As lockdown continues for us, I thought I’d leave our recap of Amsterdam for a moment and instead revisit our fabulous weekend on Skye last year for the Sky LIve Festival. As always, when we were packing one of the brats tried to fit themselves into the luggage.
The drive to where we were staying on Skye takes about three hours allowing for stops. One of the places we always stop is The Cluanie Inn, as it feels about halfway. Love this picture as it’s one of my favourite quotes – it’s a line from The Lord of the Rings.
We booked to stay at Skye Lodges which is just a few miles outside of Portree where the festival was being held. This is our lodge – so cute and had everything that we needed.
The festival is held on the Lump, which is a rocky outcrop in Portree, so unlike a lot of festivals there is only one stage and due to the delightfully unpredictable weather that stage is under cover.
Again, due to the weather, waterproof clothing is also an essential for any summer festival in Scotland – here we are in our beautiful outfits.
The first evening there was only one band playing, and that was the Waterboys who began in the early 80’s. They were fabulous, full of energy and everyone was singing along.
In case you’ve never heard of them, here’s one of their most famous songs.
The next morning we did a little bit of exploring, driving to Broadford which is the other main town on Skye. We always stop at these huts which contain an antique shop and a used book store – great for a rummage around.
The scenery on Skye is stunningly beautiful.
Here’s the two of us in front of one of the many roadside waterfalls. We were quite amused when we were standing there by people wearing very inappropriate footwear trying to get nearer to the waterfall. The ground around it was basically a peat bog, so they kept sinking.
Here’s a few shots from around the festival – interesting name for the burger van, the screaming peacock. The green wristbands are our entry tickets for the whole weekend, and the area with the castle turret is where the dj’s performed at night for people to dance and mingle.
These three guys were definitely the best dressed attendees of the whole weekend, and they very kindly posed for me.
A couple of the groups we listened to on the Friday. The groups I enjoyed the most were HECLA and Sian which are both all female groups and perform the majority of the songs in Gaelic. Their voices are hauntingly beautiful.
The area around the festival was lit up beautifully with lights, making the trees look like a fairy wonderland.
As we wandered down through Portree back to the car, we ended up having a really healthy late night snack at one of the hotels – coffee and cake is good any time of the day.
The next morning we headed to a cafe/bookshop that I had read about, and believe me it didn’t disappoint. The Bog Myrtle cafe was like stepping into Narnia as there was a lamppost and a wardrobe in amongst lots and lots of books.
The breakfast was phenomenal – it was a pancake stack, described on the menu as “a pile of wee Scottish pancakes” with Greek yogurt and fruit. Pictured alongside my breakfast are a couple of quotes that were hanging up and a book with a great title.
A typical traffic jam on the isle of Skye.
Some shots from around Portree, including a very angry looking koala.
Saturday, the last day of the festival was absolutely fabulous with lovely sunshine instead of rain.
On the last day, the group everyone wanted to see was Peat and Diesel, a three man band from Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. Their popularity has grown over the last two years, firstly on social media and then they seemed to be everywhere – the fanfare when they are around has been named Peatlemania which was definitely in evidence amongst all the people enjoying their performance.
Here’s a video of one of their very popular songs, Western Isles – don’t worry if you can’t understand a word, even some Scottish people can’t.
Well that was Skye Live 2019 – hopefully in 2021 we’ll be able to enjoy music festivals again.
Until next time, stay safe and be kind to yourself.
Tasmanian Abroad 