THE MISTY ISLE
Under a wheeling cloud of gulls, the Kyleakin ferry pulls away
from the mainland, bound for one of the most beautiful pieces of
unspoilt Europe, Skye, 'Eilean-o-Cheo' the Isle of Mist.
The island rises dramatically out of the sea, a silhouette of wild
moorland and mountain peaks towering like brooding masses of
thunder clouds.
Those spectacular mountains, the Cuillins, attract thousands of
mountaineers every year. They come from all over the world to pit
themselves against the challenging rock faces of the Storr and the
Quiraing and the island's eleven 'Munros* (mountains over 3000 ft).
But if solitude is what you're after, you won't have to look far for
it on Skye. Here you are on the edge of Europe. The island has a
Hebrdean remoteness, with white-washed croft houses, scattered
about the windswept mountain sides, looking lonely and vulnerable
against the darkening afternoon sky.
The sea influences everything - no part of the island is more than
five miles from the shore. It touches Talisker, the island's unique
whisky, as well as the character of the inhabitants, their quality of
life and their history.
In fact, the sea is central to the story of Talisker and its home
the Misty Isle. Around the island you'll find promontories crowned
with rubble, the ruins of the forts built to give the islanders early
warning of the ever-present peril coming across the water -
Norsemen! At Duntulm Castle in Trotternish they'll tell you how
at low tide you can still see the runnels in the rock made by the
keels of Viking long ships.
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