Isle of Skye, Scotland

I have quite a few photographs of our trip to Scotland, here's a selection from our time up there. No apologies for the length of this blog, it's mostly photos.

On the first morning with the Glossopdale Harriers a group of us left the bunkhouse aiming to bag three trig points but the trough terrain challenged us (well me anyway) and two were ticked off.

View back down towards Fiskavaig and Portnalong

Proper Scottish wilderness.....with hidden marshy bogness!

One of the larger pools with delicate plant life in it

Super views....not sure what direction this is!

Looking up to the ridge....that didn't turn out to be a ridge....just a long series of ups and downs

The final descent, looking towards Portnalong and our bunkhouse

The next day most of the group headed over to Glenbrittle. A group of six were up on the Cuillin Ridge (and had been since setting off at 3am) and several others were hoping to gain the summit of Sgurr Alasdair from Coire Lagan in time to see the ridge party. They were successful on all counts but I'll leave it up to them to recount their own stories. Myself and three others reached the tarn below the Great Stone Chute then headed down to the beach and up onto the north-west headland for an explore:

The 'whale rock' as it got named, jutting out into the tarn below the Great Stone Chute.
It would soon get to know one member of our party's camera from an unplanned underwater viewpoint...oops!

Tim setting off to catch up with the party heading up Sgurr Alasdair.
The mist level was annoyingly just above the tarn, so what I'm told is a beautiful amphitheatre
of really impressive rock will have to await my return.

See....misty claggy cloud hinting at the hidden beauty

Stream runs into tarn, 'whale rock' on the right

The mist seemed to follow us down, though stayed above us for the rest of our run

Looking over Loch Brittle to the campsite, with Sgurr Alasdair and the Cuillin Ridge teasing us

Loch Brittle from the northwest shoreline

Loch Brittle from the northwest headland, tufty grass and marsh was the terrain here

We saw plenty of these beautiful and dainty Marsh Orchids

and we also located a Mountain Rescue repeater station and somewhere nearby we believe
we saw an eagle - it was certainly a rather large bird and was bigger than a buzzard

Our way across River Brittle 

I was pretty tired from all the runs I had done in the previous few weeks so opted for an easy day around the bunkhouse on Tuesday. Various groups were off out doing various things, but it was nice to have some solitude. I took myself out to hunt down some raspberries for after dinner. Not wanting to stick to roads I decided to go find the lighthouse on Ardtreck Point, just a few kilometres from the bunkhouse.

Tiny cove on Ardreck Point, looking over to Fiskavaig Bay

sealife....looking very out of place out of the water 

The pebble beach in the cove was totally engulfed in jellyfish...from the size of this one down to clear ones just a few centimeters across - see the cluster of five in bottom right of the photo.

This one was about 30cm in diameter

Amazing views

The lighthouse, Ardtreck Point

On my way back to the road from the lighthouse I disturbed a short-eared owl.
It is in this photograph, but it was too quick to capture close up

Wednesday and the majority of the group were off on a massive bike ride of the island - way too long for me. Tim and a couple of other guys decided to head up Sgurr nan Gillean so I went to the Sligachan Hotel with them and headed off for a solo exploration. My target was somewhere towards Beinn Dearg Mheadhonach. At only 651m it's one of the smaller peaks in the area (remember that you do start from just about sea level), but I was a little unsure of the upper flanks of it - the map indicated scree, and that's not something I am very confident on.

The approach to Beinn Dearg Mheadhonach from the Sligachan - another marshy grass 2km to get through which nearly broke me as I kept losing the faint trod and sinking plenty. 

Looking back to the Sligachan Hotel as I start the climb in earnest....that's the marsh land I had to cross

and my way up to Beinn Dearg Mheadhonach

Looking towards Harta Corrie and I could make out the Bloody Stone

View from the summit of Beinn Dearg Mheadhonach
Yes, I made it to the top. I had a serious conversation with myself about the scree and decided it
wasn't exposed and I wouldn't fall to my doom if I did slip. The views were certainly worth the effort.

More spectacular views from the top, towards Loch Ainort, I think

Back at the road I loitered a little, taking in the old bridge and the views towards the Cuillins

Our final day was a mixture of sunshine and blustery showers and we opted for a bike ride on the back road from Bracadale to Portree. I reckon we got two-thirds the way over before a massive cloud loomed....our choice to turn back then was a good one as we stayed dry and were off the bikes ahead of the rain. A delightful lunch stop at the Struan cafe-cum-book-shop-cum-vintage-clothes-shop where we met up with Tim C and Alice out on a longer bike ride.  Later in the day I went for another short bike ride on the single track road from the bunkhouse while Tim did a longer ride. Good choice on my part, the 12 days of Scottish running and riding had certainly tired me out.

The splendid Cuillin Ridge basking in the sunshine, photo taken just north of Carbost