Flodigarry and Portree Busy Day 20th Feb

We wanted to get a good start on our photography today so after our usual morning routines we headed down to Floddigarry (Gaelic: Flòdaigearraidh), a scattered village on the North East side of the Trotternish Peninsula, near Staffin. The small island, (Eilean Flòdaigearraidh) lies less than 1km off the coast with an even smaller island, Sgier na Éireann, just beyond to the north east. At some angles along the road they appear to be connected and to me they looked like a Sting Ray, so Vince and I call it “Sting Ray Island”.

The famous Jacobite heroine, Flora MacDonald ( a member of the MacDonalds of Sleat who is buried in Kilmuir Cemetery) helped in Bonnie Prince Charlie’s escape from Uist over the sea to Skye in 1746 for which she was imprisoned at Dunstaffnage Castle, Oban and then spent time in the Tower of London, being released after the June 1747 Act of Indemnity. At 28 she was married in Flodigarry on 6th Nov 1750, to Allan MacDonald. They lived in a cottage there, where 5 of her 7 children were born. The cottage now forms part of the accommodation at the Flodigarry Country House Hotel with the 7 rooms named after Flora’s 7 children (5 sons and 2 daughters - Ronald (Marine), Charles (East India Co), Alexander, James, Anne, John and (Frances) Fanny).

The Flodigarry Hotel’s Skye Restaurant was where our original wedding vow renewal reception dinner was supposed to be, but they decided to close over winter, so we ended up at the Skeabost Hotel, overlooking the sea Loch Snizort Beag between the Trotternish and Waternish Peninsulas instead.

Interestingly, Flora’s daughter, Anne, was married to Major General Alexander McLeod and upon Flora’s return from Nova Scotia in 1780, she spent a few years staying with family members until her husband return in 1784, during which time she stayed at Dunvegan Castle, the Seat of the Clan McLeod (from which I am descended). Flora died on 4th March 1790 in Kingsburgh, with her husband following in Sept 1792. She was buried in Kilmuir Cemetery with her body wrapped in a sheet in which Bonnie Prince Charlie had slept. Two of her sons were lost at sea (Alexander 1781 and Ronald 1782). Their son Charles, who worked for the East India Company, did well for himself and ensured his parents had a comfortable life before their deaths.

The Flodigarry has been a hotel since 1928 but was originally built by Alexander Livingston MacDonald in 1895 as a private house and hunting lodge, with a fantastic view of the North Sea towards the majestic Torridon mountains on the mainland, overlooking Flodigarry Island, as well as an impressive view to the East, of the Quiraing.

We left Willie McLeod’s around 8.00am stopping to take a few shots of the clouds over Pointy Mountain (the back of the Quiraing) and arrived at Flodigarry around 8.30am. The building was your typical 19th Century Hunting Lodge and very impressive. It truly was an amazing view out to sea, and the light was just magical. I tried out some more of the Intentional Camera Movement technique and was very excited to see the results in the back of the camera. Vince took a Vlog of me taking some of those types of shots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCehIQr88rA

After spending some time there, exploring the view back towards the Quiraing, down towards Staffin Island, and the beautiful wooded entry to the grounds, we eventually headed down the coast towards Portree, stopping at the Storr to take some more photos of the Quiraing, the views towards the stow capped Storr and the sea outwards over the Island of Raasay where the light was just magical today.

It was very cold and we did get caught in a few hail storms, snow flurries as well as drizzle, high wind and a little sunshine - ALL FOUR SEASONS IN ONE DAY - sometimes only minutes apart! There is never a dull moment on Skye.

We were originally headed in for an 11.30am appointment with the Bank of Scotland to sort out a few things, but whilst we were on the road taking photos, Vince’s phone rang and it was Steph Wier, the Doctor from the Portree Medical Centre wanting me to come back for a blood test at 13.50pm - so that was convenient as we were already going into Portree.

We called into the Granary for a hot chocolate and a scone each, and whilst we were sitting there our wedding song “All of Me” by John Legend came on - very cool!

The Bank was right next door and we met young Connor Mariner and his manager Fiona and they were very welcoming and professional and sorted everything out for us, although it took a lot longer than we had expected, almost 2 hours. So it was a rush to the Royal Hotel for a quick bite of lunch, Mushroom Soup for Vince and a Tuna Sandwich for me with a diet coke, then off for my blood test.

It was hailing hard as I walked up the hill to the Portree Medical Centre, where I had a bit of a wait, but got in to see Marion, the nurse, about 5 past 1 and had the blood taken. She said it will take around a week for results and no news is good news, so I was soon on my way.

Still hailing when I left, I popped briefly into Boots - who still don’t have the remainder of my script (steroid cream) after 4 days, so the girl re-ordered it and hopefully it will be in tomorrow. I almost ran back to Vince waiting in the car as it was pelting down!

We headed up to the big Co op as Vince needed fuel and we had to pick up a couple of things we had run out of, including kindling and firelighters - which were ESSENTIAL! But they had run out of kindling.

We headed home up the East coast towards Uig, and stopped in Rankings, the local village shop, and spoke to Mike, the owner, as I wanted to see if he could get us a bottle of that yummy port we tried at Kinloch Lodge, but as it was imported he couldn’t - BUMMER. However, we did get three bags of kindling and also two bottles of Glenfiddich 12 year old scotch whiskey on special for only 25 GBP each.

On the way home we saw a sheep on a slope that was almost vertical - they never fail to amaze me. Speaking of my attraction to the animal here, my daughter sent me a photo via WhatsApp which gave me a laugh.

We intended to go straight home, but when we saw the waves absolutely pounding Score Bay at Duntulum we had to stop the car and get out. The wind almost blew us over, and was terribly strong and fierce. A few cars passing by were people we knew, the guys from the Skye Photo Academy and Alan, the Crofter - who stopped to tell us we were crazy to be out in this weather, and that one calf had been born - I told him he better let me know when the others are coming I still want to try to see it.

We bypassed our turn off to go on to the Trotternish Art Gallery, to see Bill and Suzie, as Vince had a surprise for Bill, who is the custodian of the Bothy out at Ruha Hunish. It was a drone photograph of it. As it turned out it had been Bill’s birthday on Sunday, so it was a nice gift for him. He was so touched he insisted on giving us a gift of some of his good drawing pencils and Suzie gave us 5 kiln dried logs that don’t spark in the fire so you can leave the stove door open. It made us realise feel a bit like we were part of the “Greenacres” show we had seen as children on TV, how the farming community does things a little differently and all help each other out - that gave us a bit of a laugh on the way home.

Back home around 5.00pm at Willie McLeod’s I couldn’t help myself as we were unpacking the car, I had to take a few more shots over Pointy Mountain before going inside. A big photography day even in the rapidly changing and sometimes challenging weather.

I got straight onto sorting out my Morocan Lamb Tagine for dinner, as it takes around 3 hours to prepare and cook. We served it with the cous cous we had got at the Co op today and it was delicious - not quite the same as my usual as I couldn’t get all the spices here but it was great all the same. Vince has coined it “Skye-gene”.

After dinner, I backed up my photos from the day and we settled down with a few drams and some chocolates to watch a dvd of ‘Chocolate” but we didn’t manage to get all the way through it - off to bed after a busy day!