A Great Scottish Adventure - Part 4

The Time and Tide Bell on Bosta Beach, Great Bernera (Isle of Lewis).

This week’s blog comes to you from our hotel in Tarbet, on the shores of Loch Lomond, as we enjoy our final night in Scotland before we begin our journey back south home, having thoroughly enjoyed our trip around Scotland over the last four weeks. If you’ve missed the previous instalments, you can see Part 3 here, which contains links to Parts 1 and 2.

Finishing Lewis

The weather finally turned into something that felt like a heatwave as we wrapped up our stay on Lewis, and we finished our time on the island with a visit to Great Bernera. We visited the fantastic beach at Bosta, which features turquoise waters and pure white sand — absolutely stunning, and it really felt perfect on a sunny day where temperatures reached over 20°C. Also at Bosta is a reconstruction of an Iron Age–style house, which made for a really interesting and unique place to visit. For a small £5 donation, we got to learn about the presence of Iron Age settlements in the Hebrides.

Me and The Skye

Following our stay on Lewis, we caught the ferry from Harris to Skye, where we enjoyed a long weekend break. The weather on Skye reverted to traditional Scottish form — with an increase in rainfall — and it was the wettest it’s been during our time in Scotland so far. We still managed some interesting visits while on the island.

Our explorations of the Waternish Peninsula, including the Fairy Bridge and Trumpan Church, were cut short by heavy rainfall, and we ended up spending time exploring the main village of Portree — dodging the showers while we explored the shops.

On the Saturday, the weather held off mostly for the morning, giving me an opportunity for a solo photography outing — enjoying a boat trip from Elgol with Bella Jane Boat Tours (dog‑friendly) to Loch Coruisk. This was a fantastic trip filled with opportunities to take photos of the beach, the loch, some waterfalls and even some seals. Doggo and I enjoyed our morning before the heavens opened and we headed back to our cottage to dry off.

The sun (mixed with rain showers) did show itself again on the Sunday, and we all enjoyed a historical tour of the Trotternish Peninsula, including a visit to the ruins of Duntulm Castle and the beach at Staffin, where you can allegedly see the footprints of dinosaurs. Someone pointed them out to me — I’m not sure — I’ll leave that to the geology and scientific experts to conclude.

Mostly Moderately Moist in Mull

Following our long weekend in Skye, we next headed to the Isle of Mull. We stayed at the excellent Bellachroy Hotel in Dervaig from Monday to Thursday and enjoyed excellent dog‑friendly hospitality. The weather on Mull was even wetter than it had been on Skye, so the camera photographs are somewhat limited. The only real photographic opportunity was the dry Tuesday afternoon we spent on Iona, visiting the ruins of the Nunnery, the Abbey and the fantastic beach at Tràigh Bhàn, which was another place that felt like a glimpse of the Caribbean.

Journeying

We’ve had some incredibly scenic journeys on our travels so far. I’ve not yet had the chance to process all of the iPhone photos, so you have one final instalment of the special Scotland Blog to look forward to before I wrap these up and return to the usual monthly blog format.

Until next time,

Kenny