Isle of Skye

Fairy Bridge

A stone bridge over a burn where the Waternish road leaves the Dunvegan road, and the place a MacLeod chief is said to have parted from his fairy wife.

Welcome

Where the Waternish road turns off between Edinbane and Dunvegan there is a low stone bridge over a shallow burn, an arch of dark rock with grass growing out of the parapet.

There is a layby, and nothing else: no sign worth the name, no gate, no centre. Most cars go over it without slowing.

This is An Drochaid nan Sithichean, the Fairy Bridge, and the story belongs to the MacLeods. A chief of the family married a woman of the fairies, the telling goes, on the condition that she would go back to her own people after a year and a day. When the time came they parted here, and she left him a silk banner for the clan. That banner is the Fairy Flag, and it hangs in the drawing room at Dunvegan Castle, about 8 minutes' drive down the road. The castle reckons it was made of silk in the fourth century and carried home from the east. It is said to answer three times, and to have been unfurled twice.

A short drive awayDunvegan Bakery & Coffee ShopBread and coffee in Dunvegan, about 7 minutes' drive down the road.7 min by roadSee it

Before you go

The bridge is at the junction where the Waternish road turns off the Dunvegan road, with a layby beside it and nothing else: no centre, no shop, no gate.

It takes two minutes to see and is open at every hour. Dunvegan Castle, where the flag itself hangs, is about 8 minutes' drive on down the road.

Where: The junction of the Waternish road and the Dunvegan road, between Edinbane and Dunvegan.
Stopping: A layby at the bridge. Nothing else there.
The flag: At Dunvegan Castle, about 8 minutes' drive on, in the drawing room.

Where it is

On the Isle of Skye between Edinbane and Dunvegan, at the junction where the road turns north into Waternish.

Close byWaternish one way, Dunvegan the other.