Isle of skye scotland travel guide. Around Scotland by car

Next, you will be faced with the need to hire workers. Since the game doesn’t want to help us with this, we’ll try to figure out where to find them.

Recruitment missions will appear after the construction of special terminals at their base. There are 5 types of specialists in the game that can be hired: builders, scientists, gunsmiths, technicians and farmers. Such a team will allow you to obtain rare and valuable items in the command center. Each of these workers has its own series of tasks, after completing which you can receive various drawings.

Where to find a builder?

First you will be asked to find a builder. To do this, we go to Gek, to any of them space station. We talk to everyone there until we find out the information we need.

Where can I find a gunsmith?

We go to look for the gunsmith at the space station of the Vay’kin race. There we find a suitable specialist. The Vy'keen are skilled with weapons.

Where can I find a scientist?

We go to look for the scientist on the space station of the Corvax race. We talk with everyone on the space station and choose a worker. Korvax are very smart.

Where to find a farmer?

We go to look for the farmer at the space station of the Gek race.

Where to find equipment?

We are going to look for the equipment at the space station of the Vy’keen race. Sometimes found on a common platform.

Other guides

• No Man's Sky Guide - how to quickly explore planets, spend money efficiently and collect resources

Skye is the second largest island of Scotland, part of the archipelago Inner Hebrides, in the Russian Wikipedia only a meager couple of paragraphs are devoted.

It says the following: the island from the point of view administrative division belongs to the Highland region (that is, “highlands”), by and large, the only region of the country where the population still speaks not only English, but also the almost extinct Gaelic language; There are several castles on the island, and main city Skye is the small fishing port of Portree. In a word, nothing special, ladies and gentlemen, a typical Scottish outback.

However, sometimes a lack of information is preferable to an overabundance, since it eliminates the possibility of inflated expectations. At least that’s what happened with the Isle of Skye. Going there, I didn’t expect anything special, but found myself in a real fairy-tale land.

You reach the island from the Scottish mainland via a bridge that is invariably shrouded in fog. Because of this, while crossing the bridge there was a feeling that our little Fiat 500 was literally diving headlong into the clouds, and when the fog cleared, as in the old Soviet song, suddenly “everything around became blue and green.”

Only the black basalt rocks on the horizon gave the landscape a slight bit of drama, otherwise the feeling that we had suddenly found ourselves inside a photograph processed by a designer who could not resist intensifying colors would have been one hundred percent.

Isle of Skye and Old Man of Storr cliffs

Getting around Skye requires a car. public transport There’s not much to see on the island, but you notice hitchhikers voting on the road every ten minutes.

You don’t have to work out the route in advance, just move along the road and stop at each View Point. From mandatory places For a visit I would like to recommend the Old Man of Storr rocks, and the gorge near the diatomite road, the rest will fall like a map in the literal sense of this expression. It is easy to recognize the observation decks - opposite there are signs describing the place in English and Gaelic.

Famous rocks Old Man of Storr, whose silhouette resembles a Cambodian temple complex Angor Wat is the first thing that guests of the island try to see, among whom there are many Scots traveling around Skye in motorhomes.

As expected, it is connected with the Scottish old man Storr (this is how the name of the rocks is translated). mysterious story, in which the Vikings are involved. The fact is that at the end of the nineteenth century, among the stones of Old Man of Storr, researchers discovered a “stash of silver” left in the Scottish rocks by the Norwegians. Scientists dated the coins to 935 AD.

It is curious that, according to the chronicles, the first Norwegian Vikings arrived on the island a little later, at the very end of the tenth century, and now scientists are thinking: the chroniclers telling about the Viking migration were mistaken by a couple of decades, or the Vikings hid a treasure with old coins.

Lakes near Old Man of Storr

However, tourists are not too interested in this small discrepancy in dates, but prefer to hike to the rocks that arose after the ice that covered Skye during the last ice age disappeared from the top of the island.

The duration of the walk is about 40 minutes, but it is still more interesting to contemplate the Old Man of Storr rocks from the valley; from below they seem like menacing giants who have been silently watching over everything that is happening on the island for many centuries.

