Whisky and Gin on Skye – Four Distilleries and the Raasay Ferry
Two days by car, from Kyle of Lochalsh to Portree.
The route
Two days of Skye's whisky and gin, most of it tasted where it's made, with Portree as the base both nights.
Day one comes over the Skye Bridge from Kyle of Lochalsh to Torabhaig, back to 57° Skye's gin still in Broadford, then on to Sconser. There the car stays while you cross to Raasay on foot for the distillery above the pier. Day two starts at the Isle of Skye Distillers' gin shop in Portree, then Talisker at Carbost, the bay that named the whisky, and Sligachan on the way home. Scotland's drink-drive limit is 22 micrograms of alcohol in 100 ml of breath, and the Scottish Government's advice is that the only way to be sure is to drink none, the morning after a late night included. So one of you drives both days and drinks nothing, evenings too. If nobody wants to, hire a local driver-guide.
Before you go
Book a bed near Kyle of Lochalsh the night before
Day one leaves Kyle of Lochalsh at about 9.15 for Torabhaig's café at 10 and its 10.30 tour, so book a bed in Kyle for the night before.
8 miles awayKinloch LodgeA place to stay
10 miles awayEilean Sionnach Lighthouse CottageSleeps 8
15 miles awayRaasay House HotelA hotel
ElgolCoruisk HouseSleeps 4
17 miles awaySligachan BlackhouseSleeps 6
17 miles awayRhuroinSleeps 3
17 miles awaySligachan CampsiteA place to stay
ArdheslaigThe Net StoreSleeps 4
PortreeCuillin Hills HotelA hotel
PortreeThe BosvilleA hotel
PortreeMarmalade HotelA hotel
22 miles awayGlenbrittle CampsiteA place to stayBoth nights are in Portree, so stay in the town itself: then each evening's dram is a walk from the bed and the car stays put. Book early for May: the town fills well ahead.
PortreeThe BosvilleA hotelPortreeMarmalade HotelA hotelPortreeCuillin Hills HotelA hotel
Skeabost BridgeSkeabost House HotelA hotel6 miles awayRaasay House HotelA hotel8 miles awaySligachan CampsiteA place to stay9 miles awaySligachan BlackhouseSleeps 6
10 miles awaySkyewalker HostelSleeps 1
12 miles awayHalf of OneSleeps 8
13 miles awayThe Cowshed Boutique BunkhouseSleeps 1
14 miles awayThe DunveganA place to stay15 miles awayGlenbrittle CampsiteA place to stay
LinicroMonkstadt 1745A place to stay
ColbostThe Three ChimneysA place to stay
17 miles awayLochviewSleeps 4
South ClunesTigh an TobairSleeps 8ElgolCoruisk HouseSleeps 4
GlendaleBlack Box CabinSleeps 4
HeastBothan BeileagSleeps 2
HeastBothan BuidheagSleeps 2ArdheslaigThe Net StoreSleeps 421 miles awayRhuroinSleeps 3
MilovaigMilovaig HouseSleeps 422 miles awayKinloch LodgeA place to stay24 miles awayEilean Sionnach Lighthouse CottageSleeps 8Weeks ahead in summer: groups are no bigger than 16, and Talisker strongly recommends booking.
Book Isle of Raasay Distillery
Book the Tour and Tasting online ahead of the crossing, for early afternoon, after lunch off the 1pm boat.
Book a driver-guide, if nobody will drive
Book Skye Distillery Tours well ahead if nobody in the party wants to drive: a local driver-guide takes visitors to Talisker, Torabhaig and Raasay, with prices from £350 in 2026.
Book the tour on the distillery's website as soon as the 2027 tours go on sale, as the groups are small.
Day one
Torabhaig and Raasay
Over the Skye Bridge and south to Torabhaig, a distillery in an old farm steading beside Knock Castle, then gin in Broadford and the road along Loch Ainort to Sconser. There the car stays while you cross to Raasay on foot, for lunch and a tour at the distillery above the pier. About an hour and 40 minutes at the wheel, and 25 minutes on the boat each way.
