Heading Home Through Glencoe

And so our holiday has come to an end. I had so looked forward to spending another week on Skye and being able to show my children around the place and now it is over. All that is left is just memories and photographs and a few sound recordings [1][2][3][4][5][6] to remember it by.

Heading down to Glenfries now for an overnight stay near the Scottish border, then it will be a sad farewell to my daughter at Birmingham train station so that she can head home to Norwich whilst the rest of us head back to Wales. Anyway, here are my last set of pics of the holiday as we headed back through Glencoe:

The snow peaks of Glencoe

Glencoe Mountain Range

Snowy Glencoe

Heading home through Glencoe

Waterfall, Glencoe

Lovelocks at a Glencoe Waterfall

Lovelocks at a Glencoe Waterfall

Sligachan, Skye

The Isle of Skye, famed for its rugged landscapes, was not always as it appears to today. According to legend, the dramatic mountains and verdant valleys, which have made Skye one of the major tourist draws in Scotland, were carved into the island by two sparring warriors.

Scáthach was the fiercest warrior Scotland had ever known. So renowned were her skills and strength in battle that she soon gained the reputation as the world's greatest warrior. However, when word of her notoriety reached Cúchulainn, the Irish warrior who believed he should wear that crown, he was none too happy with the claims. Believing he alone deserved that accolade, he headed over to Skye to fight Scáthach and reclaim his former glory.

Scáthach and Cúchulainn were both mighty warriors and their battle was intense and prolonged. For weeks they fought, their swords gouging entire mountains across the islands as they fought. But their skills were evenly matched and neither could thwart the other. However, on they continued to fight.

Seeing no end to the battle, Scáthach's daughter began to weep. And the faeries took pity upon her tears as the fell into the Sligachan river. They instructed the girl to head home and collect certain herbs and nuts along the route. Brewing these up in a cauldron over her cottage fire, the daughter wafted the smoke from the cooking meal out onto the wind, where it was carried to her warring mother and Cúchulainn.

The scent of the food reminded the two warriors just how hungry they both were and, agreeing to take a rest for a while, they lowered their weapons and followed the trail of smoke to its source. Discovering that the food had been cooked by her daughter, Scáthach invited Cúchulainn into her home to eat. The meal was delicious and hearty and filled both warriors with a sense of well-being that both warriors decided to call a permanent truce to their fighting and thereafter became firm allies.

Sligachan Bridge, Isle of Skye

The spot where Scáthach's daughter's tears had fallen into Sligachan river is now marked by a picturesque stone bridge and the waters beneath its arches are said to be magickal. Eternal beauty, it is believed, is bestowed upon those brave enough to lower their face in the icy enchanted waters here. 

Tulm Bay, Skye

Our holiday cottage in Duntulm, Skye

I took an early morning stroll down to Tulm Bay this morning, which is about a 5-minute walk from our holiday cottage in Skye. It was a lovely walk down a gently sloping path with the brooding remains of Duntulm Castle dominating the view to the left.

Duntulm Castle was built in the 14th Century and was the home of Clan MacDonald of Sleat during the 17th Century. The castle fell into ruins in 1732 when Sir Alexander MacDonald built a new home, Monkstadt House, 8 km to the south, using much of the castle's stone for its construction. Legend holds that the owner abandoned the castle after his young son fell from a window and was dashed on the rocks below. The infant's nursemaid's punishment was to be set adrift on the sea on a tiny boat. It is said that the nursemaid's sobbing can still be heard in the castle as she wanders the ruins, clutching the dead infant in her arms. The ghost of a prisoner in the castle has also been reported several times from the castle. Starved of food and water in its dungeons, he went insane and tried to eat his own hands to satiate his hunger! The castle is a forlorn and ruinous site today. And its grim and moody appearance makes no secret of its ghostly heritage.

Duntulm Castle

Beneath Duntulm Castle lies Tulm Bay. Its rocky beach has good views out to Tulm Island,  the Shiant Isles and the Isle of Harris beyond.

Tulm Bay

Tulm Bay, with Duntulm Castle and Tulm Island

Tulm Island, the Shiant Isles and the Isle of Harris beyond

Tulm Island, the Shiant Isles and the Isle of Harris beyond

The beach turned out to be a great site for one of my favourite hobbies, beachcombing, and amongst this morning's finds were:

A sheep bone, washed up on Tulm Bay

Seaglass found on Tulm Bay

Old sea-worn pottery found on Tulm Bay

Tulm Bay

A small murmuration of Starlings, Duntulm, Skye

Its not often that Wednesday mornings turn out to be as good as this one :)

Highland Cows, Skye

Highland Cow, Skye

The Highland Cows of Scotland have to be the most beautiful breed of cow in the world and we were lucky to spot a good few of their number during our week's holiday on the Isle of Skye.