Second Observation deck- straight ahead, located next to Diatomite Road, that is, the place of extraction of diatomite - sedimentary rock, the main material for the production of dynamite.

Viewpoint next to Diatomite Road

Previously, there were mining villages here, but today only ruins can be seen on the green slopes near Diatomite Road, and only ruins remain from the local diatomite processing factory.

The cliffs covered with soft green grass, hanging over the azure sea, like the eyes of northern beauties, look like the scenery for a fantasy-style film with a story about how she “waited and waited until it came.”

Indeed, if beautiful ladies should live somewhere, going out to the sea every day in the hope of seeing on the horizon a boat with a betrothed returning from an overseas campaign, then best place than the cliffs of the mountains with the truly Scottish name Kilt and it’s not worth looking for.

Of course, in reality, on the coastal cliffs you can see not at all sad ladies peering longingly at the horizon, but tourists desperately photographing local beauties.

However, everyone, without exception, at some point catches themselves thinking that constantly clicking the camera in an attempt to capture the changing colors of the sky and sea is nothing more than a conscious refusal of the pleasure of contemplating the amazing beauty of this place, and therefore they put the camera aside and, not caring caution, they sit down at the very edge of the cliff and begin to peer into the deep blue sky, thoughtfully clinging to the transparent surface of the sea.

The Coast of Skye is a place of amazing energy

From the point of view of meditation and contemplation, the shore near the diatomaceous earth road is an ideal place, and this is not only due to the amazing beauty of Scottish nature. Here, every stone breathes majestic tranquility; I can’t even believe that material for dynamite was previously mined in these mountains, and in Norwegian saga the thirteenth century with the difficult-to-pronounce name Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, this place appears as a bloody battlefield.

Having meditated enough, we decided to become like mountain sheep and went down to the waterfall rustling at the foot of the mountains. Although the slopes of Kilt from the top seem absolutely impassable, you can go down and up along their paths, albeit slowly and carefully.

A local waterfall, as it turned out, is an excellent place for swimming. Its shape resembles a deep bowl, into which you can easily and naturally dive from the stone side. While swimming in the waterfall, I remembered a scene from my favorite childhood movie “Robin Hood” with Kevin Cosner in the title role, in approximately the same conditions the king of the robbers “took a bath” when Lady Marianne, who arrived in Sherwood Forest, noticed him.

While swimming in a mountain waterfall, you experience an amazing feeling of unity with nature.

Unfortunately, few people dare to go down to the waterfall, and only the most stubborn get to the local bay, which is located near the gorge and an abandoned factory.

The fact is that the entire coast near the bay is strewn with large smooth boulders, on which you have to step with extreme caution so as not to injure your leg. Sitting thoughtfully on the shore of the blue- blue sea It’s also unlikely to fail - the local boulders, although smooth, are not at all a cushion chair or even a soft carpet of grass.

Of course, from the point of view of impressive views, it is best to stay at the top rather than crawl up and down the mountains, but the descent into the bay is a full-fledged exercise in the theme of “feeling like a real Scottish Highlander.”

A destroyed factory that used to produce raw materials for dynamite.

Having admired the duet of the blue sea and green mountains from the heart, go deep into the island. Here you find yourself in a land of a thousand shades of green, where the blue of the sky already seems like nothing more than a background, shading the green slopes of the mountains.

In the center of the island, the mountains are covered with a green carpet of grass.

Bold, but at the same time timid Scottish sheep jump out onto the road every now and then, but, on the contrary, there are no people or cars at all. It seems that you somehow ended up on a planet that people left a hundred years ago, and now you are the only one who can observe these green slopes frozen in silence.

You won't find people or cars in the center of the island.

Lonely sheep in the center of the island

By the way, the fantasy on the theme “the last man on earth” is not too far from reality, because on the island, whose area is 1656.25 km², a little more than 10 thousand people live, and in the largest local city— Portree, according to official data, has only 2,490 inhabitants.

