Sunday 19 October: It rained. All day! We need to go to Portree, where I’m surplus to requirements. Coffee and cake (and a chapter from a book) in what used to be Aros will help to pass the time.
Monday 20 June: To Inverness – to return the hire car and board the train. It’s still raining on Skye, but the sun is out on the mainland and it’s a much better day. We need to grab a lunchtime bite, but nothing’s open along the Achnashellach – Achnasheen – Contin road. We’ll try Strathpeffer. There’s a cafe at the old railway station, but it’s closed too. However, the deli in the square serves us some delicious plum tart.
When the Kyle line was built (opening to Strome Ferry in 1870), the people of Strathpeffer didn’t want a railway, and the line had to take a difficult alternative route – a steep incline which caused the operators much trouble for many years. Meanwhile, Strathpeffer changed its mind, and in 1875 a short branch line opened, provided with the attractive station building which remains today. Strathpeffer would undoubtedly be a major contributor to local rail traffic if the Kyle line had taken that route. Sadly there wasn’t enough traffic to justify a separate branch line. It closed in 1946.
Post-oil: Cromarty: There’s time to kill before returning the car. Let’s drive around the Black Isle (it isn’t, though we cross bridges to enter and leave it!) to Cromarty. There’s an attractive little harbour there, in the throes of restoration/renovation. The Cromarty Firth is an eye-opener – it appears to be an elephants’ graveyard for redundant oil rigs. The air is clear and the sunshine strong – until it slips behind shower clouds. We’d better be on our way now.
The Black Isle Bar’s pizzas are excellent: the beer’s pretty good too. We’ll need little else before our train arrives at Crewe (5.30 this morning, and already it feels like yesterday!). We’re home.
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