Skye Time

Visitors to Chez Bayfield are usually given the list of top ten tourist hot spots reversed, if not dispensed with entirely in favour of a glass of wine on the front lawn! My friend Chris Fitchew however, true to form, took his #SkyeTime one step further: presenting the Taste Local Awards on his first visit, and the Skye Food & Drink Festival on his second.

Comms supremo Scott Ross, aka Colin Firth, reminded guests of the Skye Time campaign during a hilarious thirty minutes of Ready Steady Cook, which opened the festival on Monday. Head Chefs Scott Davies of the Three Chimneys and Marcello Tulley of Kinloch Lodge battled it out to win audience votes cooking with local ingredients revealed only moments before. The audience learnt about the fabulous food available on the Island. It also gave them a chance to get up close to these famous Chefs and learn about their personal journeys on how they came to call Skye home.

During his 48 hour visit to Skye, Chris didn’t visit Neist Point, the Fairy Pools, Kilt Rock or the Old Man of Storr. Instead he took midnight walks, skinny dipped in the sea and filmed never ending sunsets. The Old Inn, Kinloch Lodge and the Three Chimneys in turn thoroughly spoiled Chris with a Taste of Skye’s famous hospitality.

Despite not visiting a single tourist hot spot Chris Fitchew left Skye, as many do, with a lingering sense of belonging and an enduring love for the Island.

Skye Time is all about distance and discovery; experience, escape and wonderment. If you haven’t yet been, I hope you’ll join me for a midnight sunset and glass of wine (or one of my Skye Strawberry Smoothies) sometime very soon. ?