There is a nice bit of folklore attached to these cows on Skye. Apparently, Scottish fairies had their very own fairy cattle that used to occasionally swim to the island from Rassay as they found the grass sweeter on Skye. When the fairies saw that their cattle had absconded, hey would call out to their heards, whereupon the cows would swim back to the fairy's pastures.

However, if a farmer threw some graveyard soil between the fairy Highland Cows and their tru home, the cows would be deafened to the fairy's calling and would thereafter remain as part of the Skye farmer's own herd. Such fairy cattle were considered prized animals and it is believed now that over the centuries, most Highland Cows now have some of the fairy cattle genes!

A Highland Cow near the Cuillin Mountains, Skye

The Fairy Glen, Isle of Skye

For our first outing on the Isle of Skye, we headed out to the remarkable Fairy Glen, located on the Trotternish Peninsula, near Uig.

This is a unique and remarkable place, abrim with grassy conical hills, rounded hillocks, gurgling streams, lochans, spirals carved into the landscape and a craggy outcrop that appears to all like the ruins of an ancient castle. It really is a wondrous magical place to explore.

The magickal Fairy Glen, near Uig

'Castle Ewen', viewed from the nearby lochan

There is little in the way of legends or folklore attached to the Fairy Glen, but its very appearance entrances the soul and makes all who visit the place believe that this must be home to the fairy folk.

The Fairy Glen was formed from a Jurassic landslide and appears very much like a mini version of Skye's other magical-looking landscape, The Quiraing. Along with The Quiraing, it is an enchanting place to wander and lose yourself in fanciful thinking.

And like The Quiraing, if you ever get the opportunity to pay a visit to Skye, make sure that you spend at least a little time in this little geological wonderland.

Sheep bones, The Fairy Glen

The Cheesewring, Bodmin Moor

...Leaving The Hurler Stones, a moderate walk leads across Bodmin Moor to the Cheesewring, seen below in the first pic on the horizon behind the entrance to Daniel Gumb's Cave. It is difficult to believe, but this is actually a tiny constructed house, built by Daniel Gumb to accomodate himself, his wife and his half a dozen children! His decision to live out on the wilds of Bodmin Moor and with such limited public utilities and conveniences was apparently made to avoid paying taxes.

Daniel Gumb's Cave and the Cheesewring

The Cheesewring itself is a truly spectacular sight to behold, the result, legend holds, of a rock-throwing competition between Uther, a giant, and Saint Tue. Giants, the original occupiers of Bodmin Moor, were, it wa said, unhappy with humans moving onto their land and the competition was set up to repel Mankind from the moorland. If the giant won, the giants would be left in peace, but if St. Tue became the victor then the giants would have to convert to Christianity and allow people to settle on the moor.  The objective of the competition was to throw stones, with each stone landing upon the other to form stacks. With the aid of an angel, Saint Tue finally won the battle with Uther's thirteenth stone rolling back down the hill. The giant, being a creature of his word, conceded the match and he and the rest of the giants were baptised as Christians. Humans have lived and utilised Bodmin Moor ever since.

The 20 foot tall Cheesewring

The whole Tor around the Cheesewring is impressive and my walk around the summit and these amazing stones was definitely an experience that was up there with the very best of my Cornish adventures.

The stones neighbouring the Cheesewring are also impressive

Like all the places I visited in Cornwall on this holiday, I cannot recommend visiting this remarkable site highly enough.

The Hurler Stones, Bodmin Moor

Heading home from my stay in Corning, I stopped off on Bodmin Moor to visit a couple of intriguing sites. The first of which was this triple ring formation of standing stones, known as The Hurler Stones.

The Hurler Stones, with ruins of old tin mine in the background

The site was gently animated by a group of small horses grazing on the grass there, as well as a few tourists, who I managed to keep from my photographs with careful image cropping and crouching down low to the ground and waiting for them to disappear behind the ancient megaliths before I took the pictures on my trusty Samsung Galaxy S7.

Horse Grazing at The Hurler Stones, Bodmin Moor

The Hurler Stones earned their names from the legend that they were once men who caught playing Cornish Hurling on a Sunday. For their 'crime', each was turned magically to stone!

To the edge of the stone circles, stand two further megaliths, known as The Piper Stones (pictured below). These, according to folklore, were once pipers who were caught playing their musical instruments on the moor on a Sunday and befell the same fate as the hurlers!

The Pipers, with Sheep

My next stop on Bodwin Moor appears on the horizon behind the Hurler Stones - the fantastic Cheesewring. It is a moderate and easy walk, with enough of an incline to gently raise your heartrate as you reach the summit. But it is the scenery of the Cheesering that truly takes your breath away...