Isle of Skye, Scotland

 We travel today from Edinburg to Inverness via a Scotrail Inter-city train.  The 1st class seating is nicer than the normal short haul trains. This trip was a little over 3 1/2 hours.  The section was completely full!

The trip started out as usual through some pretty farmland. 

But as we headed northward the terrain got more hilly. 

Some forests but mostly bare mossy hillsides.  These photos don't really do it justice. Really beautiful. 

A cool bridge I caught a glimpse of before the train turned towards it to cross. 

Arrived exactly on schedule at Inverness and picked up our rental car (UK company called Arnold Clark - so far seems excellent as per reviews. )

Duane feel right into driving on the "wrong" side of the road as usual. 

More beautiful scenery and lochs. 

We drove on a little more scenic route that was populated by one-lane roadways at times. When we have to return to Inverness several days down the road we will take the more open and maintained roadways, I expect. 

As we cross over to the Isle of Skye, we make a slight detour to see the Eilean Donan Castle.  I wanted to see it in particular because the McCraw family has direct ties to the Clan MacCrae who claim ownership. The Clan MacCrae were allies of the Clan MacKenzie when the castle was originally built around 1200. It has been reduced to rubble and restored over the centuries. 

A plaque from WWII honoring the Clan MacCrae men who perished....there are several listed as McCraw.  (The name McCraw was perhaps a mid-spelling of MacCrae??)

We did tour the inside of the castle. No photos allowed!   It's all fairly recently been restored.  

Getting pretty late, we head on to Portree to our B&B for the next few nights.   More beautiful scenery. 

Tomorrow we'll do some hiking!

Amazing views!

I did finally want to note...this photo was taken at 10:12PM from the B&B window!  Daylight at 5:30AM.