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Advasar Doors

2026-07-232026-07-23Sherry Felix4 Comments

Ardvasar on Undiscovered Scotland has information about the little village on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Ardvasar is the main village on the southern Sleat Peninsula of Skye. The village is reached by a scenic single-track road through woodland and along the coast, with views across to Knoydart. Key features include the Ardvasar Food Store, Community Hall, historic Ardvasar Hotel, residential areas, and views over the Sound of Sleat. The road continues to Aird of Sleat, a viewpoint and walking destination.

That evening we dined at the Duisdale House and Hotel. It was expensive, and the food was awful. It was the only really bad meal that we had during our two weeks in Scotland.

For Dan’s Thursday Doors: Philippine Room – No Facilities

Kilmore Church

2026-07-162026-07-16Sherry Felix13 Comments

A Chill Mhor, the great cell, refers to the old church, now a ruin beside the present church, a large rectangular whitewashed building with lancet windows. Designed by John Mackenzie and built in 1876, its Victorian furnishings are complete. Notable monuments flank the pulpit, including one of 1768 to Sir James Macdonald. Close by is Sabhal M’r Ostaig, a steading of 1840 converted into a Gaelic college.

Sleat Parish Church (1876) is located here, with the ruins of the Old Parish Church behind (1631–1876). A former Minister, Rev. John Forbes (1818–63) was a noted Gaelic scholar who wrote a Gaelic grammar and investigated the deaths of three girls from the parish who were taken to the cotton mills of Manchester as forced-labor and published his findings in a book, Weeping in the Isles (1853). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilmore,_Skye

Kilmore, on the Sleat peninsula of the Isle of Skye, is a small hamlet and long-standing religious site known for Sleat Parish Church, earlier church ruins, and evidence of early Christian activity. Local tradition links the area to St Columba, while its churches reflect centuries of Highland religious history, clan conflict, and Clan Donald patronage. The present church, built in 1876, was restored after structural problems in the 1980s and remains an important part of the area’s cultural and ecclesiastical heritage. (source: https://grokipedia.com/page/kilmore_skye)

For Dan’s Thursday Doors: https://nofacilities.com/2026/07/16/korean-heritage-room/

Duntulm Castle

2026-07-092026-07-09Sherry Felix14 Comments

Duntulm Castle sits on a rocky promontory near the settlement of Duntulm on Skye’s Trotternish Peninsula, protected by cliffs and a ditch on the landward side. The ruins are now unstable and much reduced from their condition in the 1880s, due to stone reuse, erosion, and collapse, including a tower falling into the sea in 1990. The site may have origins as an Iron Age fort, later used by the Norse, the MacLeods, and then the MacDonalds of Sleat, who improved the castle before abandoning it around 1730. Local legends connect the ruins with tragic deaths and ghosts, including a nursemaid and Hugh MacDonald. Duntulm Castle – Wikipedia for details. You’ll have to imagine seeing the doors on the castle.

The museum was fun: The Skye Museum of Island Life – An Old Highland Village

For Dan’s Thursday Doors: Old Sturbridge Village 6-26 – No Facilities.

Bothy

2026-07-042026-07-01Sherry Felix9 Comments

I booked a few days at Caberfeidh – MacKenzie’s Bothy Holiday Let, Bedford, Isle of Skye, Scotland. It was a once-in-a-lifetime treat. There was a pair of grass armchairs outside. We could birdwatch while sitting inside. I made many photographs of the changing skies.

Armadale Castle

2026-07-022026-07-02Sherry Felix9 Comments

Armadale Castle, once home to the Macdonalds of Sleat of Clan Donald, is now a dramatic ruin overlooking the Sound of Sleat and set within 40 acres of woodland gardens. The site has roots in Clan Donald’s 15th-century presence on Skye, with the current buildings developing from a late 18th-century mansion expanded into a castle in 1815 by architect James Gillespie Graham. After a major fire in 1855, parts were rebuilt by David Bryce, but the castle was abandoned in 1925 and later became derelict. It was bought by the Clan Donald Lands Trust in 1972, with unsafe sections demolished in 1981, and was purchased by Armadale Estate Ltd in 2026. Famous visitors and figures linked to the site include Flora Macdonald, Samuel Johnson, and James Boswell. Visit Armadale Castle on the Isle of Skye. Click on the link to view the dancing party on the lawn from 1930.

For Thursday Doors: Summer Standard – No Facilities

Fort William Doors

2026-06-252026-06-25Sherry Felix5 Comments

We stayed in Fort William twice. It is a half way point between Glasgow airport and the Isle of Skye. The trip leaders took us to some lovely places around the nearby lochs (see other posts).

For Dan’s Thursday Doors: Czechoslovak Room – No Facilities

Cill Chriosd

2026-06-212026-06-13Sherry Felix5 Comments

Cill Chriosd, also known as Kilchrist Church, is a ruined 16th-century parish church on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, located on the B8083 road between Broadford and Elgol in Strath Suardal. It served as the parish church for Strath for over 300 years, including the clearance villages of Boreraig and Susinish.

Christian worship at this site is thought to date back to the 7th century, when St Mael Ruba preached from nearby Cnoc na-Aifhreann (“Hill of the Mass”). The first stone church here likely appeared in the medieval period, and the present ruins replaced that earlier structure in the 1500s. Written records begin in 1505 with chaplain Kenneth Adamson. The first Protestant minister, Neil Mackinnon, was appointed in 1627; he was known for his strictness and reportedly reporting Catholics to authorities. The church was used until 1840, when the parish was moved to Broadford. The site now stands roofless, with parts of the earlier medieval west gable still visible.

The ruins are a low, rubble-built rectangle, about 53 ft long by 17.5 ft wide, with walls up to 8 ft high and over 2 ft thick. The south wall has three inwardly splayed windows, and the east gable features a balustraded burial enclosure for Clan Mackinnon. Inside, the nave measures roughly 52 ft 9 in by 17 ft 6 in. The building is oriented about 30° from east–west and has no openings on the north or west walls.

Cill Chriosd sits atop a small mound, with a graveyard containing 18th–19th century gravestones, some Celtic crosses, and a section of a crudely carved cross head. Nearby, Beinn Na Caillich rises to the west, and Loch Cill Chriosd lies to the south-west. The site offers panoramic views of Strath Suardal and the surrounding mountains.