Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Isle of Skye Tour Quirang

 

Road trip! Amazing road trip. Just look at the roads on the Isle of Skye. Our guide was such an amazing driver! I guess all guides have to be. And most of the roads were narrow too! 

Eventually we pulled up to our next spot. No, that blue van isn't our ride. Ours was white in colour. 

We were now at the top of the world again, and we were going to see the Quirang. 

Again, not really knowing what to expect. Saw some info signs along the area after we've parked and walked around to explore. There were two view point. One looking down towards the lake/sea. The other was the Quirang. I think the above is the one looking down.

And this was the view from the top of the world :P

I can't decided while photo to put up, so I'm gonna put up all!

You could see the waters, and further on the sea. And left of the photo, what a lovely landscape view!

So walk on towards the second point, was the main attraction. 

This is the Quirang! Sounds Australian doesn't it? It also looked like something from a movie scene. Probably from "Far and Away" which I kept mistaken it being shot in Scotland when it was actually Ireland. Goes, when will I get the chance to go see Ireland???

And isn't it marvelous how coorperative the sky is suddenly? It wasn't a dark blue sky, it was just a soft blue one with a hint of light clouds on it. Such a great combination for a photo with the Quirang. 

So at first I was just admiring the view, but then, as I looked closer, I saw hikers! And tracks! Tracks that went all the way into the Quirang! My jaw dropped. Oh how I would love to walk there! What a lovely hike it would be! If I ever come back to Skye, that would be on my itineraly for sure!

I also saw a guy in kilt with a lady here. I am guessing this must be a private tour :P  Some of the other tour guides wore kilt, and it was refreshing to see man in kilt :)

And this is how you pronounce Quirang in Gaelic. 

So yeah, from another angle I also took this photo, which is kinda like a front view of the Quirang, and you could zoom in and see all the walking path on the hill. I love such places. No wild dogs and no monkeys! No beers and no insect and snakes. A great place to hike!

We only stopped for like 20 minutes here, yet it left such a strong impression of the place. After which, we rolled down the road again into the lower grounds where white sheep graze on green grass sheepishly.....

Here's another lovely view of the sheeps. 

There were also spots of waterfalls flowing down the slope of the hill.  Some small....

And some larger ones too.....

All those water made us thirsty. We had a toilet break at a small stop area, and there was a local brewery shop there, so we got a bottle of cider to share. That's when Jada learned a little bit more about how I always travel with a bottle opener with me :X   lol

Bye Bye to teh beautiful Quirang! You looked just like a movie scene to me!

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Isle of Skye Tour Fairy Glen (2/2)

Still exploring the Fairy Glen, we walked on and came to a path between two miniature hills. Doesn't it looked like a portal into another world? Just beyond there! A magical fairy world exist! 

My husband standing there observing the portal :D

But soon, it was time to turn back again, and we quickly made our way back from were we came from. 

I just love the land here. It felt so free just to run around a varse land like this. It felt like you could touch the sky too! And the whole world seems to be just below you. What a place! 

And then we came to maybe the most mysterious place of all. We walked past a ground of trees that looked just like branches. 

I can't remember what time it was, but the sun was shining through those branches, and everything just illuminate up. The shadows of the branches on the green glass were so beautiful, as those against the blue skies. 

Here is a portrait photo. I felt so happy at this spot, but I don't really know why. 

And so I just kept taking photos, of basically nothing but a bunch of branchy trees by the path :)

My Selfie :)

And this beautiful one my husband took of me  :)

This was my favourite photo here, 2nd only to the circle glass inside the glen :)

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Isle of Skye Tour Fairy Glen (1/2)

You know how you booked a tour and can only expect the worst and hope for the best? Well, it seems my hope was coming true when our guide Jada says we will be visiting the Fairy Glen next! Yes! All things Fairy checked! Fairy Glen in translated to the Valley of the Fairies! And my goal was to visit all places that has the name "Fairy" in them! Thank you Jada for including this in our stop!

Our drive there allowed us to view The Cuillin mountains again, and there were still just as beautiful and mystical. 

But soon the road seems to started to twist and turn as our mini bus made it's way into what looked like a valley between smaller hills. 

Look how misty it was! I bet we were nearing the fairyland!

