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Beginner's Guide to the Isle of Skye, Scotland

• Jenn & Meggan • Episode 130

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Planning your trip to the magical Isle of Skye in Scotland? We dive into how to get there, getting around the island, what to do, where to eat, and areas to stay in!

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Hey everyone and welcome back to the Travel Mug podcast. Today we are here with a beginner guide episode to the Isle of Skye in Scotland. I visited here for five days back in 2022, and it's one of my favorite places I've ever been. It was very fun to go down memory lane when, uh, planning this episode, so I'm really excited to share it with you. But of course with our beginner's guides, it's meant to be a jumping off point so that you can plan your very own trip to the Isle of Skye. Meggan, before we dive into all of the amazing things to do and see, give us a little history of the area. Will do. So the history of the Isle of Skye, of course, very historical, let's say, because it does date back to the Mesolithic period, also known as the middle stone age, which was approximately 10,000 to 4,000 BCE, depending on which sources you cite. The first record of inhabitants were hunter gatherers also from this time. And they often passed through the area as forger. because of such deep history, there are fossils dating back to the age of the dinosaurs, of course, castles and Brochs., that date back centuries and literally so much more. And we're gonna talk about some of that stuff. And the Isle of Skye has be, a very popular, actually tourist destination dating back to the 19th century. And travelers since then have visited simply because of the rugged coastlines, amazing views, and the Scottish adventure of it all. Yeah, I mean, it's still the same today. I. exactly. So you've been there, which is excellent. So I'd love for you to talk to us and let the listeners know like how to get there, what's getting around like Yeah. Yeah. There's a couple of options to get to Skye. Before I talk about that, I'm gonna say right off the bat that you need a rental car. Or you need to book a tour that's going to get you around. So we drove, uh, in a rental car from Inverness to the Isle of Skye. There are a few ferries as well from, Mallaig, that's how we left the island. Um, or from Glenelg. There are no trains to the Isle of Skye. There is a train station close to, uh, the bridge that we drove across. But, there's no train to actually get on the island. There are buses that run from Glasgow to Portree and to other stops on the Isle of Skye. But honestly, I'm gonna say if you're not comfortable driving yourself, you're going to be better off paying for a tour rather than relying on public transportation to get around. Some of the roads are very narrow and you need to like yield to oncoming drivers and parking was at times hard to find in Portree and parking can be really busy at some of the touristy spots that we're gonna talk about later. And like, just be aware that sometimes there's sheep or cattle on the roads. So that's just, that's just Scotland, that's just the Isle of Skye. It's just some things to know. Um, I think you're gonna have a better experience if you drive yourself or if you book a tour. I could see that for sure. And instead of sharing the road with bikers, gonna watch out for the livestock. Yeah, I mean, watch for bikers too. Just watch, just, just, just keep watching. Just watch. Just watch. So talk to us about where to stay. Yeah, so I think that Portree is the perfect home base, or that area is the perfect home base for exploring the island. Uh, it has everything you need, you know, like grocery stores and restaurants, but of course you can find hotels and Airbnbs and Airbnbs and rentals all over the place. Um, our friends stayed in like downtown Portree, which was super walkable. We stayed slightly outside of the downtown area, which is not something that I normally like to do as we've discussed. Right. But uh, we were staying with my best friend's parents. We required a bit of a bigger space and we found this place I. I'm gonna say that my best friend's mom found this place because I didn't do most of this work. Uh, but it's called Rowan Cottage Self-Catering in Achachork and I'll put a link in the show notes to it. It was absolutely perfect. It had beautiful views, a beautiful balcony. It was a fully contained, cottage, but it was, um, attached to the owner's house, so they were right there If you needed anything, we didn't, but absolutely beautiful. And, uh, I hope that someday if I make it back to Isle of Skye, I can stay there again, I actually remember specifically your pictures from the, I think it might have been the patio or the the balcony. Yes, I remember that. It stands out in my mind. So yeah, I definitely will share some of those with the listeners as well. But also, of course, the link in the show notes. So. know, getting there where to stay. Now obviously we're there. What are we gonna do in the Isle of Skye? Kick us off. Yeah, so Portree is the largest town. It's the capital of the Isle of Skye, so you're definitely gonna wanna spend some time exploring it. But I'm gonna say there isn't like a ton to do there. It's pretty small. There are some great restaurants and cafes that I'll mention a little bit later on in the episode. We spent some time wandering through the shops and checking out the harbor area. There's, uh, very beautifully painted, uh, colorful, storefronts on the, the harbor front that are like on the guide book pictures, you know, everywhere. Um, so definitely check those out. We bought some art from a shop called, we Frame It. So I assume they also frame things? I would Uh, yes, and I still, um, that art, we bought multiple pieces and it's up in our house now. Um, one thing we didn't do in Portree that I didn't know about until I was researching for this episode is called the Lump. And. Okay. Okay. It's, it's a spot that gives you panoramic views of the harbor, the loch and other Skye landmarks. It is an uphill hike, so just keep that in mind. Downhill on the other side though, so I mean, that's a plus. It can't be uphill both ways. Sure. It can't be. My mother talked about that, but I've never found it to be true. Alright, what's next? Speaking of uphill both ways, it feels like, um, old, Old Man of Storr. So if you've seen photos from the Isle of Skye, you've likely seen photos of the Old Man of Storr. It is one of the busiest attractions on the island. So if you want photos without people, um, plan to arrive early.

