Sligachan, The Fairy Pools and Talisker 19th Dec 2019

After a simple continental breakfast in our little room, we had a trip up the road in the dark for the opening of the Portree Medical Centre at 8.00am - Morag had a bit of a sniffle when we left Australia and it quickly turned into a barking cough and runny nose, now she’s pretty much a green gunk factory - poor thing. She was unimpressed with Vince’s comment about the apparent effective triage system in the Highlands, Medical Centre, Hospital and Grave Yard all pithing walking steps of each other - but I saw the funny side of it - so Heilan Coo’s obviously have no sense of humour when they’re sick!

So we managed to get a 9.00am appointment with doctor Louise Lankston who trained in Glasgow and told us she has McLeod relatives in Australia so who knows she may be a relation! So with antibiotics, steroid tablets and a Ventolin puffer is will soon be on the mend. I’ve seen Harris Tweed dog coats so if I can find one small enough I’ll get it for her - poor wee thing.

We started out for our days adventure after a brief stop to the Granary for a bacon and egg roll and a drink each then it was on a brisk and overcast day - then the sun came out!

Around 10.00am we headed back south to Slighachan Bridge for another crack at photographing it, and Morag, despite her illness soldiered on and insisted on being in a shot or two.

We then went West towards Carbost and on the single track road to Glen Brittle stopped about 11.00am at the Fairy Pools (Coire na Creiche), they are crystal clear blue pools on the River Brittle and make fantastic photos and also great for the brave souls who want to try “Wild Swimming: in the extremely cold water that runs from the Black Cullins.

We met Tony at the carpark where we paid our 5.00 pound fee and discovered the lower carpark had to be closed due to high winds blowing over shipping containers. You travel the same route up and back from the pools and its about 21/2 km in total but parts can be quite arduous and slippery. Tony recommended we take our hiking poles so we did and they were worth their weight in gold. They are planning to build some crossing bridges as well as some toilets so the parking fee is really a donation for that.

The weather was kind to us as although it was boggy and slippery in places the rain held off and there were times of blue sky and sunshine. It was still quite cold though and we rugged up. I kept Morag safe in my jacket pocket for most of the way but she did insist on a photo with her favourite waterfall - the one I almost got kamikazied on trying to cross the river on the slippery rocks when the 60 km wind wanted to take me away - a real challenge! It left me wishing I’d worn my Hunter Wellies rather than my trusty Scarp Hiking Boots.

From the carpark there were epic views towards the Black Cullins (source of the River Brittle. The walk starts quite steep at first on a rough gravel path towards the river Allt Coir a Mhadaidh, but does involve several river crossings some more difficult than others. At the bottom there is the first cross that leads to a further gravel path but now It levels out across a peat moor with Heather and Grasses. There is also a huge boulder that seems out of place, but this was left during the last “ice age”. Along the way the path will rise up steeply again. It takes quite a while to get to the top and there are many waterfalls and pools along the way.

The imposing pinnacle of Sgurr an Fheadain rises directly ahea. The gash running down it is called Waterpipe Gully. The early Victorians attempted to climb it but it was only successfully completed after many attempts by Kelsall and Hallit in 1895. It is graded as very sever and more recently took over 7 hours for the Mountain Council of Scotland climbers in the millennium celebratory climb.

I found the hike quite challenging due to my leg, and Morag was having trouble breathing in the cold air, so we stopped about half way and let Vince go on ahead. We waited a long time for him to return but it was peaceful and the sound of the water and the beautiful heather was very relaxing. At the same time I found it quite haunting, not at all a light and airy energy in the place as I had expected. I also had difficulty in picturing faeries dancing around the place. He said that it was no more impressive further up than what we had seen lower down - but that may just have been to make Morag and me feel better.

Then it was the long walk back to the car park, my almost falling in the river thanks to the buffeting wind (I’d like it noted that Vince took photos rather than try to rescue me). Then it was back on the single track toad to Carbost where we arrived to the Talisker Distillery at about 2.30pm.

Here we met Hugh, one of the longest serving staff members, who gave us a very educational Whiskey and Talisker Chocolate Tasting (not cheap but well worth it at 50 pounds - 40 for 5 Whiskies and 10 for the matching handmade Chocolates. We tried the Distillers Special Edition, the 18 year old Award Winner, the Port Ruighe, the Neist Point and the 25 year old. We especially enjoyed the 18 year old and the 25 year old, but at several hundred pounds each they were well out of our budget! We were intrigued by the Game of Thrones collection - choose your house. Where renewed distilleries were matched to GOT Houses, so Talisker was House Grayjoy (by the sea) and Dalwhinney (we went there in 2015) is House Stark (being the highest/coldest distillery in Scotland). There was only one bottle of the latter left so I asked the staff to put it away for me until after the tour.

We took the 3.30pm tour (20 pounds) with Shavone which was interesting and we got to try the 10 year old Talisker at the end. They shut at 4.30pm so we quickly chose a couple of crystal glasses (these will be our Christmas presents to each other) at 16 pounds each, and my Dalwhinney bottle normally 48 pounds but we got 5 pounds off because we did a tour so it was 43 pounds. Not a cheap day out but well worth the experience although we were leaving in dark (sun goes down at 3.30) to drive back to Portree.

Dinner was at the nearby Taste of India with an entire and main being quite expensive for the two of us - with no alcoholic drinks - still 60 pounds. We need to get to Willie McLeod’s so I can start cooking and save us some money! At least we were a bit later to bed having been out all day.