A Week On Skye - Fiskavaig Bay and Talisker Bay

Fiskavaig Bay

On our first morning on Skye we thought we'd better explore the local seaside in the form of Fiskavaig Bay, which was but a stroll down the hill from the cottage.

Looking across Fiskavaig Bay towards MacLeod's Tables

There's a good bit of sand here but it's only exposed at low tide so there's no real sunbathing hotspots. Plenty of pools for kids and us grown up ones to rummage around in though. We went down at the east end of the bay, which was a mistake as it's pretty overgrown no matter how easy the approach looks from afar. Then we went across the sand, which has a fair bit of volcanic material in it giving it a streaked look, towards the western end and the cliffside walk (probably better called a scramble).

We spotted a pair of what looked like eagles soaring and wheeling around the top edge of the cliffs. They had the correct wing markings and were way too big to be buzzards so I'll stick with our identification - definitely eagles. I didn't manage to get a decent photograph though as they were just too far above us and my camera only has a 3x zoom. Best I could get was a seagull - sigh!

Talisker Bay

Talisker Bay, Skye

After lunch we drove round to Carbost and then down the wee single-track road in Gleann Oraid to Talisker House. From there it's only a short walk of about a kilometre through the grounds down to Talisker Bay which, with its rocky pinnacles and cliff dropping waterfall, is wee bit more scenic looking than Fiskavaig Bay. Again the sand is only really exposed at low tide and it seemed to be the same sand and volcanic ash mix as well but there's much more of it. We had a long lie on the sand and passed a relaxing while in the sun.

Preshal More, Skye

There's a very good view from the bay of Preshal More (Great Breeze Hill) rising to just over 1,000 feet high just behind Talisker House.

Eating Out

We'd had a long day and couldn't be bothered cooking so we headed into Portnalong and after seeing the menu in the Taigh Ailean Hotel, we were straight in. We opted for the bar as the footie was on but there was a dining room downstairs. Staff were friendly and the food was good. The only negative was an old local, who had been trying to get me to buy him a drink but I was more interested in the match to bother with him and he seemed to take offense - oh well!

We're off up the north west coast tomorrow.