We have visited a lot of the western isles (another set of blog posts in their own right) and had kept seeing a road trip to the Isle of Skye mentioned as an absolute must-do. It represented a good 8 hours or so of driving. We’d previously travelled to Inverness and decided that was far enough but as with anything time is a good memory cleanser! We could have flown and hired a car but we tend to take a lot of stuff, especially when self-catering.
Driving to the Isle of Skye: Road Trip Stops Along the Way
We decided to approach it differently – rather than see the journey as something to ‘get through’ we treated the journey as part of the destination and the holiday. Something to be enjoyed- to stop at places that caught our fancy along the way. As it turned out the weather had a significant hand in that and although we did stop along the route a lot of the journey was in pouring rain. Still the ducks at Tebay services seemed happy and we ate breakfast watching them floating about in their pond. Something so simple but so lovely. The ducks are often a favourite stopping point for us when travelling up north. Loch Tulla viewpoint was still pretty despite the driving wind and rain.
Arriving on the Island: Skye Bridge vs. Ferry Options
We chose the toll-free Skye Bridge to drive onto the island, and opted to return to the mainland via the CalMac Mallaig to Armadale ferry on the way back.
Where to Stay on the Isle of Skye: Choosing a Base
Our base for the next 2 weeks was on the outskirts of Portree – the main town on the Island. It was also a good base to strike out in most directions, although that sometimes meant more travelling. In retrospect, a 2-base site might have made more sense- one where we were and another maybe around Broadford so that you have a base centrally and then one more south western.
Mastering Single-Track Roads and Passing Places on Skye
The island itself is the second largest island after Harris and Lewis and covers 639 square miles. The main A87 is across the north cost of the island. There are other A roads giving you access to main track areas. The rest are B roads or even single track roads. I am used to this sort of driving but driving single-track roads in Scotland with designated passing places takes careful navigation – you pull into the passing place that’s on your side of the road or you wait opposite one so the car coming the other way can nip into it and allow everyone to pass. Please don’t drive across the road to a passing pass on the opposite side of the road of you – it can cause accidents and we had a hairy moment where this happened to us!
Managing Budgets, Groceries, and Unpredictable Scottish Weather
We had done a fair bit of research as the costs for this holiday despite being in the UK were not small – accommodation isn’t the cheapest as there is a limited supply and it’s a popular destination. The main food supply is a Co-op – though people do buy or even have food delivered from an Asda on the mainland. There are tours that cover the main sites over 3 days from the mainland. The consensus seemed to be you could fit quite a lot in a rush in a weeks holiday but a two-week Isle of Skye itinerary allowed for a slower, more relaxed pace and gave us a buffer for unexpected weather changes. This decision proved very useful as we had an actual named storm during our time up there (good old Storm Amy)– this affected power to a lot of the island (though not to us luckily) and downed a lot of trees onto roads. As a result about 2 days were spent around the cottage – one due to the weather warning and another just giving space for the emergency teams dealing with fallen trees etc.
Our cottage was an old crofting cottage built very sturdily of heavy stone with a lovely open fire overlooking Loch Snizort. We were very thankful for our shelter during the storm – I don’t think I have ever been in such a violent storm before (we experienced one on the Isle of Arran- there’s a theme here!). The noise in the middle of the night was the slightly sad looking shed being blown apart (not an over exaggeration) such that the bits were in the garden and the roof had been blown off into the back of the garden.