[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 12 October 2014]
1 February 2014, Saturday
After a day of recovery yesterday, where we simply just lazed around and didn’t do much, we started our day early today. We checked out of Portree Independent Hostel when the sky was still dark, and drove up north to Kilt Rock and Mealt Falls. It had snowed quite heavily during the night, and a light snow and drizzle started to fall just as we were setting off, so we were not feeling too hopeful about the day ahead, thinking that it would be another gloomy one.
After about 25 minutes, we arrived at our destination. We parked our car and found ourselves at a viewpoint. We walked towards the ocean and were pleasantly greeted by patches of blue skies with a hint of sunshine behind the cloud cover.
Kilt Rock is a 200-foot tall sea cliff and its vertical basalt columns are supposed to resemble the pleats and the horizontal sills forming the patterns of a kilt, hence the name Kilt Rock. From the viewpoint, we couldn’t really see Kilt Rock as it was quite far away. However, immediately in front of us was Mealt Falls. Waterfalls never cease to amaze me, and this is another type of waterfall as it free falls 60m down to the sea below, unlike those in Iceland, which flow to a river.
While waiting for the sunrise, we soaked in the marvellous view of vast ocean in front of us. The sun was slowly emerging, labouriously, from behind the clouds. It was a beautiful start to the day.
I remember I was in Byron Bay, Australia, watching the sunrise in 2010 when my friend asked me which I preferred – sunrise or sunset. I answered sunrise. And when I was probed further on what sunrise meant to me, I replied, “hope”. Every day is a new beginning and no matter how bad the previous day had been, the sun always rises the next day, so there is always hope.
We then proceeded to the next destination, the Old Man of Storr. The Storr is a rocky hill created by a massive landslide eons ago. The Old Man of Storr is a large pinnacle of rock that stands high on the Storr area. From the carpark, it will take around 1 hour 15 minutes to hike up the hills to see the Old Man and back. On this winter day, the hills were all covered in snow so we did not attempt to do the hike.
We just followed a path, or something that looked like a path because it was full of snow, and ascended to an area with some cliff rocks behind. We assumed that was the Storr. It was a cloudy day so there was no chance of spotting the Old Man anywhere. Still, it was a marvellous sight and experience to walk in thick snow, with the sun bearing down on us.
After that, we bade farewell to Isle of Skye and drove towards our final destination, Aberdeen, cutting across Scotland, from west coast to east coast. It was going to be a long drive – 360km in all. Along the way, we stopped by Urquhart Castle for a look.
Urquhart Castle overlooks Loch Ness and it is a popular place for Nessie-spotting, i.e. for those who still believe in a thing called the Loch Ness Monster. Urquhart Castle was built in the 13th century and presently, parts of the castle have collapsed but the tower still stands tall. There is an admission fee of GBP7.90 for adults, and we weren’t too keen to visit it, so we just caught a peek of it from the car park area.
From Urquhart Castle, we drove 21km to Inverness. Inverness is regarded as the capital of the Highlands and an important city, but we didn’t have much time to explore so we just made a pit stop there for lunch. We also didn’t have parking coupons so we parked our car by the roadside, had a quick meal of mac & cheese (again) at a café, and walked briskly back to the car. Luckily we weren’t fined!
We had one last stop before Aberdeen, and that was a visit to one of the distilleries in Scotland’s famous whisky-producing regions, Speyside. Speyside is the biggest region in terms of production, and half of all the distilleries in Scotland are found there. It is located midway between Inverness and Aberdeen so it was an ideal stop.
Several of the distilleries in Speyside offer free guided tours. I did my research and picked Glenfiddich Distillery, located at Dufftown. Glenfiddich means “Valley of the Deer” in Gaelic, and it is home to the World’s Most Awarded Single Malt Whisky. It was founded in 1886 and the distillery was hand-built, stone by stone, by founder William Grant and his seven sons and two daughters.
The free, one-hour Classic Tour operates daily between 9:30am to 4:30pm and there is no need to book. You will first be ushered into a mini cinema to watch a short film of the company’s history before visiting the distillery itself. You’ll then go to the Mash House and see how the brewing process takes place in the huge Underback drums, and also witness the fermentation process in the equally large Washback drums. Next, you’ll visit the Still House, where several shiny copper stills are fired and the distillate is condensed. You’ll then visit Warehouse 1, where the precious maturing whiskies are stored. Finally, at the end of the tour, you will get to sample a small portion of the Glenfiddich 12, 15 and 18 year old whiskies.
The tour is educational and interesting, and I would recommend it to anyone dropping by the area. Best of all, it is free, and you get to sample the whiskies, what more can you ask for? If you’re really interested to know more, you can opt for the more in-depth Explorers Tour (GBP10) or Pioneers Tour (GBP75). Only for hardcore whisky lovers.
By the time we finished the tour, it was almost 5:30pm. From Dufftown, it took us another 1 hour 20 minutes to drive to Aberdeen, 85km away. With the aid of the GPS, we located our SYHA hostel, which was located in an old Victorian building.
Aberdeen Youth Hostel (SYHA)
Address: 8 Queen’s Road, Aberdeen AB15 4ZT, Scotland
Tel: +44 1224 646988
Website: https://www.syha.org.uk/where-to-stay/highlands/aberdeen.aspx
Rate: GBP21.00 for a dorm bed
Unlike the Portree Independent Hostel, this SYHA hostel was busy and very crowded. Our dorm seemed to be almost fully occupied. After dropping our bags, we headed out to search for dinner, and settled on something cheap – discounted sandwiches from The Co-operative supermarket.
It had been a long day of travelling, even more so for IJ because he had been behind the wheel for the Scotland leg. 15 days down, the trip was coming to an end soon. Last 3 days before heading home!