Magical Skye – the Festival and so much more! Days 20-23

 

We’d missed a trick when we booked the festival tickets and campsite back in December 2023, in that we could/should have looked at getting the ferry to Skye from Mallaig, as it would have enabled us to explore more of the west coast – and avoid yet another visit to Fort William! Of course by the time we’d got round to thinking about it during the road trip, the ferry was fully booked, as were all the campsites for the period before and after the festival – so if we wanted to extend our stay on Skye we would be free camping!

 

Going via Fort William (again) allowed us another opportunity to raid M&S before we headed into uncharted territory along the Northwest coastline.

As we neared the still controversial Skye bridge (many locals resent the loss of true ‘island’ status), the weather failed to deliver the blue and sunny skies we were hoping for, and so Eilean Donan castle just down the coast, which we had hoped to stop and admire (the most photographed castle in Scotland, or so we’d been told) remained un-photographed by us on this occasion. But not so for the hordes of visitors that were milling about, perhaps not as lucky as us in that we’d have a chance on the return leg, after the festival. Mulling over the large number of people at the castle, and the increasing frequency of campervans we were seeing on the roads and in lay-bys, we wondered out loud to one another whether the Isle of Skye’s epithet of being Scotland’s most visited island might actually be true!

 

Our campsite for the festival was just north of the site in Portree, Skye’s capital and, after checking out the local Coop in town (and noting for the first time bilingual signs in Gaelíc and English) we drove up the hill until, just as we were wondering whether we had miscalculated the feasibility of walking to and from the event, especially the walk back up the hill, Portree Camping in Torvaig hove into view – phew!

 

After checking in and being reassured that plenty of other campers here for the festival would be walking to and from the site, we settled in for some planning about the logistics of seeing the bands we wanted to, weaving in supper each day (the last festival entry was 8pm each day and no re-entry at all on the Thursday evening) and exploring Skye beyond the festival. Although we had ventured this far north driven by a chance to see the band Niteworks play their last ever gig on their home island (with a few more on the mainland still to come before they disband) we were also really keen to explore what looked like a truly stunning island!

 

 

In the end we stayed just the four nights we had booked, with our reasoning explained below in our reflections on different aspects of our time on the island.

 

Firstly – the festival!

 

Our only other joint experience of festivals is of Wickham in Hampshire – a small one by Glasto measures at only 7,000 people, but still bigger than Skye Live at 800! So we didn’t really know what to expect as we wandered down the hill on the first night, with no-one in the line up we were mad-keen to see, but as soon as we saw the main and only stage in its marquee, we knew we were talking bijou! By comparison, one of our favourite venues for gigs in Brighton, Chalk, has a capacity of 850…

 

(We should add, that although we didn’t know one another at the time, we were both at the Charlton Festival in May 1974 which saw the Who, Lou Reed, Humble Pie, Bad Company and others,

 

with an estimated (over capacity) audience of 80,000 and some scary crowd surges… but we were very much younger then of course!)

 

 

You can get a sense of the size of the Skye Live venue in this pic we took between acts…

 

 

And, by the time the main band for the night, Tidelines, were playing, the marquee was rammed with a very youthful, kilt wearing, energetic, rowdy and ‘steaming’ audience, more like a packed club night than the audiences we were used to at Wickham, and we kept our own dancing to the fringes of the moshing crowds, wondering what we had let ourselves in for! And although it wasn’t raining, it looked like it might and there was no way that everyone on site could get under cover in the marquee!

 

Crunching our way back over the carpet of discarded Tennents lager tins, and clocking the three food vans serving the whole festival, we headed back up the hill with one thought in mind – this was going to be a very different experience for sure! And to add to our logistical planning challenges, no re-entry after 8pm meant no wandering back and forth to Evie and turning up just for the bands we wanted to see!

 

The second night was the big one for us – Niteworks were headlining, but they didn’t take the stage until 11.10pm, and we were keen to see Beth Malcolm (one of the singers who guests with Niteworks) who was on at 5.30pm – eek – how were we going to manage with eating – and staying awake?!

 

As it turned out (and thanks Adam for contacting the festival organisers to let us get in after 8.00pm if needed) we drew heavily on our Charlton heritage and decided to go early, go local and eat and drink on-site, and make the most of this unique experience! And what an incredible night it was! We saw Beth Malcolm up close enough to chat…

 

 

went local on the drinks…

 

 

 

 

 

danced comfortably (if strangely in Mr B’s case) to all female band Heisk...

 

 

ate like lords (and ladies)…

 

 

and eventually, danced our socks off to Niteworks, who delivered on all our hopes and expectations, making it a very special night indeed…

 

 

And to cap it all, at the end of the show, the Northern Lights even put in an appearance, making the walk back to the campsite truly memorable and the lightshow from the campsite absolutely breathtaking!

