Edinburgh and Skye Adventure
WOW! To be honest, I actually don’t think I can find the words to do my mini adventure justice so maybe I should just leave it there.
OK, so you know I’m too much of a chatterbox to do that but with that sentiment in mind, I’m going to try and sum up my week away in as few words as possible (she says optimistically) and fill this post with beautiful photos!
Starting with the train ride from Cambridge to Edinburgh, which is always such a treat as you head up through Northumberland.
I had planned to spend a couple of days and nights in Edinburgh, to explore my favourite city, catch up with friends, visit stockists and see the Lanterns at the Zoo, which I missed on my last trip in 2018.
I booked a couple of nights at the Stay Central Hotel and arrived laden with bags and a huge smile - happy to be back in Scotland.
Bag Lady on tour 🎒🏴💛
I arrived just before dark so took the opportunity to explore some spots I was familiar with and say Hello to the team at my favourite stockist, Red Door Gallery.
I solemnly swear I am up to no good ✨ Victoria Street, Edinburgh
Had to come back 👌🏻
I had a bit of time to pop into the National Museum of Scotland too before heading off to meet my friend for a vegan feast at The Lucky Pig - so much food and so much deliciousness!
Lucky Pig feast!
It’s safe to say that after a long train ride and that much food… I slept pretty well in my cosy hotel room that evening!
Views from Arthur’s Seat
The following morning I was up at at ‘em quite early so I could take a yomp up to the best seat in the hoose! It’s always worth an early rise to catch these views (and a fresh breeze) at the top of Arthur’s Seat.
CHEESE!
Blown away … by views and the wind!
The weather was very kind to me too, not too chilly and clear views all around. The early morning sunshine felt amazing on my face as I hopped and skipped my way down from the top via the route under Salisbury Crags.
Always worth the early rise.
After a quick shower and change back at the hotel, I was off out again and headed to Stockbridge to meet the lovely Ashleigh, who owns S K Works (a beautiful Leather & Screen Printing brand) and also works at Red Door Gallery.
Sunshine on Stockbridge at The Pantry Man.
We met at The Pantry Man for the most amazing brunch and had a great catch up. My photo doesn’t do it justice but above is the ‘Sunshine on Stockbridge; Sweet potato, plum tomatoes, grilled courgette, guacasaca, poached eggs and poblano peppers, on sourdough with chorizo. It was f*cking incredible.
Stomping around Stockbridge.
After brunch, I went off on a mini adventure through Stockbridge to find the Botanical Gardens, which were a delight to walk around and work off such an epic meal.
Edinburgh Botanical Gardens
It was great to see the ‘After Hortus Malabaricus: Sensing And Presencing Rare Plants’ exhibition by Siân Bowen too, so many beautiful and intricate pieces!
Siân Bowen exhibition at the Botanical Gardens.
From the Botanical Gardens I continued my journey and wandered along the river to Dean Village, another favourite spot of mine!
Beautiful Dean Village 💛
I was starting to get a bit thirsty at this point so decided to wander back up the river towards Stockbridge again and popped into the the cosiest, coffee shop called Lovecrumbs for a perfect brew!
The perfect brew at Lovecrumbs
If you’re in Stockbridge, make sure you pop in here!
By the time I’d finished my brew, it was starting to get dark but I had just enough time to pop into the beautiful Golden Hare bookshop where I picked up some gorgeous cards and swooned over many a great book. I also made it into Iola, whose glasses I’ve been eying up online for a while now. It was great o be able to pop in and see if the frames would suit my pea sized head - I think I found the perfect pair too!
Why so serious?
I was still full of brunch by tea time (very unlike me!) but I knew I’d get peckish later that evening so I took my tired feet back to my hotel via the supermarket and enjoyed a hotel room picnic in my PJs. Rock and roll!
Picnic treats. Not featured, a vaguely healthy salad and scotch eggs.
The next morning I packed up my bags, swimsuit and all, and headed to the beach!
Portobello Beach telling it straight.
I wish I could tell you I’d been brave enough to swim in the sea, in Scotland, in January but the fear of being on my own and terrified someone might run off with my bag (and clothes!) while I was splashing about got the better of me.
Refreshing paddle!
But I did enjoy a wonderful paddle on Portobello beach and paid a visit to the amazing Victorian Turkish Baths.
Beach side strolling at Portie.
Popping my Turkish Bath cherry 🍒 Beautiful building but a bit weird bathing as a loner 😅
I also made sure to call into Bros Bagels after stalking their incredible looking bagels on Instagram. They did not disappoint!
’The Goy’ - insanely good!
