Travelogue | Scotland | Isle of Skye

Sing me a song of a lass that is gone
Say, could that lass be I?
Merry of soul she sailed on a day
Over the sea to Skye

Mull was astern, Rùm on the port,
Eigg on the starboard bow
Glory of youth glowed in her soul
Where is that glory now?

Sing me a song of a lass that is gone
Say, could that lass be I?
Merry of soul she sailed on a day
Over the sea to Skye

So, I might love the show Outlander. And it may or may not have influenced my decision to go to Skye on our trip to Scotland. I am so so glad we went though. There isn’t a single point on Skye that you will not have an amazing view. No matter where you go, there are hills and mountains of outstanding beauty.

After days of camping and living the rugged lifestyle, we opted to stay in a hostel on Skye. We stayed with Theresa at Croft Bunkhouse for three nights and had a great time there. The other guests were courteous and Theresa kept us well entertained with her stories. She gave us some wonderful recommendations on things to do and see on Scotland’s second largest island.

Talisker Beach, Fairy Pools, and Neist Point

After a leisurely morning of sleeping in (a bit) and enjoying a nice breakfast, we drove to Talisker Beach. A beautifully remote and quiet beach off the beaten track. There was only one other group there when we went (fellow hostelers from Theresa’s!) We clambered over the rocks and boulders to get a stunning view of the beach and distant waterfall. The midgies were practically non existent on the beach itself, but they found us as we climbed over the rocks to get a higher vantage point.

As we were leaving the beach, more and more people started to show up. The tiny parking area at Talisker had all but filled up. Our secluded paradise had been found out.

We ventured onward to the Fairy Pools, but were disheartened to find it very overcrowded. The road leading up to the pools were torn up from people illegally parking, despite signs clearly saying: NO PARKING. The path to the pools was boggy and well-trodden by hordes of tourists. We made our way to the pools, nevertheless. The water was crystal clear in the pools and the surrounding mountains made the area quite picturesque, but the sheer volume of people detracted from the magic of the place. We left as quickly as we had come.

Leaving the Fairy Pools, we headed for Portree to seek out facilities and food. Portree is a nice town with some cute shops, including all of the knitwear you could ever want. Beware of the seagulls as you devour your fish and chips, though!

We left Portree to cruise around the various roads on Skye, admiring all of the views. We eventually stopped off at Neist Point. Again, loads of people. Yet, the view was worth it. We arrived at Neist Point a couple of hours too early for sunset, but it would be the PERFECT place to watch the sunset from. If you walk down the steps toward the lighthouse and then trek up the hill on the right, you would get a stunning sunset view.

We returned to the hostel that evening to enjoy an evening of playing exploding kittens and reading books.

Hiking Storr

The following morning we awoke early with the hopes of beating the crowds of tourists that would undoubtedly be flocking towards Storr. By the time we arrived at about 8:45am, we grabbed the last parking spot in the lot (there was still the whole road of overflow open). We met several people coming down from the mountain (presumably they awoke even earlier to watch the sunrise)

There are several walks and paths you can take around Storr. We opted for longest and more challenging one (of course). By far, Storr was my favorite hike—beating out Suilven from a few days prior. Though not a Munro (a peak above 3,000 feet), Storr had some of the most incredible views of Skye. It also helped that we were really lucky with sunny skies.

This would NOT be a hike to do if it were rainy or otherwise terrible weather conditions. You could get away with doing the shorter hikes in bad weather, but not the longer one where you climb up and along the ridges. Even with the good conditions we had, we were struggling to find the path in certain sections as mudslides had taken out portions of it. There was one section that was particularly bad (for me, anyway—the guys seemed fine). It was a section of slippery gravel where a misstep would plunge you down off the sides of the cliff to the depths below. NOT COOL. We made it safely, though.

The best part about this longer trail up Storr was the fact we were ALONE. There were plenty of people stopping off at the Old Man of Storr and the hilltop overlooking the Old Man, but we were the only ones on the trail for quite a while. We even had the whole ridge top to ourselves. After being on Skye for a couple days, having anything to yourself seemed like a rare commodity.

Once back at the car (after a very boggy descent through fields) we cruised around the north of the island. We stopped in Uig for a late lunch and continued on back to Talisker. We tried to get into Talisker Distillery, but unfortunately missed the last tour by about one minute. So, back to the hostel we went to cook up a delicious curry and sit curled up on the sofas reading our books.

We left Skye the next day and on the drive back home made a short detour to the Glenfinnan Viaduct. The Harry Potter nerd in me had to go and see it even if it was just for one quick photo.

We had such an amazing time on Skye and can’t wait to go back and explore more of what the beautiful island has to offer.