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Places to visit
on Skye.

It’s 23:56 on Skye.
Isle of Skye

Where to go on Skye.

Skye is one of those places that stops you in your tracks, again and again. There are the jagged peaks of the Cuillin, the pinnacles and landslips of the Trotternish ridge, and sea cliffs where the waves crash far below. Between them you'll find castles of the old clans, crofting townships, waterfalls tumbling to the sea and beaches of black and white sand. It's a big island, so give yourself time, pick a corner each day and leave room for the detours. These are the places on Skye we think are most worth seeing.

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True or false23 hours ago

True or false: the Fairy Pools on Skye are named after old fairy legends.

Place of the day23 hours ago

Broadford.

Skye's second village, strung along Broadford Bay under the Red Cuillin, a stop for fuel, food and the road south to Elgol.

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From our archive23 hours agoIsle of SkyeDunscaith CastleBroadford and SurroundsLusa BothyBroadford and SurroundsMisty Isle Boat TripsIsle of SkyeSkye Museum of Island LifeRaasayRaasay House HotelIsle of SkyeAmy's Place Tea Room

Skye this autumn, in our photographs.

Six places on Skye, each as we found it.

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Places to visit23 hours ago

Point of Sleat Walk.

About two and a half miles each way over track and moor to the south end of Skye.

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Did you know22 hours ago

The lighthouse at Neist Point, on Skye, and the keepers' houses beside it cost £4,350 to build.

The light was first shown on 1 November 1909. It was designed by David A. Stevenson, of the Stevenson family of lighthouse engineers.

See Neist Point · Isle of Skye
Hidden Scotland, the magazineThe magazine

Issue 13

The autumn and winter issue is here.

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From our guide22 hours ago

Duntulm Castle.

This decaying clifftop stronghold is as atmospheric as they come. First fortified in the Iron Age, it subsequently passed hands between different movers and shakers, with the MacDonalds of Sleat among its later long-term residents. It’s said to be haunted.

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Places to visit22 hours ago

Hallaig.

A cleared township above the sea on Raasay, with Sorley MacLean's poem on a cairn on the way to it.

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From the magazine22 hours agoThe printed copy of Issue 01Issue 01Autumn / Winter 2020

Dunscaith Castle, on its rock off the Sleat coast of Skye, was once reached by a walled bridge, a drawbridge and then a stair.

The castle stands on a rock about 40 feet above the sea, some 20 feet from the shore near Tokavaig. In 1469 it was granted to Hugh MacDonald, the first MacDonald of Sleat. Inside its curtain walls, about five feet thick, with small towers at either end, was a courtyard holding a small well. Most of the buildings have gone now, but parts of those walls still stand. The ruins are in a dangerous condition, so they are best viewed from the shore: park near the bay to the west of Tokavaig and walk round its eastern side.

See Dunscaith Castle · Isle of Skye
From Issue 1 of Hidden Scotland magazineIssue 121 hours ago

The Macdonalds of Skye and Their Castles

The story of Clan Donald from Somerled and Bannockburn to the Lords of the Isles, and the Skye castles tied to the Macdonalds at Armadale, Knock and Duntulm.

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From our guide21 hours ago

Kilt Rock.

Could it be possible that geology has a sense of humour? Skye is full of remarkable natural landmarks, but few are so recognisable as the aptly named Kilt Rock, a 90-metre-high row of basalt columns above a limestone ‘skirt’, the whole scene resembling a pleated kilt. Some even claim the colours of the rocks give it a slight tartan hue. The Mealt Falls are almost adjacent.

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Places to visit21 hours ago

Idrigill Point and Macleod's Maidens.

Three sea stacks off the south tip of Duirinish, at the end of a ten-mile walk from Orbost.

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Did you know21 hours ago

Calum MacLeod built the road to his township on Raasay almost single-handed, with a pick, a shovel and a wheelbarrow.

The council would not build a road to Arnish, at the north end of the island, so he set about it himself. Between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s, in whatever time he could spare, he widened a footpath of one and three-quarter miles into a single-track road with passing places. The council finally adopted it and tarred it in 1982. Calum died in 1988, aged 77, and a cairn beside the road now carries a plaque to the man who built it.

See Calum's Road · Isle of Skye