1 hr 40 min at the wheelAbout 56 miles by carAbout 1 mile on foot
Torabhaig Distillery
An attraction
It's 35 minutes' drive from Kyle of Lochalsh to Torabhaig, so leave Kyle at about 9.15 after a night nearby; off the Mallaig ferry at Armadale, it's 10 minutes up the road. The café opens at 10 on weekdays. Book the 10.30 tour, 45 minutes with a tutored tasting, over-12s only, and ask if the driver can take their drams away. The distillery was Sir Iain Noble's idea: he had planning by 2002 but died in 2010, before it was built. Knock Castle's ruin stands on the point below.
24 min by car
57° Skye Distillery
57° Skye, on Ford Road in Broadford, is 24 minutes' drive back up the road: a small working distillery that makes its gin on site and finishes and bottles whisky it buys in. Walk in, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm: the Come & Try tasting, three small samples in 10 to 15 minutes, needs no booking (£15 in 2026, over-18s only). The driver can look round and browse the shop instead. Give it 20 minutes, and leave by quarter past twelve for the boat.
19 min by car
The ferry from Sconser to Raasay
Sconser's slip is 19 minutes' drive on along Loch Ainort. Leave the car in the free car park and cross on foot. Foot passengers can't reserve a place and don't need to. Be at the slip 10 minutes before the 1pm boat, with a ticket bought online or paid for on board: £5.30 return for an adult in 2026.
25 min by boat, 12 min on foot
Isle of Raasay Distillery
An attraction
It's a 25-minute crossing, then 12 minutes' walk up from the pier, right at the fork, to Borodale House. Lunch is in the bar, walk-in from 1pm, Friday to Monday, or at Raasay House, 6 minutes' walk from the pier before you go up, noon to 3pm, Tuesday to Saturday. Then the Tour and Tasting, booked online and timed to the boats, and the island's own gin in the shop. The copper stills came from Tuscany. Ask when you book whether the driver's drams can be taken away.
12 min on foot
The ferry from Raasay to Sconser
It's 12 minutes' walk back down to the slip: be there 10 minutes before the boat. The 5pm has you in Portree before six, and the 6.05pm is the weekday's last, with nothing after it until morning. The boat takes 25 minutes, and from Sconser it's 22 minutes' drive to Portree. Leave the car where you're staying for the evening, as the bars are a walk away. The driver, at the wheel again tomorrow, stays off the drams tonight too.
If it rains
Rain changes little today. Torabhaig's tour, 57° Skye and the Raasay distillery are all indoors, and only the 12-minute walks between Raasay's pier and the distillery are out in the weather, so pack a waterproof. Wind, not rain, is what stops the Raasay ferry: look at CalMac's service status for Sconser to Raasay before you leave Broadford, or sign up for its text alerts for the route (text code 17). If the boats are off, swap the afternoons: Talisker is 17 minutes' drive on from Sconser, its shop and Campfire Bar take visitors without a booking, and Talisker Bay and Sligachan follow as on day two. Cross to Raasay tomorrow instead, on the 3pm boat after Talisker's tour and lunch: in 2026 it sailed Monday to Saturday, and day two is a Tuesday or a Saturday, never a Sunday, when only three boats run.
Worth a detour
- Caisteal Maol
Over the bridge at Kyleakin, the broken walls of Caisteal Maol, the Mackinnons' old stronghold, stand on their rock above the harbour. The story goes that a Norwegian princess, Saucy Mary, ran a chain across the strait to make passing ships pay a toll. See it from the free car park on the harbour's north side, or walk out to it at low tide.
- Waterloo Beach
A minute off the road just east of Broadford, on the way to 57° Skye, Waterloo's shore is a short wander if the morning has run to time: the 1pm boat leaves little to spare. At mid to low tide its rocks are full of fossil shells some 190 million years old: have a good look, but never hammer them, as the shore is protected.
