Skip to main content

Skipness



If our toilet were bigger I think we’d still be at Skipness. It’s obviously a popular spot for camper vans and ‘mohos’ as they call themselves on the Scottish Motorhome Campervan Adventures fb group. There were five of us strung out along the one mile stretch and judging by the fire marks and stone rings there had been many more over the summer.

Skipness is a tiny hamlet just behind the beach, with a mix of dwelling types ranging from the older detached stone houses, one or two simple rendered bungalows to some lovely terraced cottages. A nice modern build looked very nice too.





The surprise of the day came after we continued the walk out of the hamlet and turned into the drive along to the castle.

It turns out that Skipness castle is an amazing 13th C wonder, that is well maintained in a ruinous sort of way. We were happy to wander freely around, looking at features such as ‘water pipe into kitchen’ and ‘latrine chute’, which were fortunately on opposite sides of the fortification.

We then walked on another mile to the chapel and cemetery, again positioned beautifully next to the beach. 







In a special place in the cemetery, I was rather moved by the words on a significant memorial stone written by a grieving widow, which includes:

“... where four surviving children passed the happy days of infancy under his paternal care. A once cheerful home now connected with so many painful recollections.”


A little further is yet another beautiful beach. No one is here and there’s no scorch marks on the grass.



Near the castle is a smokery that didn’t look like it welcomed visitors at the moment and a ‘café’ that did. Skipness Seafood Cabin is a little bit posher than its name suggests.



We really should have had a seafood platter or oysters maybe but it was only 11:00 so we opted for a shared crab sandwich. Well we didn’t want to spoil our lunch did we?

On the walk back we spotted a pod of dolphins. They were swimming alongside the rocks but in the same direction as us. We couldn’t walk quickly enough to fully appreciate them but it was a fine spectacle, as there were so many of them. They kept popping up in different places like cars on the motorway, all hugging their own lane...

Later we built a fire and enjoyed the view again. Ours was on the beach pebbles and not on the grass verge. 😡




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On y va

Hooray. We are off. The ferry was booked a few weeks ago and the pressure was then on to get all sorts of jobs finished on the house and Landy. Major cosmetic work was to cover the grey front doors with paint that matches the rest of the vehicle. On the engine a coolant leak had developed behind the water pump and so the P gasket and adjacent core plug were renewed. Also a cheapy head unit from those Chinese people replaced the old Sony fm radio. Now we have opened up the wonders of Car Play and all that comes with it. Finally the 9th gen iPad with WiFi became a 9th gen iPad with WiFi and ‘cellular’. This means we can use OsmAnd Maps which need no data and get their gps position off the ‘cellular’ chip in the iPad. More on this useful map in subsequent posts. We headed towards Portsmouth for a mid morning ferry via our old neighbours in S-I-V. There we had a great few hours updating each about our families and then proceeded to save the NHS, the country and the world too. I mean why no...
Post a Comment
Read more

Potes and environs

Potes is a bustling town that’s clearly ‘in the mountains’ but isn’t quite a mountain town. Well that was what we thought until we went for a walk. More on that later. First we got to know the site ( Camping La Viorna ) and the neighbours. After the squeeze of the first night near the pool, we were upgraded to a pitch at the end of the lowest terrace which had a superb view of the eastern massive of the Picos. So although this was still a squeeze pitch, somehow we felt good about it. The ‘squeeze’ happened later in the day. ☺️ Happily our immediate neighbours were quiet Dutchland people who like to eat their tea early and retire in good time. They always enjoy taking to us Brits, rather than those Germans and soon I was engaged because I was asked a question. “Why do you have a UK flag on your number plate, rather than a Welsh Scottish or English flag?”. Tricky! I explained that England isn’t a country like Wales or Scotland. They have their own  parliaments and make rules for them...
5 comments
Read more

Escaping the weather

We stayed in Potes for four nights and during that time the weather was very hot, with the last two days maxima in the mid 30s. Bizarrely, last Friday night was one of the hottest, as at bedtime it was 27C and even in the middle of the night it was 25C. The forecast though, was ominous for the Picos (and worse for the UK) and so we made the best of the day by zooming up the valley to Fuente De. Here with perfect planning, we had booked the cable car for 10:30 and were whisked up in one cable catenary swoop, from 1,100m to 1,800m. It was sunny with wide views and we walked up a barren valley until we reached a steep scree-crossing path, where we turned around. Any further and it would have needed full kit and sleeping bags, as we were heading for a refugio . We got our fill of that high mountain and were back down in time to escape the mountains before the weather broke. The committee had decided that a city break to Leon was next and we had an overnight opportunity somewhere along ...
2 comments
Read more