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Two days on Skye

Two days by car, from Kyle of Lochalsh and back.

The route

Two days is enough for a first taste of Skye.

The first crosses from Kyle of Lochalsh by Sligachan and loops round Trotternish by Uig and Staffin to the Fairy Glen, the Quiraing and the Old Man of Storr, with a night in Portree. The second heads west to Neist Point and Dunvegan Castle, then south to the Fairy Pools and back to Kyle. On the first day, walk only to the Quiraing's Prison and back, about 4 km in an hour and a half, not the full three-to-four-hour loop, then 3.6 km up to the Old Man of Storr and back, about two hours. On the second, Neist Point lighthouse is 3 km there and back, an hour and a half with steep steps, and the Fairy Pools 2.4 km there and back to the first fall, about two hours. Dunvegan Castle opens from April to mid-October.

Before you go

  1. Book beds near Portree, one night

    Book as soon as your dates are set: here are ours nearest the night.

    The BosvillePortreeThe BosvilleA hotelMarmalade HotelPortreeMarmalade HotelA hotelCuillin Hills HotelPortreeCuillin Hills HotelA hotelSkeabost House HotelSkeabost BridgeSkeabost House HotelA hotelRaasay House Hotel6 miles awayRaasay House HotelA hotelSligachan Campsite8 miles awaySligachan CampsiteA place to staySligachan Blackhouse9 miles awaySligachan BlackhouseSleeps 6Skyewalker Hostel10 miles awaySkyewalker HostelSleeps 1Half of One12 miles awayHalf of OneSleeps 8The Cowshed Boutique Bunkhouse13 miles awayThe Cowshed Boutique BunkhouseSleeps 1The Dunvegan14 miles awayThe DunveganA place to stayGlenbrittle Campsite15 miles awayGlenbrittle CampsiteA place to stayMonkstadt 1745LinicroMonkstadt 1745A place to stayThe Three ChimneysColbostThe Three ChimneysA place to stayLochview17 miles awayLochviewSleeps 4Tigh an TobairSouth ClunesTigh an TobairSleeps 8Coruisk HouseElgolCoruisk HouseSleeps 4Black Box CabinGlendaleBlack Box CabinSleeps 4The Net StoreArdheslaigThe Net StoreSleeps 4Rhuroin21 miles awayRhuroinSleeps 3Milovaig HouseMilovaigMilovaig HouseSleeps 4Kinloch Lodge22 miles awayKinloch LodgeA place to stayEilean Sionnach Lighthouse Cottage24 miles awayEilean Sionnach Lighthouse CottageSleeps 8

Day one

Trotternish

From the old bridge at Sligachan round the north of the island, by the Fairy Glen, the Quiraing and the Old Man of Storr, to a night in Portree. Leave Kyle by nine, and keep coins or a card handy for the car parks.

2 hr 31 min at the wheelAbout 78 miles

  1. Sligachan Old Bridge

    Sligachan Old Bridge

    An attraction

    Over the Skye Bridge from Kyle of Lochalsh by Kyleakin, it's 45 minutes' drive through Broadford to Sligachan, where the road meets the Black Cuillin. Walk onto the old humpbacked bridge, built in the early 1800s for Thomas Telford's Highland roads, and look up the glen into the peaks. The hotel, opened around 1830, was where many of the first climbers set out. On a knoll opposite, a bronze statue remembers two of them: Professor Norman Collie and John Mackenzie, a Skye crofter who became Britain's first professional mountain guide.

    More about Sligachan Old Bridge

  2. 45 min by car

    Fairy Glen

    Fairy Glen

    An attraction

    Uig is 45 minutes' drive north through Portree. As the road drops towards the bay, turn right opposite Uig Tower up the steep lane for Balnaknock, and you come to the Fairy Glen, a hollow of little grassy cones, crags and lochans. There's no old legend behind the name; it simply looks like somewhere fairies would live. Scramble up Castle Ewen, the rocky knoll in the middle, for the view, and watch the sky for golden eagles. Use the small car park, and leave the stones where they lie.

    More about Fairy Glen

  3. 18 min by car

    The Quiraing

    The Quiraing

    An attraction

    It's 18 minutes' drive through Uig and up the single-track Staffin road to the car park on the pass, where the Trotternish ridge has slipped into towers and hollows. Take the path below the cliffs to the Prison, a rock like a medieval castle, with the Needle, a 37-metre spike, above on your left: about 4 km there and back, an hour and a half, over one rocky gully. Parking is £3 for three hours; if it's full, use the council's bays towards Uig, never the hairpins or passing places.

    More about The Quiraing

  4. 13 min by car

    Kilt Rock

    Kilt Rock

    An attraction

    Drive 13 minutes down to the coast and south past Staffin to Kilt Rock. From the railings on the clifftop you look along a wall of dark, upright columns above paler bands of rock, striped like a folded kilt. Right beside you, the burn, or stream, from Loch Mealt leaps clean off the edge and falls to the shore. The path from the car park is short and level. Bring binoculars, as dolphins are sometimes seen in the water below in summer.

