Exploring Scotland: Road Trip on the Isle of Skye
Welcome back to the blog and to another blog post to distract you from the current situation and to keep you dreaming and motivated to explore this beautiful world as soon as this nightmare is over. This time, I’ll tell you about a beautiful place up north in Scotland: the Isle of Skye.
Getting There
Getting to the Isle of Skye is quite a journey. If you can, start at the airport in Inverness, but most of you will depart from Glasgow or Edinburgh. From there, it takes you around 5 hours to get there. At least according to maps. But in reality, your journey will be much longer. Highland roads are quite narrow, there’s a lot of rain and stone on the street, and occasionally you’ll see a car lying upside down next to the road. This is definitely a place where you should drive carefully, especially when remembering most of the time there’s no cell service and driving on the left side of the road is a challenge itself. I think it’s best to try to make the journey as comfortable as possible and therefore, make stops. If there’s one place that makes for a great stop along the way, it’s the Glenfinnan Viaduct.
One look at this viaduct and you’ll know exactly why it is famous - this is the Harry Potter bridge. The bridge where the Hogwarts Express makes its way through this no man’s land on the way to the wizarding school. There are two different viewpoints, one 5 minutes, the other one 15 minutes from the parking lot, and most of the time, you’ll choose by thinking about the weather, and so, with heavy rainfall, for us, it was obvious to head to the lookout close by. We did not regret our decision (just take a look at how wet I already was after a few minutes). Oh, and while you’re up there - don’t forget to turn around and take a look at the other side of the hill.
Where to stay?
Well, there’s no right or wrong place to stay on the Isle of Skye. It entirely depends on what you want. If you prefer to be in a town, Portree is the only town on the Isle of Skye. While this offers you a variety of restaurants and shops to choose from, you may not be located very centrally. That’s why we decided to stay in Edinbane. Honestly, names of villages d not quite matter here, as a village consists of less than 10 houses most of the time. Also, you 100 % NEED a rental car to explore the island, there’s nearly no public transport. During our 5 day stay, we saw 3 busses. That’s why you can be quite flexible, and the hotel or b’n’b you’re staying in does not have to be located somewhere central. We opted for a lovely hotel that (like most others) also offered dinner, and most of the time you don’t want to leave the warm and cosy hotel after being out all day in the rain.
Neist Point Lighthouse
This is one of the most famous lighthouses in Scotland, it is located on the western tip of the island. To get to the lighthouse itself, you need to walk a 45-minute hike from the parking lot. Pay attention to the weather as it changes so quickly. We ourselves got caught in the rain while walking back to the car. The walk is rather easy, and only the first part is a bit steep. The scenery is outstanding, but please be careful. The cliffs are astonishing but still very dangerous, and only some parts have handrails. Honestly, I loved the lighthouse. The bright white and yellow-gold colours, the open sea - what else do you want more?
Portree
Portree is the capital of the island and, as said before, the only real town you’ll find here. Here you’ll have a lot of restaurants, pubs and accommodation to choose from. This is also where you should fill up on gas, as there are only a few gas stations around the island and it happened to us twice that we got to a gas station that was either closed or out of gas. Portree has a lovely harbour with a few colourful houses and is very great for a calm stroll and to buy some souvenirs for your loved ones at home. It is also slightly cheaper to eat at Portree than in other villages around.
Kilt Rock and Mealt Falls
This is one of the prettiest places of the island. The waterfall is fed by a loch nearby and the black rocks surrounding it make for a magnificent scenery. The location is easily accessible as it is just right next to a parking lot and you don’t even have to drive a small country road to get there. The name Kilt Rock comes from the resemblance of its shape with the shape of a kilt. It has a height of about 90 metres and is truly impressive.
Fairy Glen
When wandering around the Isle of Skye, you quickly understand why it is so easily associated with fairies. Everything feels very dreamy and out of this world. Even though there are no REAL traces of fairies or other magical creatures to be found, it definitely is a very special and unique place, and therefore visitors have to be cautious. When visiting, do not move any rocks or take anything with you, you might ruin the experience for other visitors.
Slipway Beach
The Isle of Skye is a place where you can explore every day for years, and probably there would still be a place you haven’t seen. One time, we decided to simply head to the next site we see, no matter what. And look what we found: a black sand beach with impressive rocks, no people and a rather calm ocean. Oh, and apparently, you can see dinosaur footprints during low tide, we think we saw them, even though there were waves. We made a lunch break and simply relaxed. That’s something that is very essential when on a road trip: never stop exploring and let the area surprise you. You never know what you could find.
Another place we got to know by randomly stopping next to the road were the MacDonald Castle ruins. They were surrounded by a broad green field and just next to the open sea. If it weren’t for the wind, we might have stopped there for even longer to enjoy this awesome view. The Isle of Skye is a place full of wonders, and everything feels mysterious and magical here.
Let’s be honest, no trip to the Isle of Skye would be perfect without seeing at least one Highland cow. As hyped as they are, we expected to see them every few metres, but honestly, they were quite hard to find, but all of a sudden, they were standing just next to the road. Much more common are Highland sheep. They are roaming the fields and the streets. It is quite common you’ll find a herd of sheep standing in the middle of the road, not minding you want to pass by. Honestly, I freaked out the first times there were sheep on the street, but after a day or two, that’s the most normal thing there is.
Scotland is well known for its unpredictable weather. And this is exactly what hindered us from visiting other great places. One of them is the Old Man of Storr. This rock formation is astonishing, and it was such a shame that heavy winds and rainfall stopped us from getting there. Another major site are the Fairy Pools. But to get to the Fairy Pools, you have to cross a small river, and the lady at the parking lot was kind enough to tell us that the water was knee-deep. Also, after crossing the river you have to hike for another 15 minutes, and still, there was a huge storm, that’s why we decided we didn’t want to get that sick. Another major attraction is the Dunvegan Castle, but as we visited in January and the castle is only open in summer (don’t ask me why, summer on the Isle of Skye is not like elsewhere in Europe), we were not able to see that either.
If you’ve been following me and the blog already for a while, you know this wasn’t my first time in Scotland. I explored some parts of Scotland last year and if you want to hear more about that, click on the link to learn more about this beautiful place.
