The Isle of Skye was one of the places that I was the most excited to visit on our Scottish roadtrip. In my mind it is such a magical place (helped of course by its name). I did so little research on the actual driving part of our trip that I had no idea how long the bridge from the mainland to the Isle of Skye would take. We also had a brief panic that it would be a toll bridge as we had no change on us. (Spoiler: it’s not a toll bridge – how lucky is that!)
We spent most of our time on Skye in the largest town: Portree. Portree was quite a sweet little town. It had all the main high-street shops that you might need if you run out of things on your travels, but it also seemed to have a thriving group of independent stores and local artists. It’s the kind of place where you can easily hole up in a cute little airbnb and use it as a base to explore the gorgeous island. For a scenery junkie like me, it’s really my bread and butter when it comes to traveling.
We then drove about an hour north of Portree to see the famous Kilt Rock (so named because the sea cliff is composed of vertical basalt columns resembling a kilt). At Kilt Rock we got to cross another item off my UK bucket list: seeing all the most famous waterfalls in the UK. At Kilt Rock we saw Mealt Waterfall, which comes out of the cliff and freefalls 60 metres into the Sound of Ramsay below. It was absolutely beautiful, but since we were there during a rare Scottish heatwave, the waterfall wasn’t its usually roaring self so I would love to see it again one day.
From the Kilt Rock view point on the Isle of Skye you can also view other islands in the Outer Hebrides on a clear day. On the way to Kilt Rock from Portree you can also stop by and see the Old Man of Storr (a famous basalt pinnacle). There are lots of legends revolving around giants in this part of the world, but one tells us that the Old Man of Storr is actually the thumb of a buried giant.
If you are driving from the mainland to the Isle of Skye, make a quick stop before crossing the bridge to Skye to see the stunning Castle Eilean Donan. It’s a 13th century castle on the Kyle of Lochalsh with an incredibly rich history, compounded by its unique geography of being a tidal castle surrounded by three lochs. Which I pretty much completely ignored and focused on fangirling over all the times that I’ve seen it in films. (It’s in “Highlander”, the original “Wicker Man” and most importantly, “Made of Honor”)
Side note: doing the North Coast 500 made me realise that George R R Martin stole pretty much all of his names from Northern Scotland.
I don’t say this lightly: the Isle of Skye was one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever visited in my whole life. It looked surreal. It was basically plucked out of a fairytale or legend of old. And I’m so glad that I got to see it.
I’ll definitely be returning to the Isle of Skye one day. Hopefully sooner rather than later! Have you been before? What do you recommend doing next time?
Various Outfits details:
Purple Leggings
Black Leggings
Sandals
Sweatshirt *my Choose Love sweatshirt is from the Help Refugees project and 100% of the profits help to raise funds and awareness for people caught up in the refugee crisis.
Dungarees
Grey T-shirt
Raincoat
Sunglasses
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