Lealt Falls, ICM, Uig Bay and Skeabost 5th March

After yesterday’s fizzier sunrise, Vince suggested I just stay in bed when his alarm went - so I decided the warm was more appealing and stayed. He went to do some droning over Lealt Falls (which is not the best of angles for stills in any case). I woke up at 7.00am of my own accord - much nicer way to start the day, and set about my morning routine and chores.

As I opened the window of our loft bedroom and looked out over my beloved “Pointy Mountain” it was ablaze in pinks and blues, so I high tailed it to get dressed (its too cold to not rug up) as quick as I could, raced down stairs with a pit stop in the bathroom and grabbed my camera and out the door! Seriously under 5 mins but BUGGER! - it had gone - that’s how quick it is, if I had raced down naked straight out I probably would have got it, and frostbite, and arrested!

So I had to make do with the sad fading light over the water instead, which was nothing fantastic in terms of composition but was where there was still a bit of colour from the sunrise, so I did a bit of ICM (Intentional Camera Moment) instead.

Then I caught up on my blog and also tried uploading some photos (but the internet here is not working too well so it has been a lesson in patience (and frustration) since yesterday where I waisted most of my afternoon).

By 8.20 Alan’s rooster was crowing, which was a bit late, as the sun was already well up! Guess he works on “Skye Time” - where everything is “ish” 7.00ish, 8.00ish, 9.00ish etc. Usually because of the roads - can’t get through because of tourists, can’t get though because of shaggy sheep, can’t get through because of Heilan Coos, can’t get through because of ice and snow, can’t get through because of roadworks, can't get though because of farm tractors etc - you get the idea!

I cooked us bacon and eggs for breakfast to set us up for the day out (sometimes getting food during the day has been difficult as most places are still closed for the winter). That said we did notice that since 2nd March, Skye is coming to life, with more places starting to open for the 2020 season, now we are in Spring (but we still get ice and snow - hmmm!).

We had made a list of places we still wanted to go and things we wanted to do - and high on my list was to find the graves of Flora McDonald and the 16th Century Knight at Skeabost.

After heading out we stopped at Score Bay and noticed that it was low tide and you could see the dinosaur tracks, Vince also spotted a new warning sign - guess we protected these ones too!

We then went to Kilmore Cemetery to see Flora McDonald’s grave. I mentioned her in a previous blog on the connection to Floddigary so I won’t bore you with the details again her - but in a nutshell she helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape after Culloden to the Isle of Skye from Uist.

Then it was off to Uig Bay to try to catch the ferry from Lewis and Harris docking for a nice shot over Uig Bay.

Next was the trip down the west coast to Skeabost to search for the small island (Eliean Chaluim Chille) of St Columba in the middle of the River Snizort at the head of Loch Snizort Beag. From 1419 it was the seat of the most powerful bishops of the Isles as well as a parish church.

It’s possible there was a cathedral church at Skeabost as early as 1079 and around 1134 a new Scottish one combined several earlier north ones taking in the Hebrides. The island was chosen because legend said St Columba preached from a rock there. It may have originally been a Pictish settlement, but they could have converted to a form of Christianity by the time Columba arrived.

The remains of the cathedral stood until at least 1501 and the Bishops of the Isles were based there until it was destroyed during the Scottish Reformation. The site is overlaid with later burial enclosures but aerial surveys in 1897 revealed it had a transept and structures outside the church showing 5 or 6 chapels surrounded by and enclosing wall suggested a Celtic monastic settlement. It was also used as a burial ground for the Clan Nicholson for 900 years with gravestones dating back to at least he 16th century. 28 Nicholson Chieftans are believed buried there.There are several crusader graves, south west of the church is the one I wanted to see - carved from blue schist it shows an armed knight in relief with is hand on his sword hilt. Exquisitely detailed he is wearing a bascinet, a camel of banded mail and a quilted coat reaching his knees. The tomb is 6ft 7in long and in one corner are the letters RMS (which apparently suggests a member of the MacSween family.

Another crusader grave nearby is well worn and inside the ruins of St Columba’s Chapel itself there is another relief carving of a knight.

It’s easy to work out that there were at least two ruined chapels on the island. At the west end is the Nicholson burial ground (Chapel of St Columba or Colubas Teampull) with some walls still standing, and the other end is footing of the MacQueens, but the others from the Celtic monastic settlement are also only showing footings with many trees and vegetation growing out of them.

There are no main road signposts to the chapel but it wasn’t too hard to find, my friend Google helped by suggesting to start from the entrance drive to the Skeabost Hotel (where we had our wedding reception dinner) on the A850 4 miles out of Portree. Bear right instead of left (towards the hotel which runs parallel to the River Snizort), We needed to cross a little stone bridge over the river and there was a sign on the left pointing down the footpath to the wooden footbridge which goes over an islet, then onto the main Island.

The Island was very overgrown and we had to be extremely careful not to trip over half- concealed gravestones with all the undergrowth. I was surprise to see large cloven hoof prints along the worn pathway around the graveyard, and a very large recent cow pat! So either the cows are very respectful here and know how to cross the wooden bridge (including a few stairs) and follow the path around rather than just meandering all over or someone had been walking their cow around the graveyard - interesting!

It was a humbling experience to be immersed in so much history, and I even came across a McLeod (my ancestral name) grave.

However, Vince was much more interested in what he termed a “Pirate’s Grave” and he was certain it was a girl pirate because it had a bow on top of it’s head! Hmmmm I’m not so certain, but that’s what he intends to tell the Grandies back home - never let the truth get in the way of a good story hey?

The truth of course is that the skull and crossbones death head depicted on headstones were commonly used in the 16th and 17th Centuries as “Memento Mori” symbols warning that we cannot avoid death and no matte what our status in live we are all the same.

On the way home we stopped at a farm near the Storr, where we often see the farmer at work with his cows and he always waves. So even though it was raining we stopped to say hello - Callie by name and he told us he lives down behind the hill near the Storr. We had a lovely "blether" with him - people are so friendly here.

We were soon on our way back home, I was starting to feel a bit unwell and went to bed for 2 and a half hours and when I woke up I had really bad diarrhea. Whilst I was asleep Vince got a shot of the only bird that we've seen at my bird feeders I put up weeks ago - a big black crow!

Vince caught up with Alan and took some “Chicken Photos” and Alan wants to know if I will name these ones too - since I seem to give all the animal who don’t have one a name. He came in for a dram and some cheese and oatcakes. We had a lovely time having a good “blether” with him.

I cooked my steak and hatch-patch pie for dinner and we had an early night as I still wasn’t feeling fantastic.

I was surprise when our mail came to discover we even get junk mail on Skye!