Isle of Skye

I promised you some pictures of my teaching visit to the Isle of Skye and here they are.

Contrary to its description as the Isle of Mists, I only saw this sea fog from the terrace of my guesthouse while there and no mist at all. Instead Skye was bathed in sunshine. In fact it was even a bit too hot for comfort, specially when teaching. I took many, many photographs and I feel sure they will prove to be very inspirational for me in my work and these pictures give you some impression of how beautiful the island is. There is now a bridge connecting it with mainland Scotland and the bridge tolls were recently abolished, so you can just drive there without any problems.

These are the Cuillin Hills, the best known mountain range on the island and really different from the gentle sloping hills here in the Borders. These are craggy, sharply defined mountain peaks!

The sunset from my bedroom window on the first night I was there was truely amazing and went on for hours. You can see the edges of my window on the picture above. I only had the windows open shortly to take these pictures as the midges on Skye are also a lot fiercer than at Macbiehill and the weather was just right for them too. My organic insect repellant was not really up to the job!

This is an evening view of Loch Harport, which is on the South side of the island. My B&B was located on its shore.

The sea surrounds the island on all sides and on my second evening, after a very hot day, I really felt I needed a bit of fresh air so I went for a sea breeze along the Loch.

Evidently there is still a lot of fishing going on around the island and I loved the look of these creel pots which have a really interesting textural look to them and in fact you can even see some stitching around the edges!