Isle of Skye

The Isle of Skye Is Spectacular and Kind of Broken by Its Own Popularity

The Old Man of Storr car park on the A855 fills up by 9am on any decent summer morning. The Fairy Pools track from the car park at Glen Brittle (which costs £8 for the day and is sometimes full before coaches arrive at 10) leads down to water that is genuinely magical in the right light and genuinely crowded at midday in August. Neist Point, the westernmost tip of the island and the best spot for sunset, has an overflowing car park and enough people that the solitude you came for is a fantasy.

None of this should stop you going. Skye is spectacular in a way that photographs, which are everywhere, somehow undersell. The Cuillin ridge on a clear morning is one of the great mountain landscapes in Europe. The light here does things (changes colour, texture, the emotional temperature of the whole view) in ways that are particular to this latitude and this damp, fast-moving weather. You just need to work slightly harder for it than the itinerary blogs suggest.

Getting There and Getting Around

From the mainland, the most common approach is over the Skye Bridge at Kyle of Lochalsh, which takes no toll and is a perfectly fine crossing. Driving from Inverness takes about two hours; from Glasgow, allow four. The Caledonian MacBrayne ferry from Mallaig to Armadale serves the south of the island and is a more atmospheric arrival if your itinerary allows it.

You need a car on Skye. Public transport exists but it is not designed for tourists moving between dispersed attractions; the bus network connects settlements rather than viewpoints. Hire before you arrive on the island; Portree has some options but the price and availability are better in Inverness or Kyle of Lochalsh.

Single-track roads cover much of the island. The convention is to use passing places (marked by a diamond post or a white painted box) to pull aside and let approaching vehicles through. Do not stop in a passing place for photographs; it blocks the road for everyone behind you.

Where to Go

The Old Man of Storr is the stack of basalt rock on the Trotternish peninsula that has become Skye’s most photographed image. The walk from the car park takes about 1.5 hours return and rewards you with views over the Sound of Raasay and across to the Scottish mainland. Go before 8am for a genuine shot at the place to yourself, or in late afternoon when the day-tripper coaches have moved on.

The Fairy Pools, at the foot of the Black Cuillin above Glen Brittle, are a sequence of crystal pools fed by waterfalls off the mountains. The water is cold (properly cold) and swimming is possible from June onwards for anyone with heat tolerance. The path from the car park is well-maintained gravel and takes about 30 minutes to the first major pools. The drama is real; the crowds are also real.

Dunvegan Castle, on the northwest coast, has been continuously occupied by the MacLeod clan for over 800 years, making it the oldest inhabited castle in Scotland. The clan chief still lives in part of it. The fairy flag on display inside (a threadbare piece of medieval silk that MacLeod tradition holds can save the clan from catastrophe if unfurled) is either an ancient relic or an Eastern silk brought back from the Crusades. Historians disagree.

Neist Point lighthouse, at the western tip of the island, is reached by a steep path from the car park and gives views of the Outer Hebrides on a clear day. The sunset here is genuinely good; accept that you will share it with 50 other people.

For something genuinely quieter, drive the single-track road to Elgol on the south coast for the best ground-level view of the Cuillin ridge, with the peaks reflected in Loch Scavaig on a still morning. Boat trips run from Elgol into Loch Coruisk, the glacial lake at the heart of the Cuillin, which is worth doing if the weather holds.

Where to Eat

The Three Chimneys at Colbost, on the shores of Loch Dunvegan, is the island’s most famous restaurant and for once the reputation is warranted. It won Restaurant of the Year at the National Hotels of Scotland Awards in 2025, holds three AA Rosettes, and appears in the Michelin Guide. The menu is built on what Skye’s fishermen, crofters, and foragers bring in; it changes through the season and it is very good. Menus from around £130 per person. Book months ahead for dinner; the six rooms in the adjacent House Over-By are similarly sought-after.

Loch Bay restaurant in Stein village, on the Waternish peninsula, holds a Michelin star and has a more compact format: a small white building by the water, serious seafood cooking, a short and considered menu. This is the one I would choose over Three Chimneys for a single special meal, but that is a defensible opinion rather than a settled fact.

The Edinbane Inn, about 20 minutes from Portree on the Dunvegan road, is the practical option for everyone who cannot get a booking at either of those: a village pub with six rooms above it, bread baked in-house, locally sourced ingredients, and live music most nights. Good food at a sensible price.

Portree itself has the Bosville Hotel’s Dule & Brose restaurant, which is reliable and overlooks the harbour. For something quick, the harbour chippy delivers exactly what it promises.

Where to Stay

Portree is the practical base: the largest town on the island, with the best concentration of accommodation, shops, and the harbour that gives the island its most photographed domestic view. The Rosedale Hotel sits right on the harbour in converted fishermen’s cottages; the rooms facing the bay are the ones to request.

The Skeabost Hotel, a Victorian mansion ten minutes from Portree on the Dunvegan road, has 21 rooms and a loch view that makes arriving in February seem reasonable. Log fires, afternoon tea, a good restaurant: a slightly formal but genuinely atmospheric place.

If you are hiking the Cuillin seriously, the SYHA hostel at Glen Brittle puts you at the foot of the mountains. This is not luxury; it is correct placement.

When to Go

May and September are the honest answers. June through August brings the best chance of sustained good weather but also the parking chaos described above. May has the bracken still low and the roads not yet at capacity; September has the summer visitors dispersing and the hills taking on the first hint of autumn colour. The Old Man of Storr in low cloud and mist is not a lesser experience than in bright sunshine; it is a different and arguably more appropriate one.

The weather changes fast and the forecasts for Skye are notoriously unreliable. Accept this as part of the experience rather than a problem to be solved by careful planning. Pack waterproofs always; have a plan B always. The pub by the fire when the rain comes in is not a consolation prize.