A few years ago Skye became the place to be on my birthday, but it’s now been a while since I spent any length of time there – and birthdays were taken up with other trips like 2019’s Sule Skerry extravaganza!
This meant I still had a couple of lighthouses left unvisited on Skye. A long-awaited return was in order and there was no way I was going to turn down a weekend there.
Today was the day to set off. Nana was in position to take over child management at home (thanks Nana!). There was the usual packing at the last minute, throwing stuff into the car and then saying ‘have we got everything?’ This is especially the case at the moment after not being away much at all over the past year.
The journey felt long today, but we finally made it to Skye. That’s always only part of the journey though. I always forget just how big the island is and sometime later we were still in the car heading towards Dunvegan.
I’d found a walk report on the Walkhighlands website that took in Dunvegan Lighthouse at Uiginish Point, just to the north west of Dunvegan. This was really handy as, although we had Bob’s GPS device with us, it told us a particular gate we needed to go through (climb over) to be on the right side of the fence for the lighthouse.
Parking up just before Uiginish Farmhouse, we wrapped up warm as the northerly breeze was fairly strong and chilly. We set off through the farm, passing Uiginish Lodge, which is painted incredibly bright white. There’s a nice track along here and, while we were on the lookout for cattle making an appearance, we only encountered sheep.
The Walkhighlands report advised that when you reach two gates you should go through the one on the left. This was great advice as the lighthouse is one of those you can’t see until you are near enough at it, so being on the right side of the fence when it’s easy enough to do so is always helpful.
Bob, as usual, took the high route with the excuse that he was looking out to see if there were any cattle about. I wandered along a much less resistant route and enjoyed the views to the west across to a little bay with some stunning cliffs beyond.
The lighthouse soon came into sight and we battled into the breeze to get to it. It is one of the flat-pack kind and, boy, was the wind whistling through it today! When you see it on a map it looks like it could be a nice sheltered spot nestled there in Loch Dunvegan, but don’t be fooled, especially when the wind is coming from the north. It was great to look across and see the entrance to Loch Dunvegan and The Minch beyond. To the east there are good views across to Dunvegan Castle. It’s a superb spot for panoramic views.
There’s not a lot of information out there about Dunvegan Lighthouse. A Google search brings up lots of links to, relatively, nearby Neist Point and a search for Uiginish Point instead doesn’t fare much better. It is clear that the lighthouse is used to help guide vessels safely out of the Minch and into Loch Dunvegan. It is also used by vessels negotiating the route between Uiginish Point itself and the nearby island of Gairbh Eilean. My research has shown that in the 1890s steamers bound for the Western Isles stopped off in Dunvegan and this continued until the 1950s, which would explain why a Northern Lighthouse Board light would be required in this area. The lighthouses installed by the NLB were generally those that provided some sort of national importance, such as ferry and general shipping routes, while the lighting of harbours for local fishing, for example, fell to the local harbour authorities.
The walk back from the lighthouse was rather more pleasant without the wind in our faces and there ended a rather nice little wander and a great new bag for me.
More adventures to come tomorrow… 🙂
uklighthousetour 