 

 

Note: Although we were able to see some colour in the sky and a very impressive waterfall of light filtering down to us from directly overhead, our human eyes couldn’t quite see the magical colours until they had been captured on camera. Nevertheless, it was a truly magical experience!

 

 

We weren’t sure about our plans for the final night on Saturday, as although there were more bands playing throughout the afternoon and evening, the special deal that our son Adam had brokered to let the olds in later, was only for one entry point – we could start late, but if we went in early we had to stay!

 

So we aimed to arrive with time to eat, catch some of the music from the grassy banks outside, and gird our loins for the finale – the Peatbog Faeries, who we had seen before and we knew, from seeing the response of the audience to bagpipes, were sure to elicit some energetic dancing!

 

 

Fuelled up with another foray into the local cuisine with pheasant pie, peas, curry sauce and tattie wedges, plus a black pudding and chorizo pizza (but no more Tennents – the one can being enough for us!) we watched from outside the marquee until it was time for the festival finale. And, like the night before, although pretty crowded and with plenty of tipsy folk about, there was a lot less of the raucous and rowdy behaviour we had experienced on the first night.

 

 

 

As you may see in the photo, we stayed further back this time, anticipating that we may need to beat a hasty retreat if the dancing got too wild for us – but as it happened, we left some time before the final tune, as the shift in musical style that the Faeries had made a few years back since we last saw them wasn’t quite enough to keep us dancing and honestly, we were both pretty exhausted by then!

 

As we left, around midnight, we were made aware of an incident that had just happened, when we were told that that there had been a medical emergency and to be careful leaving through the narrow access road, as site staff were waiting for an ambulance. We later learned that a woman had tragically died at the site.

 

Portree’s nearest ambulance station is 25 miles away and the capital’s medical centre, whilst just outside the festival gates, was locked up for the weekend with no access.

 

A sad ending to what had been a wonderful and memorable weekend.

 

 

Further north to the Quiraing…

 

With the festival over, we had already decided that we fancied a trip to the landscape that the Niteworks video above was filmed at – the Quiraing; an other-worldly landscape at the northern end of the Island’s Trotternish escarpment that looked too enchanting to miss. And, as we were passing, we thought we’d have a look at the beach at Staffin (thanks Tess and Nick) and its pier that Mr B was convinced was the setting for the Valtos video of their track Ceòl Dannsa (another Skye based ‘gaelictronica’ outfit we’d love to see live).

 

The drive up the eastern seaboard of Skye was without doubt very picturesque…

 

 

But, as we should have guessed from the sheer number of campervans and cars on the road, we were going to have quite a lot of company! In fact, we were so un-alone that in spite of slowly negotiating our way to the Staffin Pier, it was impossible for us to park, not even at a distance and walk back…

 

And the same fate awaited us as we toiled our way along the single track road to the Quiraing, where traffic was so heavy it was being turned back ahead of us. With just enough time (and a very small pull in) for Mrs B to re-enact a windy hair-blown homage to the Niteworks singers, with the Quiraing in the background…

 

 

And Mr B to do his homage to Valtos…

 

 

We headed back towards Portree, only too aware that Skye (and maybe the Highlands more generally) was quite obviously a very significant tourism magnet, and that unless we were to return in the depths of winter, not somewhere that would see sufficient resources for travellers like us, where we prefer to plan on the fly and there’s always a plausible plan B!

 

 

To the lighthouse – again!

 

Of course none of this stopped us from trying, and with the lighthouse beam already lit from our trip on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, we made sure we would visit Neist lighthouse (thanks again Tess and Nick), right at the end of a tiny track off a narrow single track road away in the west…

 

Mr B loves this type of driving, and so, secure in the knowledge of the success of our tiny road adventures so far, he volunteered to drive there and back. It’s only 33 miles away, but we knew it would likely take longer than the 1 hour Google predicted… which it did, by some margin! And we very nearly didn’t make it at all, when, with one eye on the (very deep) potholes, and the other on oncoming traffic on a particularly narrow stretch, Mr B almost put us in a ditch, as the edge of the road started to crumble and give way, and Evie’s 4.2 tonnes started to keel over towards the inevitable tipping point…

 

Luckily, having twin rear wheels (and newish tyres with plenty of tread) we were just about able to dodge the pothole and the ditch – with an eerie silence descending on us both until we were able to pull over and breathe again! Yikes – that was a close call for sure!

 

We completed the rest of the journey there without incident thankfully, and knowing there was meant to be on-road parking in the last part of the access road, we pulled over to have a well-earned top up with water before we set off to walk to the lighthouse. We knew from our research that it was a steep walk – but we weren’t quite prepared for just how steep! Pausing to ‘admire the view’ on the way down (Mr B’s quad repair means he’s a bit slow going downhill) we inched our way towards the lighthouse, set right out on a promontory.