We did not, we arrived at 12:

30 PM because you know, that was the time we could get all of our group out of the Airbnb. right, right. Yeah. So, uh, the Old Man of Storr is a 55 meter or 180 foot tall basalt rock formation, and it's all that remains of a 2,800 million year old volcanic plug. Wow. I know. So the trail is medium to difficult. It is pretty much constantly uphill until you head back down and it is steep ish. The first bit of the trail was like a wider like gravel path, and then as you got further up, it kind of became like a narrow dirt path. It is about four kilometers. I think we took about an hour to get to the top and we were a bit faster coming down. one way or four kilometers round trip? I think it was round trip. Yeah, so it is, it is beautiful like the, the green, green, uh, juxtapose with like the black rocks. It is absolutely worth it. Of course, if it's, uh, not a sunny day, we got a beautiful sunny day, but it can be kind of entrenched in clouds and you might not get, uh, the views. But if you are able to walk the path, I would say it's definitely worth it. It was very beautiful. The parking lot is small and it is paid parking. It's five pounds for up to six hours, so you have lots of time to explore. Uh, they tell you not to park on the side of the roads, but I'm pretty sure people are always parking on the side of the roads, you know? listen. Yes, Yeah, right. But, uh, please don't officially. and that's a public service message. Um, okay, Meggan, tell me about the next spot that I actually did not get to. I would love to, and it is called the Fairy Glen, and I'm sorry that you missed it. Actually, too. are amazing, so it is caused or was caused by a landslide. This unique landscape of peaks and dips is a great, rugged landscape view of Scottish beauty and makes for some really unique pictures. It is located in the hills above the village, the village Uig, UIG, in case I'm saying that improperly pictures online, like I said, are gorgeous and the best time to visit is the golden hour. I mean, the golden hour makes everything look lovely, but I'm Right? even more beautiful there. And Mm-hmm. also be used as a great jumping off point for other nearby landmarks on the island, such as Duntulm Castle and Quiraing, which I will also tell you about in a little bit. Yeah. I did not make it to that part of Isle Skye, so we kind of missed a whole chunk, which was very sad. But you have to make choices when you only have a certain amount of days. You have, you can't, you often sometimes, but you often can't see it all. Yes. Okay. So the next that I wanna talk about is the Fairy Pools, which is another classic Isle of Skye attraction. These are natural aqua blue pools and waterfalls that are about 30 minutes from Portree. You can even swim in them if it is warm enough. There were people swimming when we were there. Uh, the walk to to the pools is a little less than two and a half kilometers, but I'll let you in on a little secret if you can't do the walk to the pools. There are some that are close. Uh, to the further end of the parking area. So if you like, keep driving, this is where my friend got married and it was absolutely beautiful and, uh, it was nice to be in the kind of further away pools because there weren't as many, you know, tourists like gawking at you getting married. You know what I do. mean? Yeah, yeah. There is a parking fee, which is six pounds. Um, but otherwise, like you don't have to pay to visit the pools just to park. Excellent. Now it's Scotland. I think we, it's time to hear about a castle. Uh, obviously like there's so many castles. So Dunvegan Castle is the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Scotland, and it's the home of Clan McLeod. The gardens were absolutely lovely to wander through, and I really liked wandering through the castle. I love wandering through castles. It was really funny because there were parts of this castle that were from the 1850s, which is the same year that my house was built. So there was like similarities, which was really interesting. Yeah, so it does cost 17 pounds to access the castle and the gardens. There are guided tours that you can take, uh, as well, so that you know what you're looking at. Big fan of a guided tour, so I know what I'm looking at. That makes sense. Awesome. So I wanna circle back to a place that I just mentioned, and I'm sure I'm saying it incorrectly, so please do, uh, forgive me. But Quiraing, uh, it's Q-U-I-R-A-I-N-G and this is a loop walk starting at the parking lot. So you will start and you will return and, As a photographer or a landscape enthusiast, this is going to be a dream spot for you. The loop is about 6.8 kilometers or about 4.22 miles. And with no stops, you will take, I don't know, maybe two hours to complete it. But let's be serious. You're gonna be stopping. Obviously, yeah. gonna be picture opportunities. Um, this area is located in the north of the island and is accessed through either Uig the, the village I mentioned earlier, or Staffin. Both villages are in the area, so the landscape, the views and rock formations are incredible. And, uh, we found a really great resource online that you should check out as well at the link in our show notes because it seems there are some specific instructions on where to go. And what you can expect, that's likely good information for you to have before you put this in your itinerary. So we'll definitely put those in the show notes. But again, it sounds picturesque a beautiful a walk of course. So making sure you're able to do that piece as well is something to take into consideration. But sounds amazing. Yeah. All right, next up is Neist point Lighthouse. It is one of the most famous lighthouses in Scotland and it's still an operation. It is on the most westerly part of the island and offers some stunning scenery and apparently offers some amazing sunsets as well, which. I did not see sadly, uh, the walk from the parking area to the lighthouse is just over two kilometers and it takes like 45 minutes. It was difficult at times, but overall not too, too bad. It was free to