Inhabited, west coast Scottish islands - Skye

Continuing south to north, then east to west, the next island on my bucket list journey is Skye. Skye, at 639 square miles (1656 square kilometres), is the largest island of the Inner Hebrides, the second largest in the whole of the Hebrides (and Scotland) and the fourth largest of the whole of the British Isles, after Great Britain, Ireland and Lewis & Harris. Lewis, at 683 square miles, without Harris, is still larger than Skye but, as you can see, not by much. Skye is known as the ‘winged isle’ and if you look at the map you will see why: with a central area, containing both the Black and the Red Cullins, it is made up of a collection of peninsulas radiating outwards in all directions. These include Trotternish, Sleat, Minginish and Vaternish (sometimes listed as Waternish). Over the years, especially during my time living near Kyle of Lochalsh, I’ve spoken to many tourists who told me they were going over to see Skye for a day, who then looked at me as if I was mad when I suggested they’d need about a week to see it properly. What visitors don’t understand, until they get there, is that Skye is big and that the highways, away from the main road between the Skye Bridge and Portree, are mainly all single track and usually twisting all over the place like a proverbial corkscrew. Making fast progress is impossible and it’s often at a grindingly slow pace, even on that main road to Portree. This is down to slow caravans, motorhomes and freight vehicles combined with few places to overtake safely. I figure anyone visiting Skye would need to dedicate a separate day to each main peninsula (keeping in mind that some of the peninsulas have other, smaller peninsulas, attached to them).
The landscape, probably because it is a large island, is very varied, within the context of being located on the west coast of Scotland (meaning by that, that Skye has a bit of about all of the landscapes you’ll find somewhere in the Hebrides, but usually not all on the same island). There are the jagged peaks of the Black Cullins (the most dangerous mountain/hill range in the UK, with Sgùrr Alasdair at 3258 feet, being the biggest) sitting beside the rounded slopes of the Red Cullins. There are hilly, but not mountainous, areas and there are moorlands, coastal cliffs and crofting land suitable for agriculture. There are the small towns of Portree (the island’s capital) and Broadford and many villages and hamlets, most of which are located around the coastline. There are many other places of interest (not already mentioned) to pay a visit to; the Fairy Pools, the Fairy Glen, the Old Man of Storr, Dunvegan Castle (with it’s famous Fairy Flag), the Fairy Bridge, Glenbrittle, Talisker distillery, the Quirang and Elgol (plus a boat trip from there to Loch Coruisk in the heart of the Black Cullins). In addition to all that there are a fair number of ancient sites and monuments to search out and visit (standing stones and ruined brochs, for example - although none of these, as far as I know, are spectacular examples). Getting to see all of Skye, and getting a feeling for it, in a single day is simply an impossibility.

(Note that getting to see Skye is becoming increasingly difficult unless you book accommodation well in advance and accept that getting around will most likely be very slow. This has been the case ever since the NC500  was invented (the road trip around the north of Scotland). The original route does not include Skye, and comes no further south than about Lochcarron, but many, understandably, extended this to Kyle of Lochalsh before returning to Inverness past Eilean Donan Castle, Invermoriston and Loch Ness - and it was only a small step from that to include Skye (depending upon how much time one had). I think the added red tape, after Brexit, has also encouraged more people to stay in the UK for their holidays - and that includes visiting Skye, which was already popular and busy. Many locals, right around the route and including Skye, are not too happy about this as many towing a caravan, or travelling by motorhome, are dumping their waste at the side of the road, and parking overnight where they shouldn’t be and stopping in passing places and causing traffic jams - this in addition to the many who have no idea how to drive a car on a single track road never mind a motorhome or car & caravan. It might be an idea to take extra blood pressure pills with you.)

It recently dawned on me that, although I’ve often been to Skye, I’ve not actually stayed on the island for more than a night or two at a time, and the only time I can remember doing so was just a few years ago on my trip to visit Raasay (to tick it off my bucket list). I’ve often passed through Skye to catch a ferry from Uig to the Outer Hebrides and when I owned a pub, in the mainland village of Dornie, I had to go to Portree once per year to get my licence renewed - but I’ve never spent enough time on the island to get to know it well or enjoy all it has to offer in a single visit. For example, it has always seemed to me that Skye is lacking in sandy beaches - but I cannot be certain about that, although I have read Internet articles which indicate that there are only sandy beaches at Glenbrittle and Talisker. Still, without personal experience, I feel unable to say for sure that that is the case and, for the same reason, I cannot say too much about Skye in general with any great confidence. The above, in fact, explains the gap between my post on Canna and this one. I came to the conclusion that Skye deserved a more comprehensive post than what I would be able to write with only my previous knowledge. I had bought a ‘new’ van, which I could sleep in the back of if I had no alternative, so I, therefore, planned a visit to Skye which would allow me to take in all the peninsulas, mentioned above, while gaining a more complete feeling for the island and also allow me to visit Skye's satellite islands of Soay, Rona and (maybe) Scalpay. As mentioned above, I had already visited Raasay. The only thing I needed was about a week of nice weather (not perfect - just nice and mainly dry). Sadly, the Spring and Summer of 2024 did not provide more than a day or two at a time of such reasonable weather and I was unable to achieve my plan. What I did achieve was a brief visit during September which allowed me to get to the inhabited islands of Soay and Rona. I had also planned a visit to Scalpay Skye (as opposed to Scalpay Harris) but investigations confirmed that it was currently uninhabited and unlikely to be inhabited as a permanent residency for the foreseeable future. Note that Soay, Raasay and Rona will be covered in the posts after this one.  