Although in essence Portree is just a small fishing village with colorful houses and an embankment where there are even more seagulls than people, after the desolation of the mountainous regions this place seems full of life.

Harbor with fishing boats, Portree

The stalls selling fish are crowded with customers, in the pubs (here this word is pronounced with a Scottish accent, which makes it sound like “pub”), visitors drink an evening pint of ale, and from the cafes comes the recognizable oily smell of Fish & Chips, which local residents they take it to go and eat it right on the embankment, without being embarrassed by the greedy glances of the ever-hungry seagulls.

In Portree, it makes sense to follow the example of the Scots - sit on a bench on the embankment, devouring Fish & Chips and periodically feeding them to starving birds. After the deserted expanses of Skye, go to a relatively Big City- the solution is not very successful; it is still worth returning to human noise gradually.

And finally, another interesting one historical fact, associated with the Scottish Isle of Skye. When I wrote about it, I did not mention one interesting document that was created in Ravenna in 700 AD. It is called Cosmography of Ravenna and is a map of the world. The Isle of Skye is also marked on it under the name Scetis, which means that the ancient Romans or Byzantines visited here long before the Vikings.

Photographer Davide Bacelle

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Yulia Malkova- Yulia Malkova - founder of the website project. In the past, he was the editor-in-chief of the elle.ru Internet project and the editor-in-chief of the cosmo.ru website. I talk about travel for my own pleasure and the pleasure of my readers. If you are a representative of hotels or a tourism office, but we do not know each other, you can contact me by email: [email protected]

With the sharply increased density of travel in the last six months, I chronically do not have time to talk about all the interesting places I have visited. Just 3 weeks ago I was in beautiful Scotland, but did not have time to publish even half of the articles due to the fact that no less interesting ones were then “layered” in a continuous stream. Meanwhile, during the week in Scotland we managed to see a lot; we got behind the wheel at 9-10 am every day and crawled out of the car at 9-10 pm. We traveled an incredible number of kilometers along mountain roads, took ferries to the Orkney Islands, reached the northernmost mainland point of Great Britain and much more. Today I’ll tell you about the most mountainous and picturesque island Scotland - Isle of Skye.

Geographically, the Isle of Skye belongs to the Inner Hebrides archipelago, administratively to the Highlands, and the history of the island is so deep and rich that it would be difficult to even briefly fit it into a small article. People have lived there since the Bronze Age, later Irish tribes landed on the island and founded their kingdom there, then the Viking period, then there were clan battles, then endless wars with the British. Currently, about 10 thousand people live on the island. Even on the island to this day, almost half of the population speaks the Gali language and you will definitely hear it at one stage or another of the trip.

There are two ways to get to the island: through the bridge built in 1995 and connecting Skye to the mainland and by ferry from the port village of Mallaig to Armadale. We tried both methods: we sailed there by ferry, and back across the bridge. The first method takes longer, but it is extremely interesting, you drive the car onto the ship and sail for almost an hour among the islands and mountain peaks -

We are first in line -

It should be noted that ferry crossings The UK is far from cheap for motorists: for a sail of even less than an hour we paid £40 for four people, including a car. As a regular passenger without a car, such pleasure costs around 4.5 pounds.

Let's set sail -

Scotland is divine, and the Isle of Skye is like the whole of Scotland in miniature. As soon as you land on the island, the landscapes that will take your breath away begin -

Constant lambs -

Local cows are distinguished by their powerful build and curly heads -

Notice how much the baby looks like dad -

Beauty awaits you even where you did not expect to see it. Just an example, we stopped somewhere according to the principle “boys to the left - girls to the right” and this is what we found -

The bright green hills are a distinctive feature of Scotland -

After visiting the Isle of Skye, we spent the night in the tiny town of Culeakin in the southeast of the island and then crossed the bridge back to “mainland” Great Britain.

