Scotland: Day Two (morning)

After our amazing breakfasts — the selection, quality, and presentation of which is unrivaled by anything I’ve seen before — we set off to get in some hiking before the predicted rain came.  We went into The Braes, an area near where we stayed the night before.  Full pictures from Braes are up here.  Below is just a taste…

A walk through a field and down the hillside led to a pebble beach.  (This photo is actually 2 hours past the first time we walked through this beach.  When we backtracked on our return, the tide had gone out to reveal these huge stones.  Just another example of the ever-changing scenery!)

Stone wall from up on the hillside — this strip of land rises up on the end of island with dramatic rock formations cutting to the sea below on each side.

Sheep.  Lots of sheep.

It was also quite “boggy”.  We read about boggy, but didn’t realize that this meant “be prepared to step on normal-looking land only to find your foot submerged in 6 inches of cold wetness.”

Looking out over the rocky cliffs.  You have to climb around the rocks and hills to each side to really see what all of this looks like as it crashes into the sea.  (Note: you don’t want to mess around any more closely!)

We didn’t see another human at any point in this walk (well, except for the guy in the far-off sailboat and a few people walking along the road on our way back to the car) — it was amazing to be so far away from the world and yet right within it, all at the same time.

More pictures here!