Black Cuillin Background

Skye’s redemption arrives on the last day. A week of rain and cloud-choked land finally passes into the east, just as I begin the long drive south. In the pubs hazy with smoldering peat smoke, pint at hand, I toyed with the thought that perhaps I had crossed a misty portal to the Fortunate Isles. Anything was possible in that blinding opacity. In the present, the simple road runs like a ribbon across the island; I slow down the car and ease onto the gravel shoulder. Air stampedes across the open space. Green and snow and fresh and stone are all I smell. Sunlight lances through the ether to flicker across the sawtooth Black Cuillins.

These earthborn deities hung invisible in the air beside me for seven days. My mind begins to clear like the skies over Skye. I stand on the verge of returning home. What else hides next to me, thundering silent appeals? What would I find if only I would wait for the fog to clear, if only I would range out, seeking, without any certain goal? But that I have done these last years, and look what I have found: I don’t know when I will be back. If only I could remember to think that each day.

Article Comments

  1. Chip February 8, 2013 at 8:12 am

    Is the melancholy due to the scene or to some feeling you have that your Traveling Savage days are coming to an end?

    1. Keith Savage February 8, 2013 at 8:41 am

      There are many, many places in Scotland that possess a melancholy all their own and that resonates with whatever one carries with them.

  2. Paul Krol February 11, 2013 at 11:41 am

    That’s an awesome looking place!

    1. Keith Savage February 11, 2013 at 11:44 am

      On clear days, there’s no place like it.

  3. Shanna Schultz February 11, 2013 at 3:46 pm

    We visited the Isle of Skye on a rare sunny day, and it was the most beautiful place that I have ever seen (though like the rest of Scotland, I think that it would be beautiful even on a foggy, cloudy day).

    1. Keith Savage February 11, 2013 at 5:27 pm

      On Skye, a cloudy day really obscures the visual highlights. Count your blessings for that sunny day. Hope you got a lot of great pics.

  4. Hogga February 12, 2013 at 7:49 am

    so beautifully written!

    1. Keith Savage February 27, 2013 at 4:59 pm

      Cheers!

  5. Brandon Elijah Scott February 13, 2013 at 11:11 am

    Very cool mate!

  6. Gayla February 27, 2013 at 4:25 pm

    Interesting how the clowds almost mimic the jagged peaks below. Dramatic scenery and so beautiful. An amazing place for inner reflection…

    1. Keith Savage February 27, 2013 at 4:59 pm

      So true.

  7. Marysia @ My Travel Affairs January 3, 2014 at 7:32 pm

    Great write up! But I love the pictures as well, there is something about the roads! I guess they brings all the good memories from all my travels!

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