Alena publishes in parallel with me crazybagzy I read her articles with great interest. It seems like we traveled together, but it’s always interesting to look at the same thing through the eyes of another person :)

Cost of the trip, if anyone is interested. For the information, special thanks to my travel companion Ilya:

Rental - 205 pounds for a week, ordered Vauxhall (Opel) Insignia, given Zafira.
- Gasoline for the same period (2300 km, ~190 l.) - 258 pounds.
- Ferry to Skye (Mallaig - Armadale) - 4.5 per person, 23.25 per car
- Ferry to Orkney and back (Gills Bay - St. Margaret's Hope) - 28 per person, 66 per car (by the way, there may be options here that are a little cheaper, but longer).

Hotels in Scotland, in order, prices per double:
39
75
80
79
50
60
67
In Manchester - 54.

I borrow a few more numbers from Alena’s post “Scotland. How much does it cost?” I myself kept very approximate records, and if they ask me about the budget for the trip, I might get something mixed up. So, I give my word to Alena -

Food. I had a hard time with food. Firstly, my taste preferences did not agree with my fellow travelers (for some reason I always wanted borscht with cutlets and, quite surprisingly, Snickers). Secondly, the food in the UK is somehow very bad. There is either fish & chips or fried sausages and eggs, and more normal food is expensive (for example, seafood, which northern cities are famous for). I kept trying to find haggis as delicious as in Edinburgh, but to no avail. The cheapest lunch was in an Indian restaurant - 6 pounds, the most expensive in a Chinese restaurant - about 15-18 pounds. The rest of the time we bought food at Tesco and ate it right in the car, since we simply didn’t have enough time, we already exchanged food for the mountains on the first day.

Food in supermarkets is cheap and tasty, not at all comparable to ours. A good piece of prepared salmon or their local fish - 2.5-4 lbs. Various types of prepared meat, jamon, sausages – 2-4 lbs. Fruits – 1 lb. Berries – 2 lbs. (and blueberries grow everywhere for free anyway). Packet of salads -1-2 lbs. Box of cherry tomatoes – 1 lb. Pack of 6 dessert yoghurts - 1.3 lb. Even a pack of 6 large Snickers costs £1. And I got a piece of delicious blue cheese for a ridiculous 2 pounds. Only coffee is expensive - 2.3 - 2.5 per glass. I drank liters of coffee, as the insanely fresh air kept making me feel sleepy. In the mornings, the hotels had breakfast, although on the 8th day I began to hate eggs and sausages. A pint of evening Guinness - 4 £, whiskey - from 3 £. for 50 gr.

Accommodation. A day in a hotel is from 30 to 40 pounds per person for a double, + 10 pounds extra for single occupancy in a double (they simply don’t have singles). The hotels here are very funny and unusual. Three times we stayed in the Be spoke hotel chain. Their signature difference: beautiful building outside and everything is very confusing inside, no wi-fi and the floors are completely covered with tartan woolen blankets. When someone walks along a labyrinthine corridor, his stomping can probably be heard by the entire hotel.

Switching system hot water– actually some kind of rebus. Not only was it different in all hotels, but also in each room the water turned on differently or was completely absent. In some you need to press buttons, in others there is a tap in a tap, and that one, like a nesting doll, is in another tap. And thirdly, in general, who would have guessed that in addition to all the turns and pressures on the tap, you also need to pull the string on the ceiling. I wish I had photographed them all.

But we drove past our final refuge several times and ignored JPRS because we couldn’t believe it was our hotel! Moreover, there was not a single person anywhere in this city, only hares ran in crowds along the roads. We even joked that there was a plague in the city and all the inhabitants died out. But then it turned out that the entrance was in a neighboring building. Imagine that the price of a room per night is 74 pounds. Although, despite the building and the sign, the hotel turned out to be homely, comfortable and with hospitable hosts. I liked him the most.

What can you get for free? Yes, a lot, if you walk past the ticket office with an insolent face, for example, as we did at Fort George in Inverness.

Parking in cities is paid everywhere. To stop somewhere to eat, you still need to find a place to leave the car. One time we did it near the church. The second time we were abandoned under some hotel with a sign “for our own people only.”

