Wide open Skye

It takes time to arrive at the Isle of Skye, so it makes sense I needed a bit more time to write about the experience.

My friend, Andy, met me in Edinburgh and we took the train north, to Inverness, and then on to Kyle of Lochalsh, alongside the bridge to Skye, in the north of Scotland. I’ve been talking about visiting Andy here for years. He and I worked together on evaluations in Africa – he covered the French-speaking countries, and I the English-speaking ones – and I always learned so much from him but also laughed a ton.

Me and Andy in Scotland in 2025, and with our friend Ozlem, Rwanda, 2018.

The scenes outside the train were awash with green, sometimes boggy, sometimes full-on loch (lake).

About six hours on, we reached Kyle of Lochalsh, the name of which would always capture my attention, naturally! Just off the train, Andy’s partner, Dorothy, met us with smiles and hugs. I’ve been hearing about her for years! We drove across a bridge onto Skye and out to the croft.

What’s a croft? Wikimedia says (with a little of my own paraphrasing) :

Crofting (Scottish Gaelic: croitearachd) is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production peculiar to the Scottish Highlands and the islands of Scotland. Within the 19th-century townships, individual crofts were established on the better land, and a large area of poorer-quality hill ground was shared by all the crofters of the township for grazing of their livestock.

Go ahead, try and pronounce that Gaelic!

Touring the croft

Andy and Dorothy’s croft is wild and not. Right near their place (next to which they have a VRBO-listed guest house) they have established a fantastic garden. My first night with them, Dorothy went out in the drizzle and pulled off some lettuce leaves, herbs, and other little lovelies to serve in a salad for our supper. OMG yum, as they say. Everywhere on the croft where deer shouldn’t enter – the garden, yes, but also areas where they are re-planting wee trees – is safeguarded with deer fencing. So, when we went for our first hike, here I am on the ladder climbing over that fence and onto the croft land:

Andy and Dorothy are working hard to plant new trees around the croft (hence the need for the deer fencing – apparently young trees are deer delicacies.) By the time our walk was over, I was identifying the newbies as well as plants that Andy worked to subdue.

Though I thought about the question, I never did ask Andy or Dorothy, “Why on earth have you set yourselves these enormously difficult and never-ending challenges?” – because they seemed so pleased to be on Skye, clearing brush and planting trees, tending that magnificent garden, enjoying the company of their neighbors, exploring the recent and ancient history of the place, and being involved in local conservation efforts.

Here are photos from that first hike. Perhaps part of the answer lies in how gorgeous this place is:

A turn around Skye

Andy and I visited some notable places within a day’s drive, like a turntable ferry, castles near and far, and brochs (a particularly old communal living place):

For the curious, here’s Wikipedia’s definition of the Broch:

Brochs are roundhouse buildings with hollow walls, found mainly in northern Scotland. They may have had defensive, offensive, and symbolic functions, and their origin and distribution are still debated by archaeologists.

BBC had a nice article about the mysterious Brochs here.

Sippin

We also took a tour of a local whisky distillery at Torabhaig on the Isle of Skye. They asked that we not take pictures, you know, proprietary processes and all that. But most of all, people should just do a whisky tour one day. The smells are amazing and shocking; the care that the distillers put into the mix is eye-opening; and the tasting part is not at all what an outsider might expect. This is not about American-style drinking-to-excess. Whisky is an art in Scotland.

By the way, the distillery’s website linked above is a freaking masterpiece. And I’m sending a special shout-out to my friend Tony Sachs, whose love and knowledge of spirits is an inspiration. He gave me some ideas about how to approach my Scotland tour, in terms of getting to understand whisky a tiny bit!