After my little adventure to the seaside, it was time to get ready for an evening at the zoo! The last time I was in Edinburgh I just missed seeing the amazing giant lanterns at Edinburgh Zoo so part of my planning for this trip revolved heavily around being able to see the Lost Worlds Lantern Show.
Time to travel back in time at the Lost Worlds Lanterns, Edinburgh Zoo.
… and it was BRILLIANT! The sheer amount of work, time and skill that must go into planning, making and executing these incredible structures is just mind-blowing. It was so much fun to walk around the zoo, taking in all the colours, lights and sounds of the show.
These are just a few of my favourite photos from the evening, we won’t mention the sad veggie burger in a bag or questionable cheese sauce on the nachos though!
After spending the evening going back in time with the Dinosaurs, my friend and I headed for pizza and enjoyed slices as big as our faces at Civerinos.
If it’s not as big as my face, I’m not interested #thatswhatshesaid
Originally, I had planned to hop on a train from Edinburgh to the Isle of Skye, via a cheeky visit to another of my wonderful stockists in Kyle of Lochalsh.
In the end I didn’t get the train as my friend, Alex was up for joining me on a mini adventure to Skye and agreed to drive so we set off early Saturday morning and I felt very lucky to enjoy such a beautiful scenic journey. I’m not sure how much can be said for Alex, who had to put up with a rather over excitable bean as his passenger!
En route to Kyle of Lochalsh.
We arrived in Kyle of Lochalsh late afternoon in the pouring rain. I felt bad as I’d promised to bring some Sunshine with me for Jen and Tina who own a beautiful little shop there called Stròm. It was amazing to pop in and say hello though, and in a way I did bring some Sunshine along as I hand delivered some stock for them!
One of my beautiful stockists, Stròm.
Alex and I continued our journey to Skye, which was pretty much complete as the hostel we were staying at was just over the bridge in Kyleakin. We dried off and as the rain had stopped we went for a quick walk as it got dark. The rest of the evening was spent in the local pub and we were pleasantly surprised to wake up to sunshine and some cracking views the next morning!
Overlooking the Skye Bridge from Kyleaki.
I had been warned to expect bleak weather and a lack of views on this part of my adventure… especially with it being Winter and I was fully prepared for it, especially after the downpour on arrival. However, as we set off on our drive to the Old Man of Storr, it was nothing but sunshine!
We reached the carpark and set off to visit The Old Man. The wind and clouds were playing with us all the way but overall it was a glorious walk and the showers that were falling elsewhere even treated us to a rainbow!
☀️ + 🌧 = 🌈
The views were just breathtaking, I’m not sure I can describe them in a way to do it justice and as beautiful as I think my photos are, I still don’t think even they capture the beauty of it all!
Breathing in the scenery surrounding The Old Man of Storr.
We had been super jammy with the weather so far but as the winds changed and the clouds rolled in we were about to experience a bit of the weather I had been preparing myself for…
… and then all HAIL broke loose!
Within minutes we went from skipping down the hill in a bit of drizzle and wind to being pelted in the face with hail stones. As much as my face was stinging from the hail stones slapping me silly, it was also aching from smiling and laughing so much as we ran down towards the car.
Back in the car and wondering what weather the next part of our road trip would bring, we were surprised to be treated to more brilliant sunshine on the way to The Quiraing.
I didn’t think my brain could imagine much more beautiful scenery and I had already lost count of the number of times I’d said ‘wow!’ out loud. But then we started to hike part of The Quiraing trail at sunset and my mind melted…
Setting off to explore…
I mean… just LOOK AT THIS PLACE!
Wow.
Sunset at Quairing
Enjoying the sunset here was the perfect way to end a day exploring some of Skye, the only sad thing was that we didn’t have enough daylight left to hike more of The Quairing trail… but that just means I have a solid excuse to return someday!
Views for miles… and always someone in the way!
With the sun going down, and a storm due to roll in we headed off to find a place to stay for the night. The original plan was to wild camp somewhere but even with the ridiculous luck we’d had with the weather, neither of us fancied our chances with high winds, hail and snow storms forecast so we headed off to Uig, where The Cowshed Bunkhouse and a beige banquet (thanks Alex!) awaited!
The beige banquet, courtesy of @alexhowarth1 - tattie scones with camembert and uncle bens, if you were wondering!
Listening to the wind and rain that night and seeing the light dusting of snow in the morning made me pretty bloody glad we hadn’t been in a tent and I thoroughly enjoyed a brew or two from the comfort of a camping pod, whilst looking out over the water.
Cute camping pods at The Cowshed, Uig.
Overlooking the ferrty terminal, Uig.
