Isle of Skye

Dunvegan and Glendale, home by Loch Bracadale

A day by car, from Portree and back.

The route

Duirinish is the MacLeods' end of Skye, the wide peninsula west of Dunvegan, and this day from Portree takes in the places it's known for.

It starts early, at the old church at Kilmuir where the clan's pipers lie, and walks out to the white Coral Beach at Claigan before Dunvegan Castle opens. The rest of the morning is for the castle, with the Fairy Flag and a little boat out to the seals. Lunch is at the castle's café or in Dunvegan village. In the afternoon a single-track road runs west by Colbost into Glendale, the crofting glen that stood up to its landlord in the 1880s, to a weaving shed on a croft and on to the lighthouse at Neist Point. The way home follows Loch Bracadale past the broch of Dun Beag.

Before you go

Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
PortreeThe BosvilleA hotel PortreeMarmalade HotelA hotel PortreeCuillin Hills HotelA hotel Skeabost BridgeSkeabost House HotelA hotel

The day

Dunvegan and Glendale

West to the MacLeods' end of Skye, for the white Coral Beach, Dunvegan Castle, the weavers of Glendale and the lighthouse at Neist Point, then home past the broch of Dun Beag. Leave Portree at 7.30, to walk the Coral Beach before the castle opens at 10. It's just under two and a half hours at the wheel, with two walks of an hour or two.

2 hr 24 min at the wheelAbout 72 miles

St Mary's Old Church
It's 32 minutes' drive from Portree on the A87 and A850, through Borve, Skeabost, Bernisdale and Edinbane and past the Fairy Bridge turning, to Kilmuir on the edge of Dunvegan. Park in the lay-by on the right before the junction and walk up the short path. St Mary's is a roofless church of 1694 where some MacLeod chiefs lie, and generations of MacCrimmons, the clan's pipers. Above it, the Duirinish Stone marks the millennium. Dunvegan's toilets are 2 minutes on, left at the junction: the last before the beach.
12 min by car
Coral Beach
An attraction
Drive 12 minutes north past the castle gates to the road's end at Claigan. Come by half past eight, while the free gravel car park has room, and leave the farm gates clear. A farm track and then a path over the grazing run 2 km out to the shore, boggy in places. The beach's white sand isn't coral but maerl, a calcified seaweed. Climb Cnoc Mòr a Ghrobain behind it for the view from Waternish round to Dunvegan Head.
More about Coral Beach
10 min by car
Dunvegan Castle
An attraction
It's 10 minutes' drive back to the castle's free car park, soon after it opens at 10; there's no need to book. Inside is the Fairy Flag, a silk said to come from Syria or Rhodes. The gardens run down to the loch. On weekdays until 30 September a 25-minute seal boat leaves the jetty below, first come, first served; the castle is open to 15 October. In 2026 adults paid £17.50, the boat £14. The MacLeod Tables Café by the car park serves hot lunches from 12 to 3.30.
More about Dunvegan Castle
About 4 min by car
Dunvegan
The village car park, beside the public toilets, is 4 minutes on through the junction. Dunvegan is the largest village on Skye away from the east coast. To eat here rather than at the castle, The Dunvegan has a coffee shop and deli, and the bakery at the south end of the village is Skye's oldest. A thatched cottage holds the Giant Angus MacAskill Museum, for a Berneray man who grew to 2.36 metres. South-west rise the flat tops of MacLeod's Tables. Fill the tank here before heading west.
16 min by car
Skye Weavers
A shop
It's 16 minutes' drive west on the single-track B884: pull into the passing places to let others by, and never park in them. At Colbost, just before the Three Chimneys, Raven Press Gallery is Kathleen Lindsley's wood-engraving studio, where she prints on an Albion hand press (weekdays, Easter to October, 10 to 5). Past the Land Leaguers' memorial, take the first turning on the left, signed for Skye Weavers. This croft mill works its looms by foot pedal, making scarves, throws and tweed, and you can watch the weavers at work. Open April to October, Tuesday to Saturday, 10 to 5.
More about Skye Weavers
About 3 min by car
Glendale
An attraction
Three minutes on is the hall at Lephin, where Glendale has its shop and café. In the 1880s the crofters here put their cattle back on grazing taken from them. Police failed to shift them, a government man came on the gunboat HMS Jackal, and their leaders went to jail as the Glendale martyrs. The community owns the glen today. Makers sell their work at a craft fair in the hall on summer Tuesdays. Café Lephin, along the road, is usually open Monday to Friday; check before you go.
More about Glendale
9 min by car
Neist Point
An attraction
It's 9 minutes' drive through Waterstein, whose first house is Kelpie Crafts: Linda felts local scenes and animals onto tweed with wool she dyes (March to November, 11 to 6). The road-end car park gets busy in summer. Neist is Skye's most westerly headland. A concrete path and steps drop to the lighthouse of 1909: 3 km there and back, 142 metres of climbing, most of it on the way back. Keep off the unfenced edges. For the view from above, walk a few minutes north-west onto the cliff top.
More about Neist Point
32 min by car
Dun Beag Broch
An attraction
Allow 32 minutes' drive back through Glendale and south on the A863 past the Roag turning, Caroy and Ose to a small car park on the right, just before the broch. Cross with care and climb to the knoll. Dun Beag is an Iron Age broch with a stair inside its 4-metre walls. It looks out over Loch Bracadale, the Cuillin to the south-east. Portree is 26 minutes home by Struan and the B885, single track with potholes and sheep, or about 36 by Sligachan.
More about Dun Beag Broch

If it rains

Much of this day is out in the open, but the heart of it has a roof. Dunvegan Castle's rooms, the Fairy Flag among them, and its café can fill a wet late morning, and the Giant MacAskill Museum and the cafés on Dunvegan's main street are a few steps from the car park. Skye Weavers' looms are under cover, and on a summer Tuesday so is Glendale's craft fair. The Coral Beach track gets boggy after rain and the seal boats stop in rough water. Neist Point is no place in a gale or in mist: look at it from the cliff top by the car park, or leave it for a clearer day.