Hello there, historical walking person. Most likely you've arrived here for two reasons. One, you're a church organist looking for the chords to Jerusalem, or two, you've been persuaded and cajoled by my book And Did Those Feet: Walking Through 2000 Years of British and Irish History to find out more about the routes I took.
Benbecula - Uig - Portree
OS Landranger maps: 22, 18, 23
This was a fairly straightforward walk inasmuch as it didn't actually involve all that much walking. In fact there was a good deal of sitting around on a boat eating crisps, which made for a pleasant change and was happily reminiscent of Attention All Shipping.
Although Charlie was hopping around the west of Scotland and the Isles for a good few months, time and budget dictated that I could do only the most famous bit, crossing the Minch to Skye dressed as Flora MacDonald's maid. I flew to Benbecula and holed up at the Dark Island Hotel for a couple of days of tramping around the island in search of the bothy where Charlie holed up for a while.
When the time came to head across the Minch I took the CalMac ferry from Lochmaddy on South Uist to Uig on the Isle of Skye, where I stayed at the Uig Hotel. From there it was a very pleasant day's walk along the road to Portree, which was bathed in sunshine and full of accordion players. I'd booked into the Royal Hotel, on the site of the inn where Flora and Charlie said their farewells, but like an eejit had booked the wrong day and they were full. They were very helpful though, despite being faced with a total numbskull, and phoned around until they found me a room at the Portree Hotel. They were very nice too, and when I said I'd be catching a bus in the morning before breakfast began, they made me a packed lunch with a sandwich, banana and can of drink to take on the journey. I felt seven years old again.
In all I think I did this trip in about five days. The walking mileage was pretty negligible, probably about 25 in total, so it was a low maintenance trip with a scenic ferry ride and beautiful walk in Skye thrown in.