From Uig, we set off on a road trip to the other side of the island, Neist Point being our destination for the day. It was another GLORIOUS morning full of sunshine and the odd shower, I couldn’t believe it as we were treated to more stunning views.
More sunshine on Skye!
The Old Bakery, Dunvegan
On the way, we had a delicious breakfast cob from The Old Bakery in Dunvegan (sausage, egg and black pudding), and I enjoyed mine so much I never even took photo of it! Shocking. Then we continued onwards from Dunvegan to Neist Point.
Looking across to Dunvegan.
Arriving at Neist Point, the lighthouse is in the distance and it’s a bit of steep walk down towards it. I was so excited I feel like it barely took any time to skip down there though.
Trundling down to this stunning place, Neist Point Lighthouse
The lighthouse itself is BEAUTIFUL, let alone the rugged coastline and views out to sea! It was quite quiet and almost eerie wandering around. Apparently it’s operated remotely from the Northern Lighthouse Board headquarters in Edinburgh now.
Neist Point Lighthouse
Parts of it seemed quite run down. whilst others were maintained beautifully - I more than appreciated the yellow paintwork too!
Ahoy there!
The weather had become overcast while we were down by the lighthouse but we enjoyed exploring the grounds before heading on down to the rocks to stare out to sea… and spotted a seal playing in the waves!
Seal spotting at Neist Point Lighthouse 👀
After watching the seal bob about and play hide and seek with us for a while, we headed back up to the car and set off to somewhere I had been VERY excited about visiting, The Fairy Pools.
Who am I kidding, I was excited about the whole damn trip and spent much of it skipping and hopping about like an excitable puppy… but I really was looking forward to exploring The Fairy Pools as I’d heard so much about them through other people’s lovely recommendations and photos.
Glenbrittle, looking out to the Black Cullins.
Arriving in Glenbrittle, we were treated to more stunning views of the Black Cullins and we quickly walked off towards the famous pools. The sun was starting to set but it was still light enough to appreciate the beauty of the waterfalls and stunning colour of the pools as we wandered along the trail.
The Fairy Pools.
You’ll know from previous posts that I’m a big fan of swimming, whether it’s in swimming pools, lakes, rivers or the sea at silly times of the year… so it may come as no surprise to you that I was 100% determined to jump in these pools! Luckily, I was a with a friend who’s as bonkers as I am…
Before…
During…
After!
It was bone chillingly cold but incredible! I’m ashamed to admit I nearly chickened out when I saw Alex jump in and the face he pulled when he popped up to the surface again! It was clearly painfully cold but there was no way I could back out and I’m so glad I didn’t - I mean, look at that smile!
What a place!
I’ve never got dressed so fast in my life and the brew waiting back at the car tasted incredible! In reality it was probably a bit luke warm and sad after being in the car all day but after jumping in ice cold water it felt pretty luxurious!
Tea tastes better outdoors... and fucking amazing after you jumped into an ice cold pool of water ☕️😅
After that refreshing pit stop, we hopped back in the car and had decided to make our way down to Glencoe to pick up supplies and stay over in Ballacullish. It was a fairly long drive and became particularly interesting when we hit a snow storm and could barely see! I will be forever grateful to Alex and his calmness while driving because I think I’d have lost my sh*t.
Waking up to a Christmas Card outside.
The next morning we got to appreciate the beauty of all that snow as we woke up to snow covered woodlands and enjoyed a walk around Glencoe Lochan.
Snow in Glen Coe 🏔❄️👌🏻
After a snowy walk we had time to enjoy several brews at the lovely little Glencoe Cafe, where we watched an abundance of birds at the window feeders and I did my best to blend in with decor…
Blending in…
Full of tea and with a heavy heart (I didn’t want to leave the Highlands), it was time to start the journey back to Edinburgh. It wasn’t all bad though as you can see from the snowy views through the Pass of Glen Coe.
Pass of Glen Coe
The photos don’t do this place justice.
Then, just like that it was time for me to head home! * sob * but not before enjoying a sunny and rather delicious cheesy toasty brunch at The Little Larder in Edinburgh and a cheeky coffee at The Wall.
Sunshine and cheese toastie time!
So… there you have it. My week in Scotland. I hope you enjoyed following along my journey as much as me (well as much as reading and perving at photos can bring enjoyment anyway). It was an incredible little adventure and one I’m still not over!
One last coffee…
Before I sign off I have to say a BIG THANK YOU to my pal, Alex. Without his generous driving, photography skills and companionship along the way, I would never have seen so much of the Isle of Skye in such a short amount of time.
He also put up with a very excitable Jo for several days in a row, so probably deserves some sort of medal for that too. Here’s hoping he’ll let me visit again soon…
CHEEEEEEESE!
☀️
