went for a 9 days trip to Highlands & Isle of Skye. It was one of those most awaited trips of the year, and being the summer season a hot favourite destination for many tourists and travellers like us. Being Scotland and famous for it’s weather, everyone wants to enjoy the sunny days and as the forecast changes people plan their holiday to this majestic land. Lodging becomes expensive, infact in many cases you will not be able to book one as the cheaper ones will be booked out a long time ago.

Travelling does not have to be expensive if you are flexible and plan well in advance. I will say planning Well in Advance adds more fun to your most awaiting trip. Of course we can always have unexpected expenses in our travel.

We had an awesome trip in Skye and fort williams with an expense of £250 per person that included our food, lodging in camps, travelling and sight seeing for 9 days. Hereby I am sharing with fellow readers my budget details for the trip.

PS: Our trip included more of hiking, walking and enjoying the serenity around. Our aim was to soak the beauty around and live in the nature. We camped in the beautiful valleys of Scotland.

How to get Around: There is public transport available, but it is not so frequent as population around Fort Williams and Isle of Skye is not very dense. It is a good idea to rent a car to get around these islands. I am not sure the cost of renting a car because we had our own so we had expenses only for fuel. We visited Fort Williams in Highlands and Glenbrittle, Aird of Sleat, Elgol, Dunvegan, Portree in Isle of Skye. Travelling from one place to another is not time consuming while on Isle. It is a small island, and it will not take more than 45 mins to go from one town to another.

Accommodation: One of the best part of camping in Scotland is that you can camp for free in various places. And Yes believe me you can camp in some of the most beautiful foothills, into the woodlands, near to a lake or may be in a field next to a quiet road. We wild camped in Isle of Skye for two days near the foothills of Black Cuillins. It was the most beautiful place I have stayed in during any trip. We stayed at two beautiful campsites:

Glen Nevis Holidays – You can not imagine a site better than this in fort williams, right at the foothills of Ben Nevis (Britains Highest Mountain). Ideal location for hikers or walkers. Clean toilets, washing area, bathrooms and a food cart shop in the site. Link- http://www.glen-nevis.co.uk/ – £10/night pp.

Glenbrittle Campsite – Another most beautiful site, I have never stayed in a campsite beautiful than this one. For those who are not willing for wild camping yet, this is an ideal site to get the taste of it. Link – http://www.dunvegancastle.com/content/?page=s20 – £8/night pp.

Food- After lodging the next big money saver is Food. For a camping trip or self catering trip, try to pack as much as you can back from home. You can always buy milk, bread or fruits from a local store. But most of the food you can pick up from your home itself instead of buying new packets for the trip. Believe me packing up spices, sugar, tea/coffee, jams, biscuits, energy bars, cereals, ready to eat food packets, snacks to nibble on, cling film or air tight packed for sandviches so that you can carry your lunch along with you as well. Read to eat packets will save you some money on stove fuel as well. So pack food according to your needs and carry it along.

Sight Seeings: We walked around to see places. For rainy days we kept some distillery and brewery, castles on the list as well. Well these are the places worth spending money on instead of an expensive hotel or a restaurant. I have already written my posts on various places I visited while in Scotland, please go through the Scotland page from drop down menu. Walk, Cycle or Drive – You have lots of place to explore and discover. I am going back to Highlands and Skye next summer.

Elgol Lake Shore

PLAN IN ADVANCE, summer is popular, lots of people want to go there, and everyone is planning same things, you would not want to miss anything from your list.

Aug 04

Weekly Photo Challenge: A long way to the Edge

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Neist Point Lighthouse

One of the most amazing places in Isle of Skye- The Neist Point. Beautiful cliff edges, a poised and long zig zag way to reach the end 🙂

Lake District

One of the beautiful hill in Lake District. A Zig Zag way takes you the edge of a mountain.

In response to : http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/zigzag/

Jul 20

Elgol Village

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Isle of Skye has no shortages of picturesque villages, get-away for a calm and quiet holiday, local food, lakes, mountains. Elgol is one such village lies on the shore of river Scavaig, with holiday cottages, wild camping sites, two restaurants and boat trip services to near by islands. You want to be away from city commotion, pack a bag pack and stay in Elgol for that peace, stroll around the shore. One of the many beautiful places in Isle.

