A Short Taste of Skye, and Whisky

We are on Skye and the sky is lowering. Does it ever stops raining in the Highlands? A local lady we asked in a shop clearly recalled that one day last year, about June 20th, she thought, the sun did shine. (But of course, I just made that up.) In our planning Val and I did allow for rain, wind and a rather cool climate, even in late May.

I think we may need a wee dram to warm our cockles, don't you agree??

Now, today in Portree, Skye's capital, (on the right) we are getting it all: a 12 degrees maximum, 93% chance of rain (fair odds, which are being met outside this lovely warm pub that we have discovered) and wind, in fact today there is a high wind alert.

Being confirmed fair weather travelers we will just meditate over a pint on some of the beautiful places at Skye that we might have visited.

 Such as what we have here:

 Sligachan Old Bridge,

Dunvegan Castle, and

Brothers Point.

Did I mention that we are holed up in a pub? Yes, I did, and here is a pretty picture of Seumas' Bar to prove the point. Seumas proudly affirms that his bar is "a convivial haunt providing tavern fare, pints and over 400 Scottish malts in an upbeat atmosphere." It's actually at Sligachan, presumably not far from that old bridge. As well as a pint or two we all hopped into his Highland Venison Casserole for lunch.

Seumas was too shy on Skye to pose behind his bar...pitty

Before we left our warm hole at Burrum Heads for this glorious adventure, Stuart, good friend and  noted connoisseur of good whiskey, insisted that we visit Talisker Distillery while on Skye.  This is actually the only whiskey distillery on Skye founded in  1830. We did visit and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves....tastings were a delight. We did fall in with some of the locals, enjoying the fellowship ...and finished up much as our new friends are HERE.

Beware if you look to buy really old whisky. A recent CNN report has this to say: "A group of scientists turned sleuths in Scotland who developed a way to test the age of Scotch whisky have found that a lot of the vintage spirits aren't anywhere nearly as old as advertised. In one case they found a bottle said to be a 1863 Talisker was actually distilled in 2005 or later. If truly 1863 it would have been worth thousands of dollars." Your diarist (me) and CNN stress that Talisker Distillery itself was not in any way involved in the sale of the bottle.

There have been enjoyable movies featuring whisky misdoings. Enjoy this little gem at WHISKY GALORE followed by a little bit of Highland comfy bar room Scottish dancing HERE taken from the 1949 first version of "Whisky Galore".

You guessed it......Talisker Distillery....pretty as a picture

Soon Val and I and our good mate virtual Ian (who does enjoy the wee dram, too) will take the high way to the high Highlands, on the West coast roads to Ullapool, Durness aiming for John o'Groats. We will have journeyed through  absolutely stunning countryside and magnificent views.

Then it's our goal to visit the Orkneys.

Google says we can add:     Guidbye Bye Bye for noo See ye efter

Val and Bryan  (and Ian)