Our final two days were spent at the Caravan and Camping Club site at Edinbane, which is next to a loch. We had not seen this part of Skye before so on our full day we drive to Neis Point to see the lighthouse there.

The views across the bay of the cliffs were incredible, there were several waterfalls tumbling down the cliffs in the distance and some amazing scenery. However the best was yet to come!

We wanted to go on a boat trip while we were in Skye, with the hope of seeing some more seals and sea birds. We went with a very knowledgeable man, Trevor, from Skye Marine, just next door to our campsite. The trip took us out into a more open loch where we saw not only seals resting on the rocks but a whole school of dolphins!

This was the highlight of the trip for me, not just one but about 50 dolphins, jumping out of the water in pairs and swimming right up to the boat. Such a magical moment that was better than anything we were expecting. It was difficult to get pictures as they were so fast but you can just see one coming up out of the water in the distance here.

There was also an amazing waterfall on one of the cliffs, an especially unexpected treat for my sister, who loves waterfalls.

A wonderful end to the holiday. We travelled back via a night at Loch Ness, no monsters sadly but after seeing, seals, deer, eagles, dolphins and possibly otters we didn’t feel too disappointed. That figure in the picture below is a paddleboarder enjoying a quiet trip.

We were planning to spend the night in Glencoe and do some walking but encountered the only bad weather of our trip at that point so drove on to a service station park up near Lanark.

When we planned this trip in January it seemed like a dream come true and it was. It was over 2000 miles, on some incredible roads, visiting eight amazing islands and meeting so many lovely people on the way.

I am back in the Lake District in a couple of weeks and will return to Scotland as soon as I can. A truly magical land.

I will be posting soon about our trip to another island, Anglesey in North Wales, as soon as I can.There may well be more pictures of waves as looking at my pictures it seems I am a little addicted!

Meanwhile have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

For many reasons there are few of the original houses, the blackhouses, left on the islands. This is partly to do with the fact that many were abandoned in favour of the newer houses that were built which had more modern facilities.

You can find a few as holiday accommodation and we were really lucky to have a fantastic selection of these on our little campsite in Harris. The site is called Lickisto Blackhouse camping and we booked it more for the location rather than the houses and only realised when we got there how significant it was.

The site was an amazing piece of landscaping, as we were approaching we were wondering where the actual camping would be as the surrounding land was hilly and full of rocks. Every inch of the site has been cleverly structured with three blackhouses used for rental and some of the facilities blocks.

You can see here how hidden the actual campers are, within the garden. There were at least 6 tents here but you can only really see the yurt.

The campervan area was the only flat piece of land, with space for five vans in what would be the driveway of the modern house. The three blackhouses were near this house, accessed by paths through the gardens.

The tent pitches were within these gardens, wherever there was a flat piece of land. They all had little campfire stones and most had little benches and were all named.

The site had direct access to a little beach on the loch as well, just past Loch Loo, the toilet with a view!

As well as standard pitches you can also stay in one of the blackhouses, two yurts and a bell tent, all with amazing views.

One blackhouse was a lounge for guests, with kitchen and dining facilities. This is a great idea for the many people hiking or cycling round the islands as it was a cosy space to sit in the evenings. There were even home made meals available to buy and they have music nights on Saturdays.

It is one of the most unusual sites I have ever stayed at and well worth a visit. By the time I have finished this UK tour I will have stayed at 13 campsites, most of them Caravan and Camping Club ones, but I think this might be my favourite for its glimpse into the history and culture of the islands as well as the beautiful views and sunsets.

I really love camping and although I have my van now still use a tent as storage. I have borrowed Jacky’s awning to try out so may by myself one for next year. It is nice to be able to stand up to get dressed and although I have been really lucky with the weather this year would give me further options if it is raining.

I have been collecting pictures of the quirky and unusual camping vehicles and tents I have seen on my travels so will do a post on those at some point. There is a whole world of variety out there, from the sublime to the ridiculous!

I am now safely in Anglesey, staying in a very luxurious barn conversion which is wonderful. Have seen some beautiful beaches today and am looking forward to a nice relaxing week here.Have fun, take care, stay safe and until next time thanks for visiting.

When you visit the Outer Hebrides you really do get a sense of being somewhere so different from the rest of the UK. At the edge of these islands there is nothing but sea between them and the coasts of Newfoundland and Canada.

It is a beautiful landscape and we were so lucky with the weather but it can be a harsh and remote place to live. We both loved it and I am so glad that we made the trip to North and South Uists, Benbecula and Eriskay as well this trip.

We caught another ferry from the bottom of Harris for a short trip to land on the tiny island of Bernary. Nowadays all of the islands are connected by beautiful stone edged causeways but they used to use boats or horse drawn carriages at low tide to cross between them.

We had a quick trip around Bernary, stopping off at the seal viewing point where we were delighted to see four seals playing in the sunshine. You can just see some little heads above water in this second picture.

We found another brilliant community cafe and art gallery for lunch, where I may have bought another book on island life, then drove all the way down to Eriskay, a trip of around 35 miles. .

Our campsite was right on the coast, next to an RSPB reserve so we had a quick walk on the beach before sunset that evening. The sun and clouds were so beautiful. There were thousands of tiny shells on the shore so I have collected some to remind me of this wonderful place.

Our full day was spent on a 4km coastal walk, just spending hours watching the waves crash on the coast. I have said before how happy I am near the sea and am lucky to be able to spend a large part of my life near it now.

