The purpose of this blog is to publish some of our pictures of the Isle of Skye, Scotland. We lay no claim to these being great photographs - they are just pictures of what we see, taken with ordinary compact cameras. We hope you enjoy browsing.

Richard and Sue


(CLICK ANY PICTURE TO VIEW A FULL-SIZE GALLERY)


Wednesday 20 September 2017

Walls

Before modern methods of transport brought wooden posts and beams to Skye, the only building materials available were those that could be derived from the land - and pretty much the only long-lasting building material was stone.

Around us here in NW Skye, the local stone is volcanic basalt - a hard, black rock which can be dressed to create roughly cubic building blocks. However, basalt is seriously heavy - a one-foot cube weighs around half a hundredweight (25kg), which is as much as I would want to lift these days. There are many, many blocks of double that size (and more) embedded in walls all over Skye...and even in Roskhill Barn!

Roskhill Barn
During our first works at The Barn, the original stonework was substantially restored 

Today, the human endeavour involved in creating stone walls is mostly forgotten, and many of the ancient walls are tumbled and becoming re-absorbed by the surrounding moorland. I offer below just a tiny number of the photographs I have taken of stone walls in our local area of NW Skye. Can you even begin to imagine the skills required to create such structures...??

(Throughout this blog - click on any picture to view a full-screen gallery).

Large animal enclosures above Loch Bharcasaig.

Lichen-covered wall at Claigan

Long-abandoned township boundary wall, Cnoc na Pairce

Huge stones in the wall of the derelict sawmill at Dunvegan

Large animal pen - Eabost

Even larger animal pen - Glen Colbost

Today, it is easier to erect a new fence than to repair an old wall...

Fireplace and gable end wall of derelict cottage in Lorgill

Old wall - newer fence -Lyndale

Beautiful stonework - Orbost

More Orbost walls

Interior - St John's Chapel, Caroy

Boundary wall, Sumardale

Wednesday 21 June 2017

Skye Kat

It is now almost exactly a year since I bought Puss - my wonderful Winter Gold Jaguar XK. I gain almost as much pleasure from looking at the car as I do from driving her - and believe me, she is every bit as lovely to drive as she is to look at! In our first year together, Puss has been all over Skye, as well as twice to Devon and Hampshire, twice to Inverness, and once each to Dundee, Glasgow and Dumfries.

For this post, in celebration of being a Skye Kat for one year, the subject of the images is Puss herself, and sensational Skye provides a picture-perfect backdrop. (The photo captions refer to the backgrounds...!!)

As ever in this blog - click on any picture to view a full-size gallery.

Above Gesto

Towards Ardtrek Point

The Cuillin

Stein jetty

The road to Glen Brittle

The Skye Bridge from Kyleakin

Above Camas na Sgianadin, near Broadford

Loch Bracadale from Feorlig

Loch Dunvegan

Stein jetty

The Storr

Saturday 17 June 2017

Skye Lines

I asked Sue to suggest a theme for our next post in this blog, and she said 'skylines'. She was thinking of the line we see between land and sky - or is that the horizon..?? Either way - I know exactly what she meant. We see a lot of sky here - we don't look out of our windows at other buildings, or trees - just at a distant view, with the sky above, and a line between the two.

I'll now treat you to a gallery of a few of Sue's 'SkyeLine' pictures... obviously not all recent ones...!!

Throughout this blog - click on any picture to view full size.














Wednesday 31 May 2017

Cloudless Skye

I will not pretend that we do not get some grey rainy days here ... just occasionally ...  or maybe just a bit more often than that ... But I promise you that we also get sparkling clear days from time to time, when there is not a cloud to be seen, and the air is fresher and cleaner than you can imagine.

I've browsed our photo archive and found a few blue Skye pictures which I will post below. I'm sure we have loads more, so I may browse the archive a bit further and return to this topic another time.

Click on any picture to view a full-size gallery. Enjoy....

Loch Harport
Loch Bharcasaig

Ben Aketil Wind Farm and the Cuillin

Loch Beag

Sgurr nan Gillean, Black Cuillin

Loch Beag

Pool Roag, Loch Bracadale and Harlosh Island

Loch Harport

Loch Harport


Friday 14 April 2017

Skye Villages - Struan

Following on from my last two posts in this blog, suggesting that Skye has no proper ‘villages’ – I can now sense indignation from residents of at least a couple of other locations on the island who may consider that they inhabit a ‘village’.

So, for this post, I offer you one settlement I have thus far missed - Struan.

Struan’s greatest claim to ‘village’ status will be that it has a ‘Village Green’.  This has to be unique on Skye… (Just wait for the howls of indignation from Kyleakin…) Today, there is a strong local community in Struan, and an annual Gala is held on the green – when the wind doesn’t threaten to destroy the marquee.

At present, Struan also has a shop with Post Office facilities, a cafĂ©, a church, a primary school, and INDUSTRY – yes, a manufacturer of high quality outdoor clothing has their business base in Struan.

But there is no village hall… and for my definition of a village – there has to be a village hall.

Sorry Struan!


Here are a few of my pictures of the settlement (village??) of Struan, Isle of Skye

Struan Shop - no-one said it had to be pretty...

Struan War Memorial - Quite rightly maintained in immaculate condition

Information plaques and seating within a stone structure on the village green.
In the background is Struan's industrial centre - the premises of Cioch Clothing

The Bracadale Free Church, Struan. A typically austere Skye church.

Struan Village Green

Struan Cafe, also houses a secondhand bookshop

The garage closed last year

Struan Primary School.
Still open for now, but with only four pupils on roll, how can it survive?

Someone parked a really nice Jaguar by the green...
I wonder whose it is?