Fingal's Cave

Well, it's been a while. I've had this photo set edited for several months already; I just never got around to adding any text. This spring was one of my busiest yet and I'm nearly halfway through my summer class, but I've finally found some inspiration and gusto!

Fingal's Cave is related to the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. It is supposedly part of the bridge between Ireland and Scotland built by Finn MacCool as he threw rocks in retaliation to the taunting of a Scottish giant. The rock formations are nearly identical to the causeway but they form a huge cave located on the small island of Staffa off the west coast of Scotland. This island is only accessible through Staffa Tours (or if you have your own boat, I suppose). We booked a last minute tour a couple of days before while we were camping on the Isle of Skye. The tour included ferry tickets from Oban, Scotland to the Isle of Mull where we took a bus (also included in the price and about an hour long) to the other side of the island. From there, we boarded the Staffa Tours boat and headed out to Staffa.

The ride out was a little wet and little rough as one would expect on a small tour boat, but the tour guides provided us with some super awesome yellow rain slickers to keep us dry. They dropped us off to explore the island for about an hour or so.

The island was pretty spectacular with its huuuuge basalt columns.

The entrance to Fingal's Cave!

Forrest and I immediately headed to the cave while others on our boat decided to climb the slippery stairs to the grassy top of the island to try to spot some puffins. We had to follow the pathway made a little more navigable by handrails from the drop-off point to the cave. It was very wet; I was glad, as always, to be wearing rain boots.

I almost died several times. Those rocks are slick!

The water was so clear inside the cave. I wish I could have captured it a little better.

Up we headed to the top to explore! The island is actually a bird sanctuary and home to a large puffin colony (which no one in our tour was able to locate). The island is small enough to explore pretty quickly, but I wish we could have stayed a little longer for more chance to behold some of those puffins. Puffins would just about make my life, I think.

If we'd had more time, we could have wandered all the way over there (behind me). We spent too much time admiring the cave. Can one spend too much time admiring a cave, I wonder? The slickers were starting to get a little warm as the clouds burned off, but I was still wearing two coats.

I really want to know how in the world they made that tiny dock and stairs.

This tour was a really fun and fairly unique experience. We went on the Three Isles Early Bird tour. I think we had to get to the ferry from Oban around 7 am, if I recall correctly (which is pretty early for me-- especially if I am waking up on the ground and it is raining (and it always is)) But the early tour is cheaper which is always a plus (and I think they were probably sold out of the regular tours?).

From Staffa, we took the tour boat to the small Isle of Iona where they left us for the rest of the day. We had to take the (tiny) ferry from Iona to Mull (which was about a 10 minute ride) and then the bus from Mull back to the ferry terminal on the other side of the island where we took the last ferry back to Oban. All of this was included in the tour price and it was pretty stress free once we realized we wouldn't have to coordinate bus and ferry times all on our own.

Iona was just about the cutest island I have ever seen. It was easily walkable and had the huge Iona Abbey (where the Book of Kells was possibly made!) I have another post planned for the island. It was a lovely, relaxing way to end our tour.

Iona up above and Iona Abbey below as we got closer.

The people on the Isle of Iona were just the nicest and we really enjoyed exploring for a few sunny hours. More on that later! 

Isle of Skye: The Fairy Pools

I can't even tell you how excited I was to visit the Fairy Pools. (!!!!!!!!)<--- that excited.

There is surprisingly little information about them online, or there was a year ago. We asked some people on the Isle of Skye how to get there and some of them didn't even know what we were talking about. It came down to a B&B owner and some American tourists to get us pointed in the right direction.

All of that to say: It's really not that difficult to find; you just have to be looking for the itty bitty sign. I'm actually pretty sure that the sign is right off the main road and there's even a small gravel parking lot.

We got there around 11:00 on a Friday in the middle of summer and there were about two other people on the trail. As the day wore on (and we took our time), a few people passed us on the trail there and then back. I couldn't help but stop to take pictures of every single pool we passed.

It's a pretty easy trail; most of it is pretty flat or there are slight hills. We hiked it in rain boots and didn't have any problems. I saw some people in very impractical shoes (flats) and they seemed to be doing fine as well, although I would definitely recommend some type of water proof shoe or boot as you have to cross a small stream to get to the actual trail. If you're very adept at hopping across rivers, you may be able to make it over the rock trail without wet feet. I was wearing rain boots and feeling invincible, however,  so I walked right through the water.

There's also a U-shaped (or possibly it's a loop) trail that I'm fairly sure starts at the same place as the Fairy Pools trail, except it branches off at some point. It goes around and above the valley. We saw people hiking it the whole morning/afternoon. It looked really long but also fairly easy in that it looked they were at a pretty constant elevation. But what do I know, we didn't go on that trail!

There are so many pictures in this post. It took me forever to go through the 300+ I took of this location. I couldn't believe I had so many! Sorry, and also you're welcome because the Fairy Pools are so beautiful!

I have no idea what that says in Scottish Gaelic but I'm assuming it is about the Fairy Pools. Or maybe it means parking. (Also, I am not the Fairy Pools. I know the sign is pointing toward me, but that's not what it means).

Forrest is excited!

This is the small stream and waterfall we crossed before the fairy pools begin. 

The water was 10x bluer in real life and sometimes a gorgeous purple or green color depending on the rocks in each pool. I couldn't quite capture it, but I did my best!

The water looked so refreshing and I really wanted to go swimming except it was a little chilly out. As you can probably tell from that fact that I'm wearing layers and a wool headband.

The fog was perfect. It covered the entire valley and lifted slightly as the day wore on. It felt that much more like a fairy land.

The water was so clear and fresh and cold that we refilled out water bottles and Forrest drank straight from the stream (and also dunked his head).

I would never have believed this was a real place if I didn't take the photo with my own hands!

Also, I matched the heather (I love heather).

If it had been warmer, I would have jumped in.

The rocks were cut here, but I don't know why!

That's three different colors of heather that I photographed..

This place was almost tropical looking in some parts. I seriously couldn't get enough.

And then Forrest stepped off the path and promptly sank into the mud. Thank goodness for wellies!

My last picture is time stamped 2:00. So we spent three hours on a (probably) one-hour hike. If you ever go to the Isle of Skye, make sure you take some time to visit the Fairy Pools and go early. If you're lucky, it will be deliciously foggy as it was for us and nearly deserted, which is very convenient for when you want to take way too many pictures and ridiculous amounts of selfies without feeling self-concious. 

Thanks for taking the time to look through so many photos! These are probably one of my favorite sets of photos that I have ever taken.

P.S. Parts 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5/ 6 of our 2013 Scotland trip. 

A little more Isle of Skye is up next and then our trip to Oban and Fingal's Cave (which was awwwesommme).