The people who live here have always had such a connection with the sea, fishing, using kelp to fertilise the land, and crossing it to access things such as education.

Nowadays there are many more services on the islands, we found two Co-op supermarkets which were very handy, but everything still has to be brought in to the islands by sea or air. It is such a different way of life here.

It was only a very short stay before we had to head back to Skye, involving two ferry trips and a bit of a dash across Harris past all those wonderful beaches again. We made it in plenty of time despite a Hebrides version of a traffic jam, which reminded me of life in Marsden.

I am so lucky to be able to do all of this and realise my dreams. This Scotland trip has been amazing and the final two days back on Skye were just as incredible. I will tell you about that excitement in the next post.

Meanwhile there has been lots of stitching of Christmas ornaments going on. I should finish the six for friends by the time I leave for Spain and have also done three others so you may get a craft post sometime soon!

I will then have to start on the Christmas knitting as I have promised some knitted reindeers for fundraising after the success of the Luna in the summer.

I hope that you are enjoying the last few weeks of your summer, or winter wherever you are. This year seems to have gone so fast. I am off back to Yorkshire at the end of the week and then on holiday in Wales with some ex- colleagues for a week, in a luxurious barn conversion as well.

I will be back as soon as I can. In the meantime have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Our first three days in the Outer Hebrides were spent on Harris and Lewis. We stayed at a very quirky site on Harris which I will devote a separate post to as there was so much to show you.

The area of Harris we stayed in reminded me a lot of trips to Sweden, similar rocky archipelagos and everywhere small lochs full of water lillies.

The first afternoon after the ferry crossing we drove to see the amazing beaches of South Harris. Even though I have seen them on other travel vlogs you cannot believe that the sea and sand are really that colour until you see them. They are so beautiful.

Our first full day was spent driving up to the top of Lewis, this island is very different as it is so flat, compared to Harris. We drove to the windiest place in the UK, I can confirm it lives up to its reputation!

The views of the Atlantic were amazing and it was even more exciting as we saw some seals playing on one of the rocks in the cove.

We also visited the Callanish standing stones, three Neolithic stone circles on Harris. There is lots of archaeological evidence of settlement on the islands including a reproduction of an Iron Age house near one of the beaches.

Day 2 was a trip to the little island of Scalpay, over the bridge between Harris and the island and a walk out to Eilean Glas lighthouse, we were so lucky with the weather the whole time we were there. I couldn’t believe the sky was so blue.

We also went out to one of the most remote beaches, Husinis, in search of otters. It was literally a roller coaster ride along the narrowest and bumpiest roads that I have ever seen.It was certainly an experience getting there!

I am not sure if we did see otters, they are very elusive but there may have been something in this bay.

The islands are unique and feel very different from each other. The light there is amazing and the colours seem so bright. This was even more so when we got to the next islands, another ferry ride away. I will tell you more about that in my next post.

I have been reading some biographies about island life, like much of Scotland land ownership has been an issue for many years with clearances by land owners that led to crofters losing their homes. It was significant that there are very few of the older houses left on the island and many people were forced to emigrate to USA and Canada.

Nowadays most of the area is owned by the community and there are various community businesses, such as the lovely cafe we stopped at for lunch in North Lewis.There was also a small museum and gallery where I was able to see one of the looms that made the famous Harris tweed.

I didn’t find many places that were doing weaving but did manage to buy this beautiful little purse which will remind me of all the colours of this island.

I will tell you more about island life in the next post. We are now back in England, after a very long 6 hour drive. I then drove back North through my first appalling weather to meet up with Ellen for more Steampunk fun in Lincoln. We were very pleased as this event has not been held since 2019 and a great time was had by all.

I hope that you have had a good weekend, especially if you are in the UK where it is a Bank Holiday. We are planning a quiet Monday sewing and watching movies.

Hope you all have fun anyway, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Many of you will know the song that has this line in, I have always loved it, even before it became the Outlander theme tune.

We did not go by boat but after many beautiful roads winding past loch after loch arrived at Fort William.

We had not booked anywhere to camp in Fort William as we were planning to use some of the apps to find a parking location but it was quite late by the time we arrived so ended up, with many other campervans in Lidl car park! Not the most glamorous of locations but it was much appreciated.

We did make a stop off to see the famous Eilean Donan Castle which is in such an amazing setting.

We took the road bridge over to Skye, it was very cloudy so no good pictures but the weather was glorious for the drive around the south peninsula that afternoon. We had a very good view of the Cullin Hills and the stunning coastline.

Our full day saw me able to tick off many of the things on my list that I have wanted to do for so long. We climbed up to the Old Man of Storr, a very steep and hot trek but so worth it for the views of the clouds over the lochs.

The Quiraing rock formations were equally stunning, even if the road up there was a bit of a challenge. Jacky has excellent driving skills and she has needed them on all these tiny single track uphill roads.

We didn’t far into the fairy pools sadly as the midges came out early that evening. We have been lucky and not had much issues with them and have been able to BBQ and eat outside some evenings.

The campsite was lovely, with gorgeous views of the hills and amazing cloud formations. We stayed at Camping Skye, a not for profit site run by the community. We have used as many community services as we can here, such as the excellent little cafe and craft venues.

We left Skye for Lewis and Harris on a mid morning ferry. The Outer Hebrides have been just as amazing as we thought they would be and I am so pleased to be here after so many years of watching my favourite You Tube travellers come here.

More from the outer islands next time, hope you are having a great time whatever you are doing. Have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.