Isle of Skye

This week I was lucky enough to be chosen to survey some sites on Skye. With it now being summer holidays it seemed everywhere on the island was fully booked so we spent our first night camping at Sligachan in the heart of the Cuillins, and actually had a transect to do right next to the campsite.

The weather was not kind to us - putting up a strange tent in the rain was not fun. We spent the evening in the bar sheltering from the worst of the weather. It didn't seem to rain much during the night and I stayed remarkable warm and dry, though the campsite was a sodden mud bath. We got up early and struck camp before the rain started again in earnest.  We managed to get two sets of host plant surveys done in between the rain showers, though did mis-time one and watched as the rain came in a band towards us from the Atlantic and gave us a thorough drenching as we tried to do the quickest survey ever!

Luckily we managed to get a cancellation in a bunkhouse, though it was nearly an hours drive away on the mainland. It was nice to be able to try out and not worry about the tent leaking though - and a lot easier to cook dinner with proper facilities rather than a wobbly camping stove in the rain. 

Our final day on Skye was much kinder to us. After driving back onto the island we managed to finish off the outstanding host plant surveys and do a butterfly transect in good weather. We stopped at a great little place for lunch (the Blue Shed Cafe in the Elgol peninsula) and had a delicious bowl of butternut squash soup. 

The weather allowed us to appreciate some of the magnificent scenery a bit more, though there were still clouds in the top of the Cuillins. The colours were amazing too - purple heather, green hills, brown seaweed, blue sky and aquamarine sea - very beautiful. It is a shame that the weather only perked up as we were leaving the island!

Then it was back to the mainland for our final site of the day, a National Trust for Scotland reserve near Kyle of Lochalsh (Loch Sgalpaidh). The landscape was beautiful with scenic views over the loch, though it was hard going underfoot with slopes of Molinia tussocks. 

The day finished with the classic tourist attraction of Eilean Dolan castle - probably the most photographed castle in Scotland so we had to do it too.