Broadford, Kylerhea and the Glenelg ferry
A day by car, from Broadford and back.
The route
Most people cross onto Skye by the bridge at Kyleakin and keep going through Broadford.
This day stops in both, on a loop that crosses to the mainland the old way and comes home over the bridge. It starts over the hill road to Kylerhea for the otter hide, then crosses Kyle Rhea on the Glenelg ferry, whose six-car deck is still turned by hand. On the far side there's Glenelg, two Iron Age brochs up Gleann Beag and the Five Sisters of Kintail from Mam Ratagan. The way home is by Shiel Bridge, past Eilean Donan and over the Skye Bridge to Kyleakin and its broken castle, then Broadford for the evening. The ferry sails from April to mid-October, and on a day it can't, there's a version that stays on Skye. Go midweek in late May, when the days are long and the half-term crowds haven't arrived.
The day
Glenelg
About two hours and 12 minutes at the wheel, over the hill to Kylerhea, across on the ferry and home by Mam Ratagan and the Skye Bridge; fill the tank at Broadford's 24-hour Asda Express first. Both hill roads are steep single track with hairpins, and not for a caravan, a big motorhome, or anyone unhappy reversing into a passing place.
2 hr 12 min at the wheelAbout 54 miles
Kylerhea Otter Haven
An attraction
Leave Broadford by half past eight: it's 25 minutes' drive, east on the A87 to the Kylerhea turning and then six and a half miles of steep single track over the hill to the Forestry car park before the village. Parking is £2 for an hour, £3 for three hours or £4 all day, by card or RingGo; toilets April to October. The trail to the hide above Kyle Rhea is 2.1 km there and back, about 45 minutes. Seals, porpoises and sea eagles are likelier than otters.
2 min by car
The Glenelg Ferry
An attraction
It's 2 minutes' drive down to the slip to queue in the car. The Glenachulish, built in 1969, takes six cars, and her deck is still turned by hand, the last manually operated turntable ferry in the world. No booking: pay on board, £20 a car in 2026. She sails 10am to 6pm, April to mid-October; wind can stop her, so check her website that morning. If she's off, stay on Skye: walk the Marble Line from Broadford's village car park, lunch in Broadford, then Kyleakin and the hide.
15 min by boat, 7 min by car
Glenelg
It's a crossing of up to 15 minutes, then 7 minutes' drive into Glenelg, whose name reads the same backwards. Coffee first at the Shore Station above the slip. On the way in you pass the fenced ruin of Bernera Barracks, built between 1717 and 1723 after the 1715 rising. Park by the village hall, with toilets and Ruth's Cafe. The war memorial by the bay is Sir Robert Lorimer's, from 1920. The Glenelg Inn serves lunch from 12.30, so see the brochs first. Dinner there must be booked.
9 min by car
Dun Telve and Dun Troddan
An attraction
Drive 9 minutes south round the bay and up Gleann Beag, the old drove road from Skye. Dun Telve stands by the lay-by, more than 10 metres high in places, with the gap between its two drystone walls open to see. Dun Troddan, 500 metres on, is shorter at 7.6 metres but better preserved, up a short, steep path of loose stones. Both are Iron Age towers about 2,000 years old. By Dun Troddan, Dun Brewing's tap room at Corrary Farm opens from noon, Sunday to Friday.
29 min by car
Ratagan Pass viewpoint
An attraction
It's 29 minutes' drive back through Glenelg, past the inn for lunch, and up the single-track road over Mam Ratagan. Just over the top, on the Loch Duich side, the viewpoint car park looks down over the head of the loch to the Five Sisters of Kintail, the pointed peaks above Glen Shiel. The story goes that they were sisters who waited so long for husbands from Ireland that they turned into mountains. Give it a quarter of an hour, then follow the hairpins down to Shiel Bridge.
40 min by car
Kyleakin
Kyleakin is 40 minutes' drive round Loch Duich and over the Skye Bridge. For Eilean Donan at Dornie, pull into the free lay-by on the A87 half a kilometre before the castle. At Kyleakin, park on the north side of the harbour, cross the bridge and take the shore path to Caisteal Maol, the Mackinnons' broken keep: about an hour there and back, easiest near low water. Saucy Mary, the story goes, ran a chain across the strait to toll ships. Eilean Bàn, under the Skye Bridge, was Gavin Maxwell's home.
20 min by car
Broadford
It's 20 minutes' drive home to Broadford, Skye's second village, strung along its bay under the Red Cuillin. Park in the free village car park by the Co-op, with the community's toilets next to the petrol station. Walk down Old Pier Road to the Old Pier behind the Dunollie Hotel, where the remains of lime kilns look over the harbour. Drambuie was first mixed here in the 1880s, by James Ross for guests at the Broadford Inn, now the Broadford Hotel; he registered the name in 1893.
If it rains
Rain on its own seldom stops the Glenelg ferry; wind can, and the ferry posts signs at the junctions for both slips when it isn't sailing, so check its website that morning before you drive over the hill. The otter hide is a roof in a shower, and the trail to it is firm gravel. In Glenelg, the Glenelg Inn has a roof and a fire, and Ruth's Cafe in the village hall opens on some weekdays; the Shore Station is a takeaway with tables outside. The brochs are a few minutes from the car, with Dun Brewing's tap room beside Dun Troddan. In low cloud the Five Sisters vanish from Mam Ratagan, so drive on down; Eilean Donan, passed at Dornie on the way home, is the one big roof on the road, open daily in season. If the ferry is not sailing, the version of this day that stays on Skye is in the ferry's More info.
Make it a weekend
More days out on the Isle of Skye.
Photographs by Slavomir Koval, Johan Vink and John Griffin via Google