visit. There were some sheep just hanging out that we got to take pictures with, so that was very fun. Always a highlight. Right. Yeah. It's a very beautiful lighthouse and it's, um, sort of different from what we imagine as Atlantic Canadians. It's not the like red and white, it was, um, yellow and white. So interesting. Very much so in that. It's interesting. It's obviously other places, different colors because in Iceland they're orange. Hmm. Interesting. So it's gotta be obvi. We're just so used to the red and white here. Yeah. Very used to it. Yeah. Alright. The next one, uh, I didn't get to do it, is in that northern part of the island that I didn't get to, but it is Kilt Rock. It looks stunning. It is a 90 meter high wall of basalt and dolerite sills, which makes it look like pleats of a kilt. So apparently it gets quite busy and it costs six pounds to park there. There's no walk necessary. This, I think this is the first thing that we're telling you. You don't need to hike to get to it. You can just get out of your car. Um, so you can see the cliff and the Mealt, , falls waterfall from there. It looks so, so nice. Yeah. Well, I wanna mention something as well to go along with what you just said, no hike necessary. continue on with that. So Yes. next talk about the Skye Museum of Island Life. So it is located in Portree. It opened in 1965. It's opened usually from Easter until late September, Monday through Saturday. And it will cost you around eight pounds to visit at this museum. You can expect to go back in time, not literally, um, but visually and understand what the Isle of Skye was like a hundred years ago., I wonder if in a hundred years that will then be now. Ooh. Yeah. Uh, I hope not. We'll Yeah. Um, through a series of cottages you are whisked to back to what life used to be like and how regular everyday families went about their lives on the island. The goal of the museum is to preserve history and the memory of what life was like on the Isle of Skye. Yeah. I can't believe I missed it. You know how much I love a museum, but, uh, I, I'm personally shocked too. It must have been a timing thing. We were very There's under the gun. No, uh, there are so many other hikes and walks and castles and beautiful things to see on Skye, but these are just sort of a general outline of the kind of major things, and these will definitely get you started planning your own trip. Wonderful. So moving on to some favorites of the podcast. Let's talk Food 'n' drink. Let's do it. So the first thing you need to know about eating on the Isle of Skye is that you need to make dining reservations, and you should make them as far in advanced as possible. We arrived on the island from Inverness. I can't remember. Um, what day of the week specifically it was. Um, but everything was either closed or full and we were like, oh, no, what are we going to do? So we had to go to the grocery store, of course, and buy some food. And luckily we had an, an Airbnb type situation with a kitchen that we could cook. So I did. hungry. Yeah, so I know it sucks to like make those plans so far in advance, but like, you know, if you, unless you just wanna cook from buying food at the grocery store or you wanna get like takeout or quick service type food, then you know you really do need to to make a reservation, especially in the busier season. So it's also good to know that a lot of places are requiring a credit card to make a reservation and they are charging for no shows. So Well, just, busy, like it almo, it, it, it's, it sucks for the customer to have to like give your credit card and potentially a no-show yeah, But obviously it sounds to me like that seat could definitely be used by someone else yeah, show up. yeah. And I remember one of the spots we went to, it was like, okay, you have the table for two hours. So after that, like you need to leave. So. to you. Yeah, it's time to go. So, um, I'm gonna mention a few places that we ate at that I really liked, and the first one is Antlers Restaurant in the Portree Hotel. They had lots of options for vegetarians, which I remember, and they had, uh. They had something for everyone. Everyone that I was there with, uh, really enjoyed their meal. It was a very like, cozy environment. Um, I really liked it there. So the next spot is Cafe Arriba and we had a really great breakfast here. It's like a funky cafe, and it was super busy. The menu changes daily, so it's not posted online. I don't think that they took reservations. I'm pretty sure that we just showed up and waited for a table, uh, and I'm sure you could get, you know, like a takeout coffee and leave as well. For a fancier dinner. We ate at the Marmalade Hotel. The restaurant's called the Chargrill , Everything was super good. It was my friend's wedding dinner, so quite lovely. And yes, a little bit more on fancier side and the last place we ate is the Caberfeidh bar and restaurant, which serves sourdough pizza, burgers, and tacos. That one is walk-in only so they don't do, uh, reservations. I think we were a party of six. And I think that we ended up getting split into like a table of four and a table of two in order to get in sooner. But those are all of the places that we ate, but there's one spot that's very popular. So Meggan, will you tell us about the Talisker distillery? I shall, but before I say that, I swear to goodness any menu I see if it says sourdough, I feel like I'm in. Yeah. Like I just, I want that. Sure. Yeah. want to taste that. Um, excellent. Yes. So the distillery, uh, the Talisker Distillery is located in Carbost on the Isle of Skye. Of course, you can arrive by car or by local bus, which would leave you with about a two minute walk to the distillery. To experience this distillery, you can visit the bar, obviously, try some whisky and innovative cocktails. They also have a restaurant on site with afternoon hours, so. 12 to four ish. It is recommended to book of course, in advance, like we've already discussed. And they also offer a variety of tours of the distillery as well. are open every day of the week, uh, but even in high season they are