Wifi is a problem in Scotland. By chance it turned out that there is one at Inverness Airport, and it’s free, which I didn’t expect at all. But in Gatwick an hour of Wi-Fi is approx. 3 f. But under the gray price tag small print it is written that they give “complimentary” 30 minutes, after which you need to register. After these 30 min. I decided to try to register a new user and, oh gods, Wi-Fi went. So, before the departure, I made a lot of new users.

There are also many tours and excursions organized throughout Scotland itself, which are unreasonably expensive. But all the most interesting places are in non-tourist areas, you just need to not be afraid to climb over the barbed wire. And you can even see cats for free if you really want to and are not afraid of anything...

For all of us, the Isle of Skye was perhaps the highlight of the entire trip. Judge for yourself: a mountainous island in the far north-west of Great Britain, located in the Inner Hybrids archipelago, with a population of only 10 thousand inhabitants who speak Gaelic and are direct descendants of the Scandinavian Vikings!

The Isle of Skye is the patrimony of the legendary Scottish MacLeod clan (everyone has seen the film “Highlander”). The island has always been isolated from mainland Scotland, and the first bridge was built only in 1999. In general, the wilderness and wild beauty are unreal for Europe! "Island of impressions" and "a photographer's dream." Quiraing Pass, cliffs and Kilt Rock waterfall, and an unreal storm at Neist Point, and to top it all off - the most sincere hostess in our wonderful mini-guesthouse. I even left a review!

By evening we finally reached the capital of the Isle of Skye - the city of Portree. The town is tiny, population only 2500 people, but 100% authentic. The seafood bar at the sea pier alone is worth it. Without a doubt I would spend at least one summer here!

It was in Portree that we were lucky to stay in the most wonderful mini-hotel run by a wonderful granny. Another +100 to the place. Must do! I recommend everyone to spend at least a couple of days here. Immersion in serenity is guaranteed! I’m generally silent about delicious jams :)

The island is quite large (more than 60 kilometers long) and is literally crammed with the fantastic beauty of the North Atlantic!

As I said earlier, I went on this trip completely unprepared and when I saw this inscription in an incomprehensible language, I literally fell into a stupor. It turned out that Gaelic is the second official language of the island, along with English.

And when I came to the edge of the cliff... I think comments are unnecessary here.

On this day we made the maximum number of stops per 1 kilometer of the journey.

Waterfall directly into the sea. Behind Kilt Rock!

I have seen few such bright, powerful places, but I had to move on, to the mountains!

The Quiraing rocks are the main natural attraction of the Isle of Skye and we even planned a short two-hour hike, but after getting out of the car we all settled down for a picnic right on the green lawn, and when we were about to get ready for the hike, it began to rain. Well, that means it’s not fate!

Quiraing, the place is, of course, mega powerful! The remains of ancient volcanoes, with their rocky slopes facing the fierce North Atlantic winds!

Along the narrow mountain road we went down to the western shore of the island. The most beautiful place Uig in full view! When passing such places I always think about the same thing. What will happen if a person who was born and lived half his life in such beauty is moved to our cities?!

In general, there are already more than enough beauties for this day, but a plan is a plan, and we stopped at another popular place called “Fairy Glen”. We climbed through funny sinkholes and bulges, found (ancient?) stone things and photographed the Most Beautiful Sheep in the World!

In the evening we walked around Portree. First of all, to the pier. Here you understand with all your senses what life at sea is like!

The second day of our stay on the Isle of Skye turned out to be a blast! The route for the first half of this day: Portree - Dunvegan Castle of the MacLeod clan - Neist Point - Sky Bridge

Early in the morning we had another run around Portree with our iPhone. There will be no more chance to see the city!

This is the view of the secluded bay that opened up to us every morning!

We were unlucky with Dunvegan Castle of the MacLeod clan - it was pouring like buckets! It's a pity! By the way, this is the oldest inhabited castle in Scotland. The MacLeod clan has lived in this place for over 800 years!!!

Despite the bad weather, the most beautiful road Along secluded bays and tiny villages, we stubbornly moved to the north of the island. Here I realized that the phrase “a house by the sea and your own secluded cove” means nothing to a resident of the Isle of Skye. There are ten bays here for each resident!

