Isle of Skye, Armadale, the Cuillins & Dunvegan Castle & Gardens
Another sunny day, and early in the morning the Lord of the Glens left remote Inverie to reach Armadale on the Isle of Skye. Our visit took in the ruin of Armadale castle, Armadale gardens and the Museum of the Isles. This particular castle, more a former mansion house really, dates back to the 18th/19th centuries. The gardens go back to about the same time and consist of some lovely herbaceous borders, a pond garden and many species of mature trees – from all over the world. Especially the araucaria or monkey puzzle trees are stunning.
The Museum of the Isles illustrates beautifully the history of Clan Donald and the Lord of the Isles, who used to rule the west coast of Scotland for centuries until the end of the 15th century.
We returned to the ship around noon, and whilst enjoying lunch, a pod of dolphins decided to give us a performance in the calm blue water – magnificent!
The afternoon saw us coaching to Sligachan, where some of us went for a hike in the Cuillin Mountains, craggy dramatic mountains a bit over the 3000 feet range in height. The other part of the group went on to Dunvegan Castle and Gardens, again these gardens show a wide range of plants from all over the world, all made possible by the gulf stream, despite the high latitude.
Dunvegan castle has been the stronghold of the Chiefs of MacLeod for nearly 800 years and still is the home of the 30th chief. Despite all the disputes over the castle and to the title of chief to the MacLeod Clan, this building managed to keep its roof for all this time, unique in Scotland!!! Many artefacts are to be found within the nicely furbished castle, most famously the Fairy Flag, supposed to have been given to one of the Clan Chiefs by his Fairy wife….
After dinner Tom Heffernan entertained us with a little talk on various aspects of history and thus the evening became night and it was time to rest to be ready for another amazing West Coast day.