closed by 5:

00 PM So if you do want to visit, ensure you check them out online for all of the details so that you will not be disappointed, especially if they are on your list. Yes. And I do want to mention that Scotland has very, very strict, uh, drinking and driving rules. So if you are the person that is driving, um, they typically will give you your, like tastings in a to-go type situation where you can then take it back to wherever you're staying and have it there instead of drinking it on the site. Um, like. One drink will put most people over their, uh, their drinking and driving limit. So just something to keep in mind. We don't wanna break the law and, uh, we want everyone to be safe. Really 0% everywhere you go in the world Yeah. Yeah. terms of your blood alcohol level. Should, should be, yeah. it should be Should, not otherwise, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. So like with all of our beginners guides, we are going to end off with some fun facts. So, first and foremost, the Isle of Skye has a nickname. Actually it has a couple of nicknames. Um, first the Island of Clouds. This is said to be because the word Skye is derived from the Norse Word "ski", uh, or cloud and ey, which means island. Hence for the island of Clouds. It is also called the Misty Island. As you can imagine, it is from the frequent, uh, fog and clouds, the island experiences. I feel like my island of birth should also be called the Misty Island. probably should be. Indeed, it should. it isn't, uh, somewhere you really visit in terms of the island of Skye. For the heat though, I do wanna mention the average temperature is 6.5 degrees Celsius in January to 15.4. July. Those are very specific, so I'm sure they vary a little bit, but that is about 43 degrees Fahrenheit through to 59 degrees Fahrenheit. So it is of course coldest in December and January, but they rarely see snow. Hmm. Yeah, I was extremely lucky when I was there and I didn't really rain. It was absolutely clear and beautiful. We were wearing t-shirts, so I, I know we just hit that very lucky spot. And it does Yeah. So hopefully that happens to each of you listening as well. Uh, the population of the Isle of Skye is around 10,000 people. Yeah, I assume, how much that increases in high season. yeah, with the tourists, I can't even imagine. Yeah. as we've been talking about this entire episode is tourism. That is also the main industry and primary economic driver of the island. Other industries being agriculture, fishing, and forestry. then finally, seafood. As you can imagine, it is an island is the most popular food. Did you notice that it was seafood heavy on all ish menus? I think that I'm so used to seeing seafood on menus because of where we live here that I probably wouldn't have noticed if it was heavy on seafood. Um, but yes, most places I found to be very like vegetarian friendly, which was quite lovely. That is good. That's excellent. that is it for this week's episode. We hope we have provided you with some great insights and info on the Isle of Skye to help you plan your adventure. Don't forget to always do your own research and plan a journey that works for you. Making sure you follow up on all details to make sure, that you're doing what you wanna do. We do appreciate your support of the podcast and you can find us on social media at Travel Mug Podcast. On our website, travel mug podcast.com of course, and you can leave us a review if you like what we're doing here on either Apple or Spotify. And until next time, bye.

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Jenn Neilson

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Meggan Mullock

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