Location: Inverness, Scotland

Meag: What a day! We waved goodbye to our Airbnb and grabbed a delicious coffee and shortbread in the little town of Carbost across from the Talisker Distillery. Before I got here I entertained the idea of doing a scotch tasting and even went so far as to put it on a list of things for us to do. But the other day while watching some of the Medieval Combat I was offered a wee dram and WOW do I ever not like scotch. So no, we did not do a tasting there even though apparently it’s super famous. Oh well!

On the way back to the car Sav saw a sign for “Fairy Tours” with a bunch of different stops included. Not having much of a plan for the day we decided to dedicate the day fully to our little winged friends, The Fae. First stop, Dunvegan Castle.

Sav: The anticipation to see the castle was high, as there was no view of it on the drive in. You had to wait until you were practically right in front of it to see it and it definitely did not disappoint. Even in the rain it was totally gorgeous. There were rounded nooks on all the tower points, beautiful gardens surrounding it, and a view of Loch Dunvegan beyond the walls.

The lore of the Fairy Tower is that one day a nurse left the castle lord’s baby alone to take part in festivities. A fairy came into the nursery and cuddled the baby, wrapping him in a silk shawl and everyone partying in the castle heard fairies singing through the main keep. The family still has this fabric and it’s on display so we spent a moment checking it out.

Actually this fairy fabric has another origin story – more of love story. Legend has it that one of the castle lords ran away and married a fairy woman, but decided a few years later he needed to return to human life. She gave him this fairy flag at a bridge as they parted, saying it would bring victory to battle 3 times – which apparently it did.

Meag: We found a cute little cafe in town where we had lunch and asked for directions for the next part of our Fairy Day Out. The next place we wanted to hit up was not on a map and is unmarked when you actually get there so we needed a wee bit of local assistance. The lovely cafe lady said to go two miles down a road, turn left and the Fairy Bridge (from the story) will be right there. So off we went! Turns out those instructions were not the most accurate… We went one way, we went the opposite way, we tried a few deadend roads and found ourselves at a couple “Private Property” signs. Where in the world was the bridge?!

Sav: We finally got real directions from another local to the bridge but decided to get to it on our way back from Neist Point – a lookout and lighthouse on the far west corner of Skye. This huge point just straight up and out of the ocean in a long runway so you feel a little bit like you’re flying when standing right at the top. When you turn around you can see the main body of Skye, huge mountains covered in green flowing grass and little white sheep.

Eventually we found the bridge and guess what? It was beautiful. Of course. Nothing in this country is ugly because apparently even as things fall apart they get prettier.

Meag: In keeping with the mystical theme of the day, we got a few photos of Sav channeling a less graceful mythical creature: The Troll Under the Bridge. See photo below. Please note the “Troll Face.”

We flew our little fairy selves next over to the Fairy Pools. As with everywhere else we went today, we didn’t really know what we were looking for or what to expect. The GPS Man said “You have arrived at your destination and we kinda looked at each other like “Hmmm….not so sure about that.” But then in front of us was a huge mountain, long valley and blue skies. No sign of Fairy Pools but stunning nonetheless. We set off from the car with our swimming stuff (we were being optimistic) in search of some pools and fairies. Sav spotted a waterfall off the path so we took off in that direction. Within about three minutes Sav had completely soaked her feet in mud so at that point she just gave up on the whole “clean and dry” thing and walked through the stream, shoes and all, up to the waterfall.

Sav: it was very very cold but knowing how cool it was to see from that angle I wouldn’t change a thing. I walked through the water and kicked and splashed and revelled in the view and the sunshine. It was lovely and definitely felt magical. I really don’t know how we thought we were going to swim though because the water was F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G. Coming from a Yukoner who has jumped into Chadburn Lake and Long Lake in May that’s saying a lot.

After our frolick with the fairies we grabbed some food and started out on the drive back to Inverness. We took the road past Loch Ness and got to see even more of Scotland than we anticipated. All in all we agreed we did a pretty good job of exploring The Isle of Skye!

S&M

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