Thistly Cross Strawberry Scottish Cider

Today we spent the whole day exploring the Isle of Skye! Skye is a very touristy island, with 2 in 5 housed being either vacation homes or rentals… but luckily we have a great guide who is able to still get us to cool places, no matter how busy it is!

We started the morning by driving to hike An Stòr which is famous because of the Old Man of Storr rock spire. This imposing rock formation is made of volcanic rock and was formed by detaching from the nearby cliff side around 6100 years ago.

Our guide told us the legend that this mountain is actually a fallen giant, slain by the Christian God on behest of the recently Christianized locals from whom the giant was stealing. And the spire is well… a part of the giants anatomy that would protrude upwards if he was lying on his back.

An Stòr mountain from below

Old Man of Storr (furthest spire to the left)

This hike gave us absolutely gorgeous views and took about 2hrs for a round trip. We had another warm sunny day… who knew that I would get a sunburn in Scotland!

Selfie with the Old Man of Storr on our sunny day

Views after hiking up ~300m

Next we drove a bit further up the road for a walk to Brothers’ Point. In Scotland peeople have the “Right to Roam”, meaning that you can walk on private property without consequences (within reason of course). For us, this meant walking down through farmers’ sheep grazing fields… and I finally got to see some sheep up close! It was so tempting to pet them.

Happy to finally be with the sheep!

Mamma and baby sheep

We climbed up a nice mossy hill and got a wonderful view of the Kilt Rock. Aptly named, this cliffside has spires of basalt that make it look like the pleats of a kilt from afar.

View of the Kilt Rock

I’m constantly stunned by the beauty of Scotland. The colours of the deep blue ocean, the mossy green fields with the white sheep speckled across them, the strong gray rock… it’s absolutely breathtaking.

Scottish colours

And of course, after a hot day of many walks we visited the Isle of Skye Brewing Company. Liam got their Skye Red Beer, which was very fruity and smooth… quite refreshing! I got their Thistly Cross Strawberry Scottish Cider because well I’d never even heard of strawberry cider. And it is delicious, it really does taste like fresh strawberries.

Isle of Skye Brewing Company

Skye Red Beer

Strawberry Cider

Honestly, this group trip has been so worth it, if just for the people! It’s only been three days but it feels like everyone is already fast friends. Becoming close with folks who were absolute strangers is such a unique experience to travelling… we’re all in this together.

Two more days to go!

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Bon Voyage & Bon Appétit

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