UK Spring 2025 - Isle of Skye

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a very popular tourist destination in Scotland. How should we describe it... It is a wild and rugged version of England's Lake District. Roads get narrower and more winding after passing Skye bridge. The views are amazing! The terrain makes you feel tiny in a giant's world.

Driving is probably the best way to get around this place. But we don't recommend driving all the way from Edinburgh/Glasgow to Portree (the capital and largest town in Isle of Skye) in one go. There are a lot to see between the Scottish cities and the town, especially Glencoe. 

 

We started from Glasgow in the morning, went for short walks around Balloch Castle & Country Park and Luss for some great photos of Loch Lomond, then had lunch at Callander. There are a lot of view points between here and Fort William, take your time and soak in all the scenery! We spent a night in Premier Inn Fort William. The hotel is quite dated, not the cleanest we have stayed in and have no air conditioning, hence the under 4 star rating in Google. Temperature wise is OK during early May, and because it's the highlands, it's pretty cool at night... The beds are out of this world! It is so out of place because they are absolutely comfortable!

The next day after hearty (and standard) buffet breakfast in the hotel, we went to see the Jacobite train which is just 6 mins walk or 2 mins drive away from Premier Inn Fort William. It departs the Fort William station to Mallaig around 10:15 and will pass by the Glenfinnan Viaduct twice a day around 10:45 and 15:15. Bear in mind that Glenfinnan Viaduct is 30 mins drive away from Fort William station and can be very crowded during the train passing times. Parking is also limited around that area, so try and reach there early. 

 

 

 

 

 

We reached there around 10:20, the main parking area was already full, some parking areas were already blocked/closed hence it took us 20 mins to drive further down the road and parked in a hotel parking which we needed to pay. We walked at least 10 mins to the viaduct and by that time it was already 10:50, we thought we missed it but there was still a fair bit of crowd. Suddenly people started shouting, "Train!" and you can hear the whistle of the steam train! Man, we were really lucky!

  

 

After this we drove to Fort Augustus for lunch. After so many days of western food, we were craving for Chinese cuisine, options were limited. We took a rather risky choice of a restaurant with a 3.3 star rating, turned out to be surprisingly good! :)

 

Now Isle of Skye has limited food options, here are some which we think were good:

* Restaurant Claymore (seafood) - no reservation / walk-in only, please go early. We went twice because the lack of good food options :)

* Pizza in the Skye (pizza) - a food truck near Portree - pretty good customizable pizzas  

We stayed in an excellent B&B in Portree which was extremely difficult to book! There were only 3 rooms and once they open for booking, all 3 rooms were gone in less than a week for the days we were interested in! And when we were there, we know why. The host is a very nice and friendly lady, the rooms were very clean, even better than a hotel! And the breakfast, the best we had in the entire trip! Absolutely love the full Scottish breakfast :)

Day 1 

Old Man of Storr

This is a very popular walk with stunning views! We had a foggy morning and only managed to go up midway until it suddenly started pouring! We had waterproof jackets on but left our waterproof pants in the car. We were getting wet leg down and the younger one was freezing hence we needed to return to the car. And when we reached the bottom gate, the clouds were clearing and the sun was up! Arghh! :(

There are 2 route you can take, the longer easier path or the shorter tougher path. Naturally we went for the longer one. It can get pretty crowded:

 

Fairy pools 

After lunch, we went to another very popular walk which we really enjoyed as well. If you follow the river and the small waterfalls, you can go really deep into the mountains. We stopped where the track gets a bit rough but we did see experienced hikers with professional gears returning from the mountains.

 

Day 2  

Quiraing

One tip about driving to Quiraing from Portree is to take the western route (dark blue on the below Google map screenshot) when/if possible as it's an easier drive, the road is not as narrow. Going early helps as well because it can get busy from 10:00 am onwards

 

 

 

 

 

 

Try avoiding the eastern route especially when you are leaving the Quiraing car park and head back to Portree, that road is next to a slope and it will be a real bottle neck if there is a caravan, it can end up pretty messy/troublesome. We were driving along this road on the below screenshot after our hike and an oncoming caravan grazed against our car's driver's side rear fender. Fortunately the damage was minimal and everyone was safe. Just be careful as the roads can be pretty narrow!

 

 

 

The walk is pretty similar to the Old Man of Storr. The steps are well kept and not too difficult to walk on. We were blessed with a very beautiful sunny morning where the photos were just absolute out of this world!

 

If you have the time and energy, you can actually walk quite far. We've seen people walking all the way until the cliffs. We were already pretty high up and it started snowing :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fairy Glen

There's nothing much to see in this site, the hills are special but not amazing. The circular stones are man-made and is very small compared to what you can see on Google map reviews:

It was a pretty long drive back. We stop by and entered Eilean Donan castle which was quite an experience. Then we headed for Inverness which we wished we stayed a night rather driving pass this beautiful city. Things felt pretty rushed and we skipped a lot of attractions in between like the Loch Ness Centre and most of Inverness