Isle of Skye

Sleat: Armadale and the west loop

A day by car, from Broadford and back.

The route

Sleat, pronounced Slate, is the long green peninsula in Skye's south-east corner, known as the garden of Skye and the home of the MacDonalds of Sleat.

This day drives down it from Broadford on the A851 to Torabhaig, where a distillery fills an old farm steading beside the ruin of Knock Castle. Then it's on to Armadale for lunch and the woodland gardens round the chiefs' old house, then the pier and the village of Ardvasar. The afternoon turns back over the hill on the single-track west loop, through the crofting villages of Tarskavaig, Tokavaig and Ord. The Cuillin stand across Loch Eishort, with Dunscaith Castle on its rock above the sea. The day ends by the harbour at Isleornsay, with supper near the old pier before the drive home to Broadford.

Before you go

Book Torabhaig Distillery
Book the 45-minute tour and tutored tasting on the distillery's website, for a late-morning slot.
Book Isleornsay
The bar takes walk-ins, but the hotel recommends booking a table for supper, on its website or by phone.

The day

Sleat

A day down Sleat, the green peninsula known as the garden of Skye: a distillery beside the ruin of Knock Castle, the woodland gardens at Armadale and the ferry pier at Ardvasar. Then it's back over the hill on the single-track west loop, with the Cuillin across the water, to the harbour at Isleornsay. About an hour and three quarters at the wheel.

1 hr 40 min at the wheelAbout 43 miles by carAbout 0.5 miles on foot

Torabhaig Distillery
An attraction
It's 23 minutes' drive south from Broadford on the A851, past Kinloch and the Isleornsay turning, to Torabhaig. Book the late-morning tour ahead: 45 minutes in the production hall, then a tutored tasting, with nobody aged 12 or under; ask whether the driver's drams can be taken away. The distillery fills a farm steading of 1820, and says analysis showed its walls were built of stone from Knock Castle next door. Its spirit first ran in 2017, only the second licensed malt distillery Skye has had. The café opens at 10.
More about Torabhaig Distillery
10 min on foot
Knock Castle
An attraction
It's 10 minutes' walk from the car park, over the burn (stream) and up a faint path, to the headland above Knock Bay. Knock Castle, Caisteal Chamuis, was a MacLeod castle by 1402, when William, their fourth chief, died here, before the MacDonalds forced them out of Sleat. Horatio McCulloch painted it in 1854; much has fallen since. The walls are unstable and the drops sheer, so look from outside them.
More about Knock Castle
10 min by car
Armadale Castle Gardens
An attraction
Armadale is 10 minutes' drive, past Kilmore, with the MacDonald chiefs' graves and a roofless church of about 1681 that the diarist James Boswell walked to in 1773. Park free by the Stables Café and lunch first; it serves until 4. The castle, rebuilt by David Bryce in the 1850s, is fenced off as unsafe, so this is a garden visit: great trees of the 1870s, bluebells and orchids. The estate was sold in 2026, so check it's open; if it's shut, bring a picnic from Broadford and walk the Point of Sleat instead.
More about Armadale Castle Gardens
About 1 min by car
Armadale pier and Ardvasar
A minute's drive on is Armadale Stores, the community shop, with fuel and a Post Office counter where a UK debit card draws cash (to 3.30 on weekdays, 1.30 on Wednesdays). Walk to the pier to watch the Mallaig ferry come in; the terminal has Sleat's only public toilets. Off the point beside it lies Eilean Sgorach, called Battleship Island for its shape. Walk back past the shop into Ardvasar, where the Inn at Àird a' Bhàsair, the old Ardvasar Hotel, looks across to Knoydart; its bars open at 5.
25 min by car
Dunscaith Castle
An attraction
It's 25 minutes' drive to Tokavaig Bay: back up to Kilbeg, by the Gaelic college of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, and left onto the loop, which climbs over the hill with the Cuillin across Loch Dughaill, then drops through Tarskavaig's crofts. Park by the bay: the walk out to the castle is on a boggy track, 2 km there and back, about 40 minutes. Dunscaith's drawbridge is gone, so stay on the landward side. The story goes that the warrior Scáthach taught the Irish hero Cú Chulainn to fight here.
More about Dunscaith Castle
About 5 min by car
Ord
Carry on round the coast for 5 minutes and down a 20% hill to Ord, with free parking on the gravel by the shore. Watch for seals on the rocks, with Blà Bheinn and the Cuillin across Loch Eishort. The ruin of St Comgan's chapel here is said to go back to the 700s. The poet Alexander Smith married a daughter of Ord House in 1857, spent his summers here and wrote A Summer in Skye. From here the road climbs gently through the woods to the main road.
18 min by car
Isleornsay
Drive 20 minutes out to the main road near Teangue and north to the Isleornsay turning, where there's a hump-backed bridge. Isleornsay, Eilean Iarmain in Gaelic, had stone piers and a busy herring port by 1820; later the Glasgow steamers called. The lighthouse on Eilean Sionnach, first lit in 1857, is half hidden from the road. The hotel's Praban bar serves supper from 5.30, and the hotel asks non-residents to book a table; its langoustines come in at the old stone pier. Broadford is 18 minutes' drive home.

If it rains

The morning hardly notices rain: the distillery tour and its café are indoors, and at Armadale the Stables Café and the Museum of the Isles are the roofs, with firm paths through the gardens for a shower. Knock Castle's path crosses a burn and turns greasy, so in a downpour look at the castle instead from the A851 where it runs round Knock Bay. In low cloud the Cuillin vanish from the west loop, and after heavy rain the ground out to Dunscaith is a bog: see the castle from Tokavaig Bay without walking out, or leave the loop for a clearer day and drive 15 minutes straight up the A851 from Ardvasar to Isleornsay. On a weekday, Aird Old Church Gallery, 11 minutes' drive down the Aird road from Ardvasar, is a dry half hour.

Worth a detour

Aird Old Church Gallery
Weekdays only, 10 to 5: Peter McDermott's watercolours and railway-style prints in the old church at Aird of Sleat, 11 minutes' drive from Ardvasar down the single-track road to its end, with the Sound of Sleat running away south towards Eigg. It adds about 50 minutes. The gallery asks anyone making a special journey to get in touch first.
Point of Sleat Walk
The walker's version of the day, in place of the tour and the museum rather than beside them. From the farmyard car park at the end of the Aird road, 11 minutes' drive from Ardvasar, it's 8.5 km there and back to the southern tip of Skye, 3 to 4 hours with 400 metres of climb, on a rough track with one steep hill and then moorland path. The white sand of Camas Daraich is a short detour down from the pass near the end, best at low tide. Keep the gates and the sheep fank clear, and carry food and water, as there's nothing at the road end.