Have you lost your mind? Part 2 Isle of Skye
This isn’t a travel blog… but getting from Jersey at 7am in the morning to the Isle of Skye for Dinner in Waternish is no mean feat.
After flying to Inverness the nearest airport we jumped into a hire car and drove the width of Scotland and 3.5 hours to Dunvegan on the north west coast of the Isle of Skye. The Scottish highlands are stunning… when it’s not raining. We drove down Loch Ness and were surrounded by lush green forests and moorland peaks covered in purple heather. Further on as we crossed the bridge to the Isle of Skye the trees disappeared and the landscape bore testimony to the winds and storms that the western isles are famed for.
We dumped our bags at the Dunvegan Hotel and hot footed it to Waternish 15 kms down a single track road. Only 30 mins late… not bad considering!
Skye’s most well know export is the very excellent single malt whisky made there -Talisker. Peaty and salty…it is redolent of its environment and seems even more appropriate now having visited. We had planned to meet up with Chris and Meena Watts. They started Isle of Skye sea salt 10 years ago and have grown it to be an icon of the artisan sea salt producer world… Over a delicious curry made by Meena we discussed the salty world. Also the state of tourism on the island. Skye is not a huge island but gets around 700,000 tourists a year. If only Coromandel saw that many! I was very jealous! There seemed very little impact on the way of life or infrastructure. So despite being remote Skye has managed to build a low tech tourism business that - on the surface seems not to have changed any of the character and charm of the place.
Chris and Meena had been very generous with knowledge in our early days and so it seemed fitting to visit them. As luck would have it they sold Isle of Skye sea salt to Antoine and Eliza, two energetic young Brittanois (native of Brittany in France). And tomorrow we are off to meet them. Scotland and France have a long history as does the Celtic tradition. So it’s not such a jump to find these Frenchie’s up in the wild north of Scotland.
We woke up early. Im a black pudding fan so and after a quick breakfast of locally cured ham and scrumptious locally made MacLennan’s Isle of Skye black pudding which is made in small batches in Harlosh, near Dunvegan, to an old family recipe. It is a traditional West Highland black pudding lightly spiced an essential for every Scottish breakfast!
We then zoomed down to Galtech. Head quarters of Isle of Skye sea salt to meet Antoine, Eliza and Sunshine their dedicated salt worker.
Antoine, Eliza and Sunshine
Getting behind the scenes of any salt operation is a real treat. Skye was very impressive. Scrupulously clean and employing some innovative technology. We always learn a lot in these interactions and again this was no different. Skye mills their sea salt to a gorgeous light flake. It retains a beautiful shiny nature through this process. No doubt it deserves the many awards and accolades it’s won over the years.
After a bunch of laughter and ceremonial swapping of sea salt we had to hit the road. Fast! A plane was leaving Inverness at 2 pm and we had to be on it. Luckily the trusty Fiat 500 performed admirably over the hills and we made our flight back to London.
Tucked up in bed after a bottle of red wine we have a few business meeting to cover in the next couple of days and we head to Italy for more food and fun… maybe this will turn into a food blog???
