England-Scotland Day 9 (Part 2) – Old Man of Storr, Lealt Falls and Mealt Waterfall and Kilt Rock

11 April 2010

Leaving Portree, we drove northwards towards the Trotternish Peninsula via the A855. We could see the Old Man of Storr from the road as we approached it, some 8 miles north of Portree.

We spotted some horned sheep by the road and being city folks, we stopped the car to get closer.

By the A855 road and taking photos of sheep and ram. The Old Man of Storr in the distance on the left.

Photo of a young ram, backlit by the morning sun.

The Old Man of Storr seen from the roadside.  This basalt pillar is one of Isle of Skye most famous landmark.

There is a car park at the foot of the hill next to the forest. We could have parked our car at the carpark and walked up to the Old Man of Storr, but somehow we did not do it.

The location surrounding the Old Man of Storr had been featured in many movies and most recently, we saw it in the opening scenes of the alien sci-fi show Prometheus.

We stopped at the Lealt Falls and took the recommended walk down the path on the south side of the river towards the shore to view the coast.

This is supposed to be Skye's most spectacular gorge and waterfall but we had seen better. Nevertheless the walk to the coast was a nice experience. The Applecross mountains could been seen across the sea from here.

Lealt Falls running down the gorge.

The gorge leads into the sea. The Applecross peninsula where we were the day before could be seen across the sea.

Walking to the edge of the cliff.

Some parts of the cliff were unfenced. We could see sheep grazing on the steep slope in the distance cliff. Sure-footed beasts. A slip would mean a fall into the sea below.

Some ruins at the bottom of the cliff.

Thrill seeker sitting on a rock near the edge of the gorge. I would not want my kids to do this!

“Flag of Scotland” seen over the sky at Skye.

Our next stop was the Mealt Falls. This waterfall drops 300 feet into the sea. This is one of the few waterfalls in the world where the water falls directly into the sea. I had seen one similar, in the island of Jeju, South Korea.

Mealt Fall – quite spectacular. Kilt Rock in the background.

Joanna doing the “Merlion”. The merlion is  famous tourist landmark in Singapore. It is a stone figurine that has a lion head and a mermaid’s tail and spouting water out of its mouth.

Like most places of interest in Scotland, there were information signs here. Kilt Rock was formed about 61 to 55 millions years ago by volcanic activities. It was formed when molten rock were pushed up through the sandstones by volcanic activities and then cooled subsequently. The sandstones were then eroded over time, leaving the harder rock pillars in columnar form.

A closer shot of Kilt Rock, using telephoto lens.

A closer look at Kilt Rock revealed upper layers of hard rocks with the sandstone eroded away and the lower layer of rock with the horizontal sandstones still present.

This place is also known for its dinosaur fossil. Fossils of dinosaur footprints were found on a beach in the town of Staffin nearby.