Saturday 29 July

Heavily overcast again this morning. After breakfast we rang Talisker House and the owners said they were happy for us to call in so we set forth across the island again. Talisker House is way out on a peninsula. Miles of driving on a single lane road across paddocks and glens and dodging sheep. very picturesque but a lack of trees: just grass, peat bogs and hills running down to the lochs.

 Talisker House has a tree lined drive forming an arch that the car just seemed to fit under. The house itself is a fairly imposing 2-storey structure with loose cobble stone driveways and a really beautiful garden and lawns stretching away to the sea.

We had a warm welcome from the Wathams who happily allowed us to take photos and paint. They even supplied a tray with coffee and biscuits for us to have in the garden. They didn't invite us in though. Marjorie McInnes had shown us a book on the history of Talisker House and we had hoped to purchase a copy but it was out of print and unlikely to be reprinted. They allowed us to read their copy so Russ sat in the garden with that while I sketched the house.

The weather by now was sunny in spots with heavy clouds still around and quite a cool breeze. We left after 2 hours, in search of lunch. We followed a sign for the Talisker distillery and found a pub nearby. Here we sat outside with bowls of soup and coffee, looking down to a pretty loch.

  After that a tour of the distillery (and the obligatory sampling of the wares), we bought a bottle of whisky and some more souvenirs. Back on the road we found our way to the other side of the loch from Dunvegan where we stopped and took more photos and I did another small painting. Into Dunvegan again for a pub dinner, then back to Portree. Here we sat in the front sunroom where I painted and Russ sorted the photos we'd developed yesterday. Very relaxing with a couple of glasses of Scotch and pleasant company of other guests and our hostess.