Washing lines, sheep under trees & beautiful sunsets…

The weather is still gorgeous and, not wanting to drive quite so far today, set off to explore the Glendale area of Skye to the north-west of our campsite.  First of all we took a detour along the point opposite Dunvegan.

Along with my love of animals on precipices and orange corrugated roofed sheds, I do love a line of washing blowing in the wind in the islands.  Nobody has those whirligig affairs but two stout poles and a wooden prop, just like my Mum used to have.  Because it’s very often windy on the islands I shouldn’t think that anyone bothers with a tumble dryer either.  This one was a three pole job.

One of the other loves of my life is sheep resting beneath trees.  Up until Skye, we hardly saw a tree although, of course, there were plenty of sheep.  This lovely pastoral scene makes my heart sing.

And Dunvegan sparkles in the morning sunshine.

Rejoining the ‘main’ road (still single track) we soon diverted again up the Duirnish peninsular, following the east coast.  More wonderful views, this time over Loch Dunvegan and our first seals since Harris.

There is so much gorse along this road and you could say this ruined house has a room with a view!

Just before we reached the end of the road we spotted a little wooden shed with a notice saying they had fresh strawberries.  The only strawberries we had seen so far on this holiday were in the Co-Op and they were from Spain so we were pleased to see that there were still two punnets left.  We put our payment in the honesty box.

Glendale is an agricultural area, famously the centre of a crofters’ uprising against the landlords who refused them their old common grazing rights.  After a naval gunboat was sent in John MacPherson and four others agreed to go to trial.  They were imprisoned for two months and became known as the Glendale Martyrs.  Eventually in 1886 the Crofters Act was passed which was a turning point in the area’s history.  Nowadays, Glendale has a large population of English and foreign crofters.

We drove onwards to the pier at Meanish, which seems to be a favourite with wild campers as there were several motorhomes looking pretty much at home there.  We managed to squeeze ourselves in and spent some time there having our lunch.

Neist Point is generally reckoned to be the best place to see dolphins, whales and sharks but unfortunately we didn’t get to see it as it was teeming with people, cars, caravans and coaches!  It was a bit of a culture shock as it was really the first time we had seen ‘tourists’ since leaving home!  We made a three-point turn with difficulty and extricated ourselves from the hurly-burly.  We had to make do with this view of Moonen Bay with the looming presence of Sgair nan Sidhean.

Back at the campsite, we had another barbecue but came under attack from the scourge of Skye – midgies!  It seems a bit early for them but the sun has obviously encouraged them out of hiding.  We retreated quickly to Bessie for the evening.  What a shame as it was still warm outside.  There was a beautiful sunset tonight over the loch – a little compensation.