 

 

Even though Neist is one of the most photographed lighthouses in Scotland, compared to the community-owned lighthouse at Ardnamurchan, it’s a bit of a sad sight, with minimal maintenance to the exterior of the tower, and the keepers’ cottages (sold into private ownership by the Northern Lighthouse Board) looking run-down and unloved.

 

 

 

It’s still a magical place though, as the setting is stunning, and although we didn’t get to see whales or basking sharks offshore, we did enjoy the field of cairns erected by visitors…

 

 

And the decaying industrial machinery…

 

 

 

After a good wander around the sometimes bog-like grassland, we enjoyed the walk back up to Evie, with Mrs B calling in the ‘views not to be missed’ as we climbed, slowly and steadily (with appropriate pauses!) towards the summit. With vans still arriving (and some clearly parking up for the night) but with a mist descending, we had a quick cuppa before tackling the road back to Portree. Which, with plenty of traffic in front of us to make negotiating the pull -ins that much easier, we were soon back at the campsite for our final night.

 

 

Portree town

 

We decided we’d spend a bit of time in Portree itself before leaving the island, and next morning after parking up in one of the dedicated motorhome bays in the smallish car park (thanks Portree!) we had a very pleasant wander, meeting the brother of Niteworks bass player in the Info centre; learning that a sea-fret in these parts is called a ‘haar’; enjoying the local café culture with this wonderful poem on the opposite wall…

 

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as well as this painting of Neist point that captures the topography much better than our photos…

 

 

enjoying some of the lovely views to be had around the harbour…

 

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and then, at Mrs B’s suggestion, we thought we’d go and see if we could have a look at the festival site, post festival. Known locally as The Lump, the setting was transformed; still being divested of its festival gear, the grassy outcrop was slowly being returned to its more usual function…

 

 

Whilst there, we got chatting to one of the litter pickers we recognised from the festival, still picking some 36 hours after it finished. Adam, it turned out, was a local crofter, living off the land in the north of the island, and supplementing his income with seasonal work. After a fascinating chat, where we were left in no doubt that it’s no easy life being a crofter, Adam suggested we might want to have a look at the views from the tower (a separate DJ stage part of the festival that we hadn’t explored).

 

 

Allowing us to see Portree from a different vantage point, it also allowed us to see the approaching ‘haar’, so we quickly beat a retreat back to Evie, and headed off to the local Coop, to restock and plan our return south, having decided that we would stay up in the highlands for a bit and see how the weather behaved…

 

 

 

 

S&J 26.05.24

The Ardnamurchan Peninsula – to the Lighthouse! Days 17-19

As we held on to our seats in the buffeting of the now busy traffic to and from Kinlochleven, we had a long hard think about doing a bit more advance planning to avoid any more too-close-to-the-roadside sleepovers. And our first port of call for planning, Park4Night, didn’t disappoint, as it showed the possibility of a stopover in the front yard of a couple of camper friendly folk overlooking Loch Sunart (at £10 a night), with the island of Mull in the background. We’d never even noticed the peninsula in our scanning of the Highlands, but it had been recommended by a friend of Mrs B’s, Lindsay, who grew up there, and so off we headed…

 

In this part of Scotland, with its many lochs and promontories, getting there meant driving through Fort William, useful as a refuelling stop with a big M&S and fuel stations, and, as we were to come to realise, a major through-route for almost all traffic transiting up and down the mainland adjacent to the western isles! Mr B had spotted a small ferry at Corran that might have cut off some of the route, but as we fancied our chances at the famous ‘Harry Potter viaduct’ at Glenfinnan, we opted for Fort William and the longer route.

 

We are still making up our minds about iconic/popular/bucket-list type destinations and, as we approached Glenfinnan, we noticed double yellow lines on both sides of the road; cars, campervans, and minibuses parked all over the verges; and, as the traffic slowed to a crawl past the two full car parks for the viaduct and nearby Glenfinnan monument (erected to commemorate the start of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion) our decision was made easily for us; and we sailed past – with the double yellow lines continuing for some distance beyond!

 

After a brief lunch stop by Loch Eilt, Mrs B took her turn at the wheel and, after heading on to the peninsula and its mix of red and yellow striped single track roads, it soon became apparent that she had drawn the short straw of today’s two shifts! Although we had shared out the distance to drive more or less equally as usual, the final stretch was much more demanding. And, as we pulled into the driveway of Nick and Sally’s amazing house overlooking the loch, with an audible sigh of relief, we realised we would have to recalibrate the journey times in this part of the Highlands by quite some margin!

