Isle of Skye

The Isle of Skye is the largest of the Inner Hebrides, a fifty-mile sprawl of peninsulas and sea lochs off Scotland's north-west coast. No point on the island lies more than about five miles from salt water, which is why the map looks less like an island than a hand with its fingers spread. That shape is the reason Skye takes longer to explore than its size suggests: a village visible across a loch can be an hour's drive away around the head of the water.

Two mountain ranges dominate. The Black Cuillin, a horseshoe of gabbro and basalt behind Glen Brittle, is the most serious mountaineering ground in Britain, holding eleven Munros and a summit, the Inaccessible Pinnacle, that cannot be reached without a rope. Across Glen Sligachan the Red Cuillin are gentler, granite domes the colour of rust in late light. To the north, the Trotternish peninsula carries a twenty-mile escarpment created by the largest landslip in Britain, and it is here that the island's two most photographed landmarks stand: the Old Man of Storr and the Quiraing.

Skye is also a working island rather than a museum. Around ten thousand people live here, crofting, fishing, running boats and building a food scene that punches far above the population. Gaelic remains in daily use and Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic college, sits on the Sleat peninsula. Clan history is everywhere, most visibly at Dunvegan Castle, held by the MacLeods for eight centuries, and in the Sleat lands of the MacDonalds. Visitor numbers have grown sharply since the Skye Bridge opened in 1995, so the island now asks a little planning in return: book beds early, start walks before nine, and be ready for single-track roads with passing places.

Getting to Isle of Skye

There is no airport on Skye, so almost everyone arrives by road or by a combination of rail and ferry. Driving from London takes eleven to twelve hours over roughly 640 miles, so it is realistically a two-day journey. From Glasgow allow around five hours for the 220 miles to Portree; from Inverness it is about two and a half hours and 110 miles on the A82 and A87. The Skye Bridge at Kyle of Lochalsh has been toll-free since 2004 and takes two minutes to cross.

By rail, the neatest route is London Euston to Glasgow in around four and a half hours, then the West Highland Line from Glasgow Queen Street to Mallaig — a five-hour ride past Rannoch Moor and the Glenfinnan Viaduct — followed by the thirty-minute CalMac ferry from Mallaig to Armadale on Sleat. The alternative runs via Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh, a scenic two-and-a-half-hour branch line, with a Stagecoach bus onwards over the bridge to Broadford and Portree. The Caledonian Sleeper from Euston to Fort William suits anyone who would rather not lose a day to travel.

The nearest airports are Inverness, about two and a half hours' drive away, and Glasgow, roughly five. Once on the island a car is close to essential: bus service 917 links Portree, Broadford and Armadale, but nothing useful runs to the Quiraing or Glen Brittle. Nearly all the major trailheads now charge for parking, and the Storr, Quiraing and Fairy Pools car parks fill by mid-morning between June and August. Portree's main car park is on Somerled Square. Verge parking is actively discouraged and increasingly enforced.

Best time to visit Isle of Skye

Spring is the island at its best. April and May are statistically the driest months, the daylight is already long, and the midges have not yet hatched — they usually appear in late May and stay until September. Waterfalls still run hard from winter rain and the hills carry snow into April.

Summer brings daylight until well past ten in June, warm-ish seas for swimming and every restaurant open, but also the peak of traffic and the peak of midges on still, damp evenings. Book accommodation for July and August six months ahead if you want a choice. Carry repellent and, if you plan to sit outside, a head net.

Autumn is the quiet reward. September and early October keep most services running while the crowds thin, the bracken turns copper and the light lowers into something photographers travel for. Storms become more frequent from mid-October.

Winter is stark and often superb — empty trails, snow on the Cuillin and genuinely dark skies for the aurora, which is visible from north-facing coasts several times a season. Many smaller B&Bs, campsites and cafes close between November and March, daylight shrinks to around seven hours, and ferry crossings can be cancelled for days at a time.