    More about Kilt Rock

  5. 15 min by car

    The Old Man of Storr

    The Old Man of Storr

    An attraction

    It's 15 minutes' drive on towards Portree to the Storr, the day's one real climb: 3.6 km up to the Old Man and back, climbing over 300 metres, in about two hours. Some islanders say the pinnacle is a buried giant's thumb. The cliff is a landslip; in summer 2004 huge boulders fell at the Old Man's feet. Parking is £6 for six hours. If it's full when you arrive, go on to Portree, 15 minutes away, and come back after five, when it empties, rather than use the verges.

    More about The Old Man of Storr

  6. 15 min by car

    Portree

    Portree

    An attraction

    Portree, the biggest town on Skye and your bed for the night, is 15 minutes' drive south. Its Gaelic name, Port Rìgh, is often read as the king's harbour, though an older form of it may mean the harbour on the slope. In the 1700s, many islanders sailed from Portree for new lives in America. Before dinner, climb the Lump, the wooded hill beside the harbour, where the Skye Highland Games, first held in 1877, have met since 1893, and look down over the painted houses along the water.

    More about Portree

If it rains

In rain or low cloud the Quiraing and the Storr hide their views, and both paths get slippery, so save the two walks for a clearer trip. Kilt Rock is still worth a look from the railings, and the Staffin Dinosaur Museum is just along the road at Ellishadder; ring ahead to check it's open. Back in Portree, the Isle of Skye Candle Company's centre on Viewfield Road has its shop, a pizzeria and the town's cinema under one roof.

Worth a detour

  1. An Corran Beach

    Dinosaur footprints in the shore rocks at Staffin, under water at high tide.

  2. Brothers' Point

    A coastal walk out to the headland of Rubha nam Brathairean.

  3. Lealt Falls

    A roadside viewpoint over a deep gorge and its falls.

Day two

Dunvegan

Out to the far west of Skye for the lighthouse at Neist Point and the castle of the MacLeods, then south to the Fairy Pools and back over the bridge. Leave Portree by half past eight, as the single-track road out to Neist gets busy later in the day.

3 hr 21 min at the wheelAbout 106 miles

  1. 55 min by car

    Neist Point

    Neist Point

    An attraction

    It's 55 minutes' drive west by Dunvegan and Glendale to Neist Point, the far western tip of Skye. Steep steps drop down the cliff from the car park, then a path crosses the headland's grassy back to the lighthouse. David A Stevenson designed it, and its lamp was first lit on 1 November 1909. The 3 km there and back takes about an hour and a half, with some 140 metres of climb, much of it back up the steps. Watch the sea for gannets, porpoises and basking sharks.

    More about Neist Point

  2. 30 min by car

    Dunvegan Castle

    Dunvegan Castle

    An attraction

    Drive 30 minutes back to Dunvegan Castle, on its rock above the loch, home of the MacLeod chiefs since the 13th century. Its towers and battlements took their present look around 1840. Among the family's treasures are the Fairy Flag and Sir Rory Mor's Horn, which each new chief is meant to drain of wine in one draught. Allow two hours at least, inside and in the gardens. Adults pay £17.50, parking is free, and the doors open at 10am every day from April until 15 October.

    More about Dunvegan Castle

  3. 45 min by car

    Fairy Pools

    Fairy Pools

    An attraction

    It's 45 minutes' drive south by Drynoch to Merkadale, just before Carbost, and down the Glen Brittle road to the Fairy Pools car park. A gravel path climbs beside a burn below the Cuillin to the first and biggest fall, 2.4 km there and back; the pools go on up the burn, so allow two hours. The story goes that the burn ran red after the MacDonalds beat the MacLeods in a battle in the corrie above in 1601. Parking is £8. Kyle of Lochalsh is 70 minutes' drive away.

    More about Fairy Pools

If it rains

In a gale or a downpour, stay at the top of the steps at Neist Point and enjoy the view of the headland from there. Dunvegan Castle is made for a wet day, with its main rooms indoors, and 4 minutes' drive away in the village a small thatched museum remembers the giant Angus MacAskill, who stood 7 feet 9 inches. Leave the Fairy Pools for a dry day and go to Talisker Distillery in Carbost instead, 40 minutes' drive from the castle, for a tour and tasting indoors; drivers take their drams away in a drivers' pack. Book ahead in summer. The tours stop each autumn for a few weeks' maintenance, in 2026 from 11 October to 1 November, though the shop and bar stay open.

Worth a detour

  1. Dun Beag Broch

    The walls of an Iron Age broch, a few minutes uphill from the road near Struan.

  2. Talisker Distillery

    Skye's oldest working distillery, on the shore of Loch Harport at Carbost.

Where to eat

Photograph by robert.steven