Anyway, apart from it’s size, and the spectacular Black Cuillins, Skye is in all other ways very similar to many other west coast Scottish islands. For example, the  main forms of income on Skye are tourism, fishing, agriculture and forestry - just as on other islands on Scotland’s west coast (although I have to admit to not seeing many forested areas). The Fauna found on Skye (red deer, red squirrels, otters, wild goats, eagles, corncrake, kittiwake and many other mammals and birds) are also found on many other Hebridean islands and the marine life around Skye’s shores are also found in the waters around the coasts of those other islands (and just before starting this post, I saw a couple of humpback whales frolicking in the waters between Raasay and Skye). The same goes for Skye’s Flora. The full list of all flora and fauna on Skye is rather extensive, due to the island’s size, so I would suggest that anyone interested in learning about this more fully refers to the famous online encyclopedia where a very comprehensive description of all aspects about Skye can be found. This includes, for example, the island’s geology and history as well as the aspects I’ve already mentioned. There are also many other online articles with relevant information provided and, of course, many books on Skye are also available.

As always, I end with some photographs of Skye. However, as mentioned above, I have not really stayed on Skye very often and so for that reason I do not have a comprehensive collection of Skye photos. In fact, as well as some recent photos, I’ve had to make use, as you will see, of some very, very old and some very, very, very old shots.

 

 

The above photo is of Blà  Bheinn in the Black Cuillins. Blà Bheinn is not one of the mountains surrounding Loch Coruisk but off a bit to the east - but still very much a member of the group. This is a very, very old photo. It is looking across Loch Slapin from Torin.

 

 

 

The photo above is of the Black Cuillins which surround Loch Coruisk, as seen from the village of Elgol on the south side of Loch Skavaig.

 

The above photo is of Loch Coruisk in the heart of the Black Cuillins. I took this photo on the same trip as my visit to the island of Soay, during September 2024. It does not provide the best view of the loch as I did not have time to walk into where the best view is obtained - but I include it, anyway.

 

The above photo is also of Loch Coruisk - but from about where the best view is to be found. This is a very, very, very old photograph - and in fact, if you look closely, you will see that it is actually two square photos combined, using my computer, to produce a wider angle than my camera at the time allowed. I could clearly have produced a much wider angle shot but lacking a digital preview I was not aware of this until the film was developed. You will also notice that the weather on the day this photo was taken was not as nice as it was on the day I was last there.

 

The photo above is of a section of the Black Cuillin ridge above the head of Loch Coruisk. This is a very, very, old photograph and it was taken using an analogue camera - so there is no time stamp or GPS information. I believe we are taking about the mid to late nineteen eighties and I also believe it was taken somewhere between Sgurr na Banachdaich and Sgurr a Ghreadaidh - very possibly between Sgurr na Banachdaich and Sgurr Thormaid but maybe between Sgurr Thormaid and Sgurr a  Ghreadaidh (but I’m not going back up to check this out). At the time, my girl friend (JT) and myself had studied the climbing books for several days and had concluded that, although only hill walkers, it would be possible to do roughly a mile along the Cuillin ridge above the head of Loch Coruisk (ropes etc., being advised elsewhere). This proved to be the case - but it was hairy at times (and near the section in this photo there is a bit of the ridge where you have to pull yourself along on your bum with a leg over a three thousand foot drop on both sides).

 

The above photo is another taken on the Cuillin Ridge on the same day as the previous shot (probably less than fifteen minutes later). I’m not sure which summit this was taken on but I suspect either Sgurr Thormaid or Sgurr a Ghreadaidh. This is the first time I’ve included a photo of myself in any of these posts (I think) - probably just to prove that I actually ‘did’ a bit of the Cuillin Ridge.

 

The photo above is another taken on top of the Cuillin Ridge on the same day as the previous two shots and at roughly the same time. This is a view of Loch Coruisk from the top of the ridge, looking roughly eastwards, towards where the fourth photo above was taken from. As can be seen, from those last three photos, it was not exactly the best day to be on the summit of the Cuillin Ridge but it was a good day when we started (conditions can change very quickly in the west Highlands and islands) and we got off the gabro before the rain started (which was just as well as wet gabro is very, very slippy).

 

The above photo is of the old road bridge at Sligahan. The road over the bridge heads west to Dunvegan and Vaternish. The cloud hides the view of Sgurr nan Gillean at the northern edge of the Black Cuillins. This location hosts a hotel/pub and a camping/caravan site.

 

 

The photo above is of Portree. It was taken from The Seaflower on it’s return from the island of Rona.

 

The above photo is of the Quirang and the Trotternish peninsula. This photo was taken from the Seaflower on it’s way over to the island of Rona.

 

The photo above is of the Old Man of Storr, located in the Trotternish penisula north of Portree. This is a very, very, very old photograph (apart from it’s square shape, just take a look at the vehicle captured in it).

 

The photo above is of Dunvegan Castle. Another very, very, very old photograph.