Elgol Lake Shore

Jul 18

Whimsical Loch Coruisk

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A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. ~Henry David Thoreau

The lines above holds true meaning for the Loch Coruisk. It is one of the most beautiful fresh water lake lying at the foot of Black Cuillins and surrounded by other small islands makes it even more enchanting.

There are a couple of ways to get to this lock either by trekking from Sligachan or from Elgol (but you will have to cross the very famous Bad Step to get to the loch) or via boat trip from Elgol Village. Easiest way is a boat trip, and there is Bella Jane Boat Trips and Misty Isle Boat Trips that offers various packages for boat trips around various islands.

Pack some lunch, carry Midges repellent and get on to the boat for a mystical ride around the loch. The boat trip organizers will give you good information around the islands around, will take you through seal colony and then drop you at lock to explore it on foot.

We spent a good two hours on the loch and loved it. As per our boat man, Scavaig river flows through here and it is the smallest river of Europe.

Sharing some pictures instead of words to describe the beauty of this place.

Jul 10

A walk to Coral Beach

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Coral Beach

We visited Coral Beach on a sunny day at Isle of Skye. It is one of the popular walk in Claigan just north of Isle of Skye and a very beautiful coastal location.

The beach is made from crushed white coral that makes the water look blue when the sun comes out.

Road ending at Claigan will have a car park (no parking fee), and walk to Coral Beach starts at this point. It is 3miles walk to get to the beach, the whole walk is pretty much straight forward and suitable for any weather.

Sharing some pictures with you guys, hope you will like it.

May be you can complete your visit by Dunvegan Castle on the way for a nice day trip. You will get to read about fairy myths and ofcourse Clans.

Jul 07

Beautiful Neist Point

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Neist Point

So what exactly was in my mind when I was standing at this majestic beautiful cliff.

“And if these mountains had eyes, they would wake to find two strangers in their fences, standing in admiration as a breathing red pours its tinge upon earth’s shore. These mountains, which have seen untold sunrises, long to thunder praise but stand reverent, silent so that man’s weak praise should be given God’s attention.”

This breathtaking place on the Isle of Skye is called Neist Point, the most westerly point of Skye. It is in Dunvegan and to require to walk 3kms to reach that point. The walk is on a tarmacadamed path for most of the way, and there are no difficulties with navigation. It includes a very steeply downhill walk, hand rails are provided to offer help. But once you reach the point, believe me every heart beat and breath is worth it.

It is a very popular place in Isle of Skye, a very touristy place but still you will find a Solace here. Also it is one of best place to watch sunset.

A perfect spot to just sit down and watch the world!!! You don’t believe me may be the pictures will prove my point. Again thanks to Ash who captured these beautiful moments of our lives.

Neist Point Lighthouse

Stallion’s Head at the back

Jul 06

Point of Sleat & Unseen Camas Daraich Beach

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Last Sunday I was at one of the most beautiful Islands of the world i.e. Isle of Skye – The Mystical Island. And believe me it lives upto its name. It is in true sense a mesmerizing and hypnotic landscape of nature, it takes your breath away. And to add to the topping it was a bright sunny day.

Isle of Skye (an t-Eilean Sgiathanach in Gaelic) takes its name from the old Norse sky-a, meaning ‘cloud island’, a Viking reference to the often mist-enshrouded Cuillin Hills.

You can reach Isle of Skye via road or water. We (Me & Ash) wanted to enjoy the scenery of both ways so decided to arrive from Mallaig to Armadale via ferry and return via Skye Bridge.

Armadale on Skye’s southern Sleat Peninsula is a small township and often people forget to explore this side of the town. We planned to visit Point of Sleat and Camas Daraich Beach(Sandy Bay). This is the most southerly point of Skye and requires a 3km hike to reach those points. Most of the walk include up and down on the hills, a boggy path and lot of midges attack if it is not windy and have not applied any midge repellent.

On the same way, there is a not very much seen beach named Camas Daraich, not many people know about it and it is not at all touristy. It’s a calm, clean, sandy beach – perfect for a swim on a sunny day. On a lucky day, Point of Sleat is also a perfect place to spot any dolphins, whale or seals.

Sharing few pictures of the first day at Isle of Skye.

I hope you will enjoy the post and anyone interested in getting further information, please feel free to leave your comments.

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