 

We were warmly welcomed by our hosts and their Spaniel Bruno, gifted a box of freshly laid eggs from their hens, and talked though some of the things we might like to do whilst we stayed (a trip down to the nearby jetty where we might see Otters; a yomp up the hills behind; or a trip to the distillery next door where Sally works!). After parking up and reflecting on how generous it was of Nick and Sally to share their home and space with fellow campers at just a tenner for the night, we had a quick cuppa whilst we decided what we would do before dinner.

 

 

 

Ready for some undemanding down-time, we chose to stroll down to the jetty, too early for otters but just right to enjoy the sunlight on the waters and flesh out plans for the next day – Mr B’s birthday and the arrival of State Pensioner status!

 

 

After reading about the Stevenson lighthouse at the end of the peninsula, and seeing that the road would take us past a very interesting castle that had been converted into a hotel and restaurant, we decided to set off for a birthday adventure – but not before nipping into the distillery next door and having a chat with Sally about the single malts! The distillery does do a tour and tasting, but we guessed, given our experience of the roads so far, we wouldn’t make it back before it closed at 1630.

 

And so, after a swift ‘splash in a glass’ tasting of the Ardnamurchan single malt with its 50:50 peaty/non peaty style, we soon walked out with a bottle to sample later when we got back!

 

 

The trip out to the lighthouse was quite something – not far in distance but it took some slow and careful driving to get there in one piece! And en route we met some of the locals…

 

 

Part of the reason for going to the lighthouse was Mr B’s enthusiasm for any ‘Stevenson’ lighthouses we may encounter, based on his enjoyment of the book ‘The Lighthouse Stevensons’ which tells the story of the building of the Scottish lighthouses by the ancestors of Robert Louis Stevenson. Plus, we are always partial to a lighthouse park-up when we can!

 

 

 And we were not disappointed with the one at the end of the peninsula, reached by a narrow track that led off the single track road, where we knew (hoped!) we would be able to park in the community run enterprise that now owns the non shipping bits of the lighthouse. This is a good bit of Scottish enterprise, in that the Northern Lighthouse Board (the Scots equivalent of Trinity House) whilst maintaining the warning beacon, has no interest in the buildings that used to house the keepers and their families, (nor much else as we subsequently discovered on Skye). So we felt very fortunate to be able to park for free/a donation, and make a small payment for a guided tour of the lighthouse itself.

 

 

 

Our guide, Kenny, explained the history of the lighthouse, and in particular, the highly disciplined, naval tradition that applied to the keepers, who had to undertake their work in what looked like full dress uniform by modern standards! And we were left in no doubt about the arduous nature of the many jobs they had to undertake – no lolling about admiring the views for them!

 

Unlike us, as we were able to enjoy the panoramic views from the narrow platform that was used to keep the glass clean…

 

 

After the tour we spent an idyllic couple of hours wandering around the peninsula, enjoying the varied views out to sea and back to the lighthouse itself…

 

 

On the drive back to Nick and Sally’s, we stopped off at the castle to have a look. We knew it was closed until the day we were due to leave, by when the timing would be too tight for us to get up to Skye in time for the start of the festival – but we did think if the weather looked fine, and the owners were happy to let us park up for the night, we might just pop in on the way back – not often you get a chance to eat in a castle with views like this…

 

 

The next day, and after a delicious Spanish themed birthday dinner rustled up by Mrs B, followed by a very tasty single malt from next door, we said our farewells and thanks to Nick and Sally – but not before buying a couple of Sally’s home produced candles that had a very useful function – her ‘Bother me not’ citron scented specials that might help ward off the dreaded west coast midges we had yet to encounter, as well as other wee flying beasties!

 

Along much of the road that skirts the loch, we had seen a few fish farms run by a company called MOWI – a brand of salmon we had really enjoyed earlier in the trip that boasts what looked like very impressive eco-credentials. So of course Mr B started to imagine this being a local, Western Isles speciality – especially as the fish was a lot less fatty than a lot of farmed salmon we had eaten previously. So you can imagine his disappointment when it transpired that MOWI is actually one of the three big Norwegian owned salmon farming enterprises in Scotland, with 48 farms in Scottish waters, as well as being the world’s largest company in the sector! (It did taste very good though and worth watching out for again!)

 

Continuing our theme of wanting to make sufficient progress towards Skye each day, but for the journey to be restful, we set our sights on Loch Garry for a possible sleepover. And unlike our Lochleven experience, we were able to find some choices on Park4Night that were well off the road! Which is how we ended up in a very quiet spot with views over the loch for a peaceful night’s sleep.

 

 

And in true Babley style, although we were the first to arrive, and we were joined by campervans from Slovenia and Germany for the night, we were the last to leave the next morning, excited in the knowledge that our next stop would be on the Island of Skye and our festival adventure (as well, of course, as another refuelling stop in Fort William en route)!

 

S&J 21.05.24