Tag Archives: Danny MacAskill

Amy’s Place

Logo for Amy's Place in TorrinToday, we never thought we would end up here at Amy’s Place. About ten years ago we visited the little village of Elgol with some friends. From the main drag in Broadford, Elgol is 15 miles down a single track sheep infested road where it terminates.

View across Loch Slappin to the Cuillins
First sight of the east side of the Black Cuillin across Loch Slappin
The Ridge

Lot’s of people go there just to get what is regarded as the best view of the Black Cuillin.  Munro’s are hills over 3000ft and  there are 282 in Scotland, 12 of which are in the Black Cuillin. Hillwalkers like to collect or ‘bag’ them! The Cuillin ones are challenging and many have ‘bagged’ all but one – the aptly named, Inaccessible Pinnacle. To see the In Pinn, as it’s known,  we highly recommend watching “The Ridge” by Danny MacAskill.

The Black Cuillin 6 miles away across Loch Scavaig from Elgol (with someone photobombing)

Rock climbing here is fabulous because the the rock is made of gabbro, a rough-grained igneous rock that gives excellent grip but can wear out your boots very quickly. You just have to beware of seams of basalt running through the gabbro which are the exact opposite in terms of grip.

25 different ones

But never mind all that, the important thing about Elgol back then was the café. Perched up on some high ground, it was unsurprisingly called ‘Cuilin View’. It boasted an amazing 25 different types of scone. As I remember, I had  apple and cinnamon … fab! That was before we started our blog so we didn’t write about it. But it lodged in our minds! We were determined to get there again and let our readers share in the experience.

However, when we got to Elgol there was no sign of the Cuillin VIew cafe … argh! All there was was a sort of coffee trailer thingy, and it wasn’t open! Downhearted, we had no choice but to backtrack along the road we had just come. Not really a hardship on Skye.  We stopped a while at Cill Chroisd, a ruined sixteenth century church and graveyard.

Cill Chroisd, Isle of Skye
Not the same graveyard my brother visited but once again it was mostly McKinnons

Just after that we came across Amy’s Place in the tiny village of Torrin. There’s no real evidence of a village just a sprinkling of houses and this purple cabin just off the road. It was busy with people sitting inside and out. Sign at Amy's Place in TorrinThis sign was outside so we had to ask if it was okay for us to come in. Thankfully, they gave us a special dispensation!

View from window at Amy's Place in Torrin
View from the window of Amy’s Place
Sad

We were interested to meet the Amy who had the foresight to set this place up in such a perfect spot, but sadly, no! There was no Amy to serve our scones. The name simply commemorates the owner’s daughter who passed away in 2018 aged 23 having suffered from Lupus and epilepsy. Unfortunately, a situation Pat and I are all too familiar with. 

Picture of a highland cow
A picture in the cafe. Purple and butterflies are the emblems of Lupus

Everything is freshly made by Amy’s parents so we placed our order for coffee and scones and went outside to sit in the sun. A scone at Amy's Place in TorrinWe didn’t have long to wait before we were eating our scones and sipping coffee admiring the view from our table. It was nothing short of amazing! The cream came in a prepackaged jar but there was lots of jam. We would have loved for it to be a topscone but it didn’t quite make it. But hey! Who cares when you can sit at Amy’s Place on a day like this? We thoroughly enjoyed everything! Internal view of Amy's Place in Torrin

Embarrassing

The odious Home Secretary, Suella Braverman ,has been at it again. This time she has questioned the police judgement in not banning a protest by people supporting a ceasefire in Palestine on Armistice day. In doing so her language has only served to inflame the situation. Embarrassing for the Prime Minister but he just has himself to blame. He appointed her!

We think Amy’s parents are doing a great job here and hope they go from strength to strength..

 IV49 9BA            tel: 01471 822847            Amy’s Place

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