PortreeAntlers Bar & GrillPub grub, Portree Hotel
PortreeDulse and BroseSkye and Highland larder
PortreeThe View RestaurantBay views, Cuillin Hills Hotel
PortreeScorrybreac RestaurantSeasonal Skye produce
PortreeBirchSkye's own coffee roasters
BroadfordThe Gabbro BarA bar
BroadfordGasta, BroadfordA café
BroadfordThe Coffee BothyA café
SligachanSeumas' BarWalkers' bar, 400 whiskies
Lean to CoffeeA café
IsleornsayDuisdale HouseA restaurant
Amy's Place Tea RoomA caféDay two
Talisker
A day out west from Portree, with about an hour and 20 minutes at the wheel. It starts with the island's own gin in town, then Talisker at Carbost on Loch Harport and a walk to the bay that gave the whisky its name. The last stop is Sligachan, under the Cuillin, on the way home.
1 hr 19 min at the wheelAbout 42 miles
4 min on foot
The Isle of Skye Distillers
A shop
It's 4 minutes' walk from Somerled Square to the Isle of Skye Distillers' shop, open from 10am. Their gins are free to taste, for everyone but the driver, and a few whiskies can be tried for a small charge. Two brothers raised on Skye set out in 2016 to open the island's first gin distillery, and launched Misty Isle Gin in February 2017. One botanical they keep secret, saying only that it grows high on Skye. Their still, behind the family home, isn't open to visitors yet.
30 min by car
Talisker Distillery
An attraction
It's 30 minutes' drive by Glen Drynoch to Carbost. Book the Distillery Tour and Tasting at about 11.30: an hour and three drams, with the driver's drams in a pack to take away. Talisker is Skye's only old distillery still working, built in 1830 by Hugh and Kenneth MacAskill from Eigg. Lunch is at the Three Chimneys at Talisker, on the waterfront outside the distillery, open from noon and shut Wednesday and Thursday, or oysters at the Oyster Shed, Monday to Saturday, a walk up the hill.
11 min by car
Talisker Bay
An attraction
The roadside pull-in, just before the public road ends, is 11 minutes' drive out along the Talisker road. The whisky is named after this place, not Carbost: Talisker was the estate Hugh MacAskill ran from the 1820s, clearing its tenants for sheep, and the distillery took the estate's name. A farm track runs on past the big house, which is private, to the beach: 25 minutes' walk each way, with gates to shut behind you.
21 min by car
Sligachan
An attraction
Sligachan, at the island's crossroads, is 21 minutes' drive back by Glen Drynoch. The hotel's Seumas' Bar has poured whisky since 1987 and keeps more than 400, with ales from the Cuillin Brewery beside it; the Isle of Skye Brewing Company's shop at Uig pier is for another day. The bar books only for 10 or more, so walk in: food runs from noon to 8.30pm. The driver keeps to soft drinks: Portree is 17 minutes on, and the night's dram a walk from the bed.
If it rains
The gin shop, Talisker's tour and Seumas' Bar are all indoors. Talisker Bay is the one part out in the weather: in a downpour the farm track turns to mud and the burns on the beach run high. Leave the bay for a drier day and give Talisker longer instead, with its 30-minute Made by the Sea tasting (from £20 in 2026) or a seat in the Campfire Bar, last orders 4.30pm, before Sligachan.
Worth a detour
- Carbost Burn Waterfall
On the road out to Talisker Bay, just above Carbost, you cross the burn that feeds Talisker Distillery right at the top of its waterfall. Pull onto the verge for a look down at it, best after rain.
Where to eat
CarbostCaora Dhubh Coffee CompanyA café
CarbostThe Old InnA restaurant
CarbostThe Three Chimneys at TaliskerA restaurant
The Oyster ShedA restaurant
StruanBog Myrtle CaféA caféPortreeAntlers Bar & GrillPub grub, Portree HotelPortreeDulse and BroseSkye and Highland larderPortreeThe View RestaurantBay views, Cuillin Hills HotelPortreeScorrybreac RestaurantSeasonal Skye producePortreeBirchSkye's own coffee roastersSligachanSeumas' BarWalkers' bar, 400 whiskiesPhotograph by 57° SKYE Distillery via Google