Isle of Skye

Back home after a fleeting visit to the Isle of Skye.  A beautiful atmospheric place with weather (this week) that changed every 15 mins.  We experienced snow, hail, mist, sun and rain - often all in one hour.  On the Thursday we were - as featured on the previous post - walking in snow and mist and the next day we woke to snow flurries but by 2.00 I was sat sketching on the hillside in full sun !

A friend of ours had booked a comfortable cottage on the side of a hill overlooking Carbost and invited us to join him for a few days.

panoramic view from our cottage

It was an action packed week for my friends -  various walks and climbs every day regardless of the weather so undeterred by the snow covered peaks sometimes totally obscurred by cloud but a promising forcast on the Friday he and his intrepid pals including Dr Fred went off for an adventure climbing in the Cuillin.  I diligently stayed at home to do some college work.  I dont want to mislead any readers... there is no way I go do the adventurous activities Dr Fred and his crazy pals get up to - I just provide tea and cake when necessary... I sat in the window and watched the weather come and go across the amazing view and I did manage to embroider some moth work but eventually the sun was too much to miss so I headed up the hill to explore.   The views just got more and more magnificent with the snow covered Cuillin always present dominating the scene and the sun was getting better by the minute.

panoramic across the bay 

 Eventually I found a nice spot to sit by the loch with my sketch book and paints -  enjoying the calm blues skies and fluffy clouds scudding along the horizon.

10 min watercolour and ink partial view of bay - the skies were clouding over..

It was a very clear day and I could easily ake out the outer Hebrides in the far distance. I climbed a small rise to investigate the Dun Beag Broch.

sunny side of broch

start of ink drwing of sunny side of broch

It was windy on top of the Broch - which is quite a substantial ruin given that it is at least two and half thousand years old - but the views were stunning so I took a couple of panoramic shots and then sat and drew for a little while - it was very peaceful.  None of the sketches were much to write home about let alone blog but I've included a couple just to prove its not all about lazing in the sun on hill and loch sides!!!!!