Skye

Yesterday, took the train to Kyle of Lochalsh, then cycled to Eilean Donan castle, aka the most famous castle in Scotland, aka Highlander castle.

There can be only one:

After seeing the castle, I rode to the start of a hike I had planned near the Camsunary Bothy. According to someone at the Fort William hostel I stayed in, there is a Scottish Mountain Bothy Association that maintains a number of old defunct houses in the middle of nowhere that anyone can stay at. They are sort of like unstaffed AMC huts. This particular one was about 2.5 miles off the road, and I realized quite quickly that I wouldn't be able to bring my bike. Having started after dark, I pushed the bike about 50 feet off the trail, locked it, and grabbed my sleeping bag, handlebar bag, and the pannier with the cooking gear and headed upwards with nothing to guide me but my headlight. Shortly on it dawned on me that this was probably a bad idea. However I kept going and around 11pm I found what I was looking for; a hut in the middle of nowhere (it's the far hut in this picture):

After sleeping there, I tried to hike to Loch Coruisk. There is supposed to be a trail that crosses the river and continues around the coast, however, I walked about 2 miles trying to find a way to cross the river and I didn't find anything that looked close to safe, so I visited some other lake to the north, that feeds that river. Not wanting to risk getting myself and my gear soaking wet by attempting a crossing, I headed back after this picture:

Tired from a not great night's sleep in the Bothy and too much walking, I made it back to Broadford, where I am now in a backpacker's hostel. Tomorrow I will head north to the Storr and Quirang and hopefully hike there.