And just like that, things started to turn green and blue again! At some random road (I guess just random to us), our guide said we could alight and just walk right in. We were supposed to go in and explore on our own, and walk back again and our bus will pick us up. I think we got 1 hour or so here? 

So off we went. This was the view when we were walking in. Wasn't exactly what I expected from my imagination and research. But have faith! Onwards we walked. 

I mean, it wasn't matching the picture I had in my head of Fairy Glen, but it was still a nice walk with a nice view. The miniature hills around the water was very pretty. And although the path was rather narrow, it wasn't too crowded, so it was quite comfortable to walk around the water to reach where we were headed. 

Now will you look at that! I tell you, the weather in Scotland is truly magical! Just as we round the corner and came out into this landscape, I knew we were now at the Fairy Glen. 

You could see people standing on top of the hills. If you take a photo here, it would looked so cool! Like you've conquered a mountain! And I guess most people have the same idea, everyone wanted a photo here.

So this is the other side of the hill. There was actually a queue to walk up. And it was just a stony path up. 

This is what it looked like. And you could see people just waiting to take photos on top. 

Although it was cool, this wasn't the reason I badly wanted to come here. I wanted to see the spiral circle of Fairy Glen. That was all I wanted from this place. So I didn't made my up the hill. Instead, I went further along the path to look for my circle instead. 

There weren't any signs along the way. So I guess we just follow whatever looked like a reasonable path to walk on. The landscape was kinda quirky. It really was like a fairyland! Our guide even told us about the 7 things to observed when we were in the bus. Rules not to break least you shall anger the fairies that lived here. Might I just add that fairies in Scottish legends are a wee different from what your story books fairy might have been. Theirs was a bit erm, cheeky? Or maybe even nasty? Always up to mischief? That's what I heard anyway.

Soon I could see a vague image of a circle on the grass, and stones. 

There were also stone stacking around the ground. Initially I've wanted to come here and placed a rock on a tower like these too. I've done it on the beach of Sakurajima Japan before. But our guide had educated us that we should not walked outside designated path, and should not move any stones along the area as it would disrupt the fragile micro-environment here. So even thought I really wanted to leave a stone here, I didn't. To me, it was much more important to protect the place than to leave a mark, no matter how spiritually significant that may be.

Walking further, we also saw a different view.

Selfie with the miniature hills where fairy lives. Even on the glass of the hills, you could see circle patterns all around it.....mystical indeed, but it was probably just due to wind patterns perhaps.

And I did get my shot! My Fairy Glen magic circle <3

And me here in front of the fairy houses :) I bet that rock is where the fairy king and queen stays :P

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Isle of Skye Tour Fairy Pools (2/2)

 

This was as far as we walked inside the Fairy Pool. It did drizzled a bit while we were walking. Nothing a hood won't solve. 

The mysterious black pyramid hill area where we decided to turn back.

Here is a close up view. Look at all the mist around it! 

My husband standing there waving next to a waterfall. After a while, no matter how far in you walked, the view of the waterfalls kinda started to all look the same.....

Here is a close up shot. As you can see, not much colours. 

The mysterious landscape of mountains and clouds and waterfalls <3

Small private pool. Imagine you could actually swim in it. Could you? Well, apparently you can! At your own risk of course. And it seems the water is perpetually icy here. Maybe cause it's melted ice water! Hahahaha. I think it was good that the weather was cloudy, not many people here. 

A photo of one of the larger waterfall, where you could actually see those water colours of emerald green. 

Walking back. People scattered all over. There were family with kids walking, some dogs, some hikers, and some tourist like us. 

This is the view as we made our way back to the carpark. It's uphill from here.....

But wait! The sky started to turn a bright blue again!

Photo of me in the middle of the windy path.

Blue skies starting to appear in the Fairy Pool.  I bet it would be lovely in sunny weather.

Little streams of water running down the slope, with the forest at the top and blue skies. 

I wish we could have more time here, but being on a tour,  I guess I am grateful to just get to walk for more than an hour here!

Spotted 4 person walking across the landscape just in front of the woods. Told you people were just walking all over random places in the Highlands. It looked so fun! Lol.

Souvenir selfies. Bye bye Fairy Pool. Another magical spot in Skye <3