As with most of the Scottish landscape, the Isle of Raasay (just east of Skye) has stunning scenery. Travelling to the island from Sconser (via the car ferry), you arrive to find the small village of Inverarish. This is situated at the south west point of the island. Sconser has a shop and a school, as well as the grand ‘Raasay House’ and a distillery. There are many ‘ghost villages’ on the island, and many ruins of old settlements.

 

There are many walks around the island, which is around 15 miles tall, by 5 miles wide (at its widest). Some coastlines have eagle nests high on the steep cliffs, as well as a seal colony and otters. Brochel castle is found at the north east of the island and is perched between a steep meadow and the rocks below.

 

The cottage we stayed at was situated at the north end of the island, at the very end of ‘Calum’s Road’, built by Malcolm MacLeod, which he single-handedly constructed over the course of nearly 20 years.. A plaque has been placed onto a ‘cairn’ (a human-made stack of stones) commemorating Malcolm’s work on the road. Many road signs have been placed along the side of the road – not only warning drivers of bumps, but also of pigs !? (more on that later).

 

The cottage once belonged to a deep sea diver, and there were the odd reminders of this scattered throughout.

 

From the kitchen window, we would have a wonderful show, every morning, where around 100 birds would descend into the garden for a mix of ‘fat balls’ and seeds.

 

We were told that two feral cats slept in one of the sheds. We had a brief glimpse of one of these large cats one evening.

Also, every evening around 9pm, around 10 wild red deer would appear in the field adjacent to the garden.

 

One of the neighbours keeps ‘free range’ pigs – so free range, that they are allowed to roam most of the island! They were very friendly, and greeted us one evening, upon returning from a walk.

 

On our last day, we took a boat trip from Portree, Isle of Skye, out into the bay, west of Raasay island. We got to see our main reason for visitting – the sea eagle!