Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
A Quick Look at Raasay
by admin - 23:05 on 24 April 2010
Today's excitement centred around a brief jaunt to Raasay, the only easily accessible Scottish island I'd not yet visited. You reach it from Sconser on Skye.
This is a trip that should have been made on Kawasaki San, but his faulty shock absorber has still to be returned to the spanner twirlers at RM Motors by the firm that made it, which is most vexing. The bike club invades the Trossachs next weekend; if I'm not back on two wheels by then, Matchgirl and I will have to attend by car.
So it was Agent Cooper that transported Matchgirl and me over the bridge to Skye, from where CalMac supplied the exorbitantly priced ferry (over £30 return for two people and a Mini) for the twenty-minute crossing. The water was flat as a millpond, but Matchgirl was still decidedly queasy by the time we made landfall. The girl's just not a sailor.
The Cuillins on Skye, seen from Raasay
She's also not a geographer, for she'd got the idea that Raasay was flat. A few up-and-down miles on the island's main road (single-track all the way) soon put her right.
The island boasts few roads, one shop, one hotel, no petrol, an abandoned iron mine, a ruined mansion, a very ruined castle, an outdoor centre and stupendous wild scenery. And lots of sheep. And some free range pigs in the north of the island.
A dull day didn't lend itself to photography, but the short visit was enough to convince us that we'll return some time for an overnight stay, so I may be more successful then.
The island is reputed to look like all the Highlands did fifty years ago. Take a trip – it's worth the effort.
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