At 8.30am my husband and I stood outside a travel agency on Edinburgh's Royal Mile meeting the group with whom we would be spending the next three days touring the HighLands and the Isle of Skye.
The tour was selected and paid for back in Moscow, through the website www.highlandexplorertours.com. There are quite a few sites offering tours from Edinburgh; once they were different companies, but now they have one owner, one office and the only difference is in the programs (more expensive\cheaper, youth\"retirement"). For us, the main selection criteria were the size of the group and the size of the bus. In the end, we decided on a three-day tour to Skye (the first day is the road to Skye, the second day is a journey around the Isle of Skye, the third day is exploring the south of the island, traveling on the Jacobite steam locomotive and returning to Edinburgh). The group was the most diverse (elderly, young people, Irish, Chinese, Spaniards, Americans, and we, Russians). The driver (aka guide) is an Edinburgher with a decent Scottish accent and a great sense of humor. Our guide tried very hard to entertain the group - during the journey he constantly talked about the history of Scotland, about the places we were passing by, and just funny stories. I must say that it was thanks to the “presentation of the material” that a fairly clear picture of the history of these places formed in my head. Of course, the tour imposes restrictions on the duration of stops, but in general I was very pleased with the tour - we saw the maximum possible in a very short time, and I can safely recommend this tour to those who do not want or do not know how to drive a car.
Hotels (choice - hostels, B&B, hotels) are booked separately from the tour. If you wish, you can find accommodation on the spot, or you can entrust the booking to the same company with which the tour is booked. We preferred the second option, choosing to stay overnight in a B&B. I must say that this was a very correct option, because... Upon arrival on Skye, we found “No vacancies” signs on the houses we liked. We were more than pleased with the B&B we received - beautiful rooms, bathroom, hospitable hosts, excellent breakfast.
The only bad part of the trip was the short journey from Mallaig to Fort William on the Jacobite train (http://www.westcoastrailways.co.uk/Jacobite.cfm). The train itself is very beautiful from the outside, but when you sit in the carriage, all the beauty leaves you with unwashed windows, an unbearable smell when entering the tunnels, and a face covered in coal dust. The only joyful moment was driving through the aqueduct, which appeared in the Harry Potter film. The trip on this train is optional, so if a trip to Harry Potter places is not an end in itself for you, I would advise you not to spend money on it.

So let's go

First stop is Dunkeld Cathedral. Dunkeld is famous for its cathedral.

The second stop is the town of Pitlochry. On this tour you can spend very little time in Pitlochry (literally eating and buying souvenirs), although the city itself and especially the area around it deserve much more. A couple of years ago I spent a full day in this place, and I will remember this trip for the rest of my life. Absolutely magical places with pastoral landscapes that literally take your soul out. Here, in Pitlochry, there are two distilleries - Erdadour and Blair Atoll, as well as the famous Moulin Inn pub, which has won the Scottish Pub of the Year and Michelin Guide to Eating in Pubs awards. The food there is inexpensive and very tasty. So if you have the opportunity, be sure to stay here longer. Queen Victoria called Pitlochry one of best resorts Europe, and didn’t lie one bit)

Perhaps the oldest McDonald's in the world

Next we had a long drive ahead with a stop at a memorial dedicated to commando soldiers. The memorial offers a view of the most high peak Britain - Ben Nevis (1300 meters). "Ben" means "mountain" in Celtic, and one of the full translations of Ben Nevis is "evil mountain."

From the bus window

The last stop before arriving on Skye is Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland's most photographed castle. Eileen Donan has been featured in many films ("Highlander", "The World Is Not Enough"). It seems that this castle has stood here forever, but, by and large, it is a “remake”. The original castle was built in the 13th century, but this building was destroyed in the 18th century and the castle lay in ruins for two centuries. Only at the beginning of the 20th century it was restored according to old drawings.

