We have a pre-arranged early breakfast for what is now going to be a short day. As we're sitting there eating and looking out over the loch, two large birds come into view above the hills, then a third bird comes to join them. I get up from the table and venture out onto the terrace. Unbelievably, the birds decide to fly closer and they are now unmistakable. Three of the golden eagles of Kintail are seeking breakfast as well. They circle back and forth for a while, then two fly back over the ridge and one heads up the glen. It was worth getting up for this.
We pack up and head off up the A87. Our original plan had been to go into the hills to the Maol Bhuide bothy, but it is the stag stalking season and it's not clear whether the remote paths or the bothy itself are accessible. We have tried to ring the Inverinate Estate office several times on different days, morning, noon and night but there is no response, no email address and no website. All the other estates have either advertised their stalking days or have replied to our requests, but not this one and we can't risk it. I have looked up the estate owners and it's managed by a property company on behalf of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Makhtoum, the Dubai ruler whose property portfolios appeared in the 'Pandora Papers'. It's little wonder we can't find any contact details.
After a short way, we turn down a side road to take a path that should run through the estate. As we walk down the road, we find that the path has been blocked off for building works, so it's back to the A87, leaving dogs barking. We only use the A87 briefly, then head up an unclassified road to reach a viewpoint high above the loch. On the way, we see a shepherd running his dogs to gather sheep on the very steep hillside. I have always been a fan of sheepdog trials and watching this expert team working is a real privilege. We stop for a prolonged break at the viewpoint in the sunshine, then head down the hill into Dornie village.
Dornie is dominated by the presence of Eilean Donan, one of Scotland's most romantic castles and the backdrop for several film scenes. I have wanted to visit the castle since I first saw it on our honeymoon over thirty years ago but Skye has always been beckoning me onwards, so we have never stopped here before. Even today, the sight of the black cuillin basking in the sun is making our feet itchy for gabbro, but we have a different goal on this trip.
We make our way over to the castle, buy our entrance tickets, drop off our rucksacks then head over the bridge. The castle we see today was actually built in the early twentieth century by John Macrae-Gilstrap. He inherited a ruin that had been derelict since the British forces destroyed it during the Jacobite Rising of 1719, two hundred years earlier. He made it his mission to restore it as best he could at a cost of a quarter of a million pounds (over £31 million today), mostly funded from his own inheritance. A true labour of love.
It's an interesting, higgledy-piggledy kind of place, still privately owned and very well run. Once we have had a good look round, we have lunch at a nearby picnic table and wait for the Dornie Hotel to open, and sadly, for the inevitable announcement about the Queen. The end of the second Elizabethan Age.
Total distance so far: 750 miles
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