And so, we enter the Isle of Skye along the Sky Bridge. Until 1995, the crossing was carried out by ferry, and then a bridge was built. The people of Skye themselves were not happy about the bridge, mainly because of the toll that was charged to travel across it. The only opportunity for free travel was the transportation of livestock, as a result of which residents unwittingly turned into cattle thieves - in the evening, on the way home, they borrowed poor sheep from farmers, and in the morning they took them back. The bridge toll was subsequently abolished.

In general, the first hour on Skye was spent looking for something open and selling food. The opening hours of one local store and three restaurants are not very friendly to tourists. But this cafe surpassed everyone. It looks like the dirtiest job in the world.

Landscapes of our refuge for the next 24 hours - the town of Kyleakin. He has his own website - http://www.kyleakin.com/

The next morning we set out to explore Skye.
Playground. These are the conditions in which harsh Highlanders grow up.

Legends say that if you dip your face in this river, you will remain forever young.

We looked at the cemetery where Flora MacDonald is buried - the woman who hid Bonnie Prince Charlie, in my opinion a rather inglorious character. Charlie captured almost all of England, and near London he suddenly turned back to Scotland, lost the uprising, fled from persecution in a woman's dress, and as a result drank himself to death. After the unsuccessful uprising of Prince Charlie, the British authorities took drastic measures - the Scottish clans were disarmed, kilts and other symbols were prohibited from wearing. As a result, both the clan structure and the economy of the mountainous regions were destroyed - this is the price of loss.

We stopped at the Museum of Peasant Life. This is a traditional farmer's cottage.

Afterwards we went to the Quirang mountain range. The massif is still moving - pieces break off from the mountains and slide down. This is one of the most breathtaking landscapes of the island - a place with absolutely extraordinary energy.

We start the third day with a trip to Botanical Garden, which was founded by members of the MacDonald clan. In the same garden there is a museum that tells about the history of the clan and its most famous representatives.

Mallaig is a very picturesque port, where the smell of fish and the cries of seagulls can be heard over the sea. We have 15 minutes before boarding the train to Fort William.

The Jacobite steam train that played the role of the Hogwarts Express.

The viaduct was built between 1897 and 1901 by engineer Sir Robert McAlpine. Consisting of 21 arches, the viaduct rises above the failure to a height of 30 meters. laid along the viaduct Railway from Fort William to Mallaig. The viaduct is also familiar from the Harry Potter series.

Further our road lay through the Glencoe valley, along the bottom of which flows the Co River, after which, in fact, the valley is named ("Glen" - valley). Our guide said that this is where the size and majesty of the Highland Mountains is most felt. It seems to me that these places should make the strongest impression in autumn weather, shrouded in rain and gloomy clouds. But when we visited here, the weather was very sunny, warm and the atmosphere was the most joyful. The Valley of Glencoe is also known as the "Valley of Tears" due to the sad events known as the Glencoe Massacre. In the early years of the Jacobite movement, the government wanted to punish the rebellious Highland clans, for which it issued a decree according to which all clan leaders had to swear allegiance to William no later than January 1, 1692. This was done in the hope that the Jacobite Highlanders would not comply, in which case the government would have every reason to punish them severely. But Jacob, who was in exile, realized that this was a provocation, and agreed for the clans to swear allegiance to the English monarchs. All but two clans pledged allegiance to William and Mary. One of the non-sworn clans was one of the branches of Clan Macdonald of Glencoe. And it was them that the government chose for exemplary punishment. Troops were sent to the Glencoe Valley. The MacDonalds received them with hospitality: Captain Campbell and his unit spent two weeks under their roof, resting and having fun. And on February 12, the captain received a secret order. In the evening, he and two of his colleagues went to dinner with the clan leader, and at that time government troops blocked all exits from the valley. At five in the morning, the soldiers began to carry out the order: they went from house to house, killing sleeping highlanders, including women and children, and setting their homes on fire. In total, more than 70 people died in the Glencoe massacre.

And the last stop on the way to Edinburgh, notable only for the fact that Sean Connery owns these places. It tastes good, I must say.

To say that I enjoyed this little trip is an understatement. This is one of my most memorable trips. Someday I will return here again, but for a more detailed exploration of the Highlands and islands.