Having spent three fantastic nights in Fort William, we moved on to the Isle of Skye for another three nights.
Due to how (relatively) late we arrived and how early we had to leave on our final day, we only had two full days to explore the island. On the one hand that wasn’t enough; I think we’d all have happily spent an entire week there. On the other hand, we managed to fit in a lot of stuff during those two days, while also having a little bit of down time to relax and enjoy the views in our vacation rental.
Here’s what we got up to during those couple of days.
The Two Byres
We stayed in Upper Halistra on the western side of the island in a three bedroom property booked through the vacation rental company Cottages.com using Wyndham Rewards points.
It was an amazing stay. The house is beautiful, clean and well-equipped, plus it has incredible views of the neighboring sheep field and the sea beyond.
It was one of our favorite places we’ve stayed in the last 10 years, so I ended up writing a full review to rave about how much we loved it – you can find that here.
Talisker Distillery
Talisker is a well-regarded distillery that’s based on the Isle of Skye. They have a gift shop and bar where you can grab a drink, plus they offer all kinds of tours and experiences.
To celebrate my birthday, Mark and I did a Cask Draw and Tasting Experience. That meant we got to try five different Talisker whiskies drawn straight from the cask which was a really fun – and tasty – experience. If you truly enjoy whisky and don’t care about going on a lengthy tour, I’d recommend this experience – read more about it here.
Dunvegan Castle & Gardens
On our way to Talisker, we stopped off at Dunvegan Castle & Gardens. We didn’t have time to explore the castle itself, so we just viewed it from the outside and had a quick wander in the gardens.
The visitor pricing was a little disappointing. It’s £17 (~$23.25) for entry to the castle and gardens which is fair enough, but they charge a surprisingly high £15 (~$20.50) for entry to the gardens only. Due to all the trees, you don’t even get many great views of the castle from the outside either.
The Three Chimneys
On my birthday evening, our friends took us out to dinner at The Three Chimneys, a multi award-winning restaurant in Colbost. We had their seven course dinner with wine pairings and had a great evening. Check out my review here.
The Fairy Bridge
We’d gotten a taxi to and from dinner at The Three Chimneys so that we could all drink. We had the same driver in both directions who was a lot of fun. On the journey back, he stopped off quickly at The Fairy Bridge and told us a little story about it. That was late at night, so it was too dark to see the bridge.
The following day we went off on a road trip around the island, with our first stop being The Fairy Bridge.
Knowing that we’d be going to a few fairy-related places that day, Shae and Megan brought along fairy crowns in order to be fairy queens for the day.
Uig Tower
Next up was a quick stop at Uig Tower, a folly thought to have been constructed in 1860 by Major William Fraser.
The Fairy Glen
Our second fairy location that day was the Fairy Glen. Found to the east of Uig, you have to park at the Fairy Glen parking area, then walk along a well-defined trail to the Fairy Glen.
It’s easy to see why it’s known as the Fairy Glen as it’s a magical place that’s somewhat reminiscent of Hobbiton from The Lord of the Rings. The photos you see online can be a little misleading though as they often seem to be photoshopped to greatly enhance the appearance and coloring. It’s a cool place, but in person it’s a little different to what you’ll tend to see on Instagram.
As you can see in the photo below, there’s a rock outcropping that you can climb up to which is known as Castle Ewen.
The opening to get up there is a little narrow, but if you can make it the views are worth it.
Isle of Skye Brewing
The next place we wanted to stop at on our route was Isle of Skye Brewing in Uig so that we could do some kind of tasting. Unfortunately it’s only a store rather than a bar, so we weren’t able to have a drink there. I did grab a four pack of beers though which contained two bottles of black ale and two bottles of Tarasgeir.
I was particularly intrigued by Tarasgeir as it’s described as:
A superbly smoky, dry and refreshing ale brewed using peat smoked malt from our friends at Ardmore Distillery
I’m not the biggest fan of peaty whisky, but figured that this beer would be worth a try. It ended up being much better than I anticipated and the black ale was great too.
Bakur Bar
Although we weren’t able to grab a beer at the Isle of Skye Brewery store, we crossed the road over to Bakur Bar. There’s both a bar and restaurant; we went to the bar side as we weren’t ready for a big meal. We were able to get a pint of Isle of Skye red ale which was also good.
Our friends also got a snack of a black pudding Scotch egg; I tried a little and it was surprisingly good.
Duntulm Castle
Our stop at Uig Tower earlier in the day was only a distant view. We did get to view some castle ruins up close later on when we stopped by Duntulm Castle. Found atop a cliff on the northern coast of Skye, it was ridiculously windy as we walked out to it.
It’s free to visit the castle which was first built in the 1300s-1400s. It’s now in ruins, but it’s a fun place to walk around nonetheless.
The Quiraing
We’d originally planned for our next destination to be the Quiraing, a scenic area formed by a landslide which left behind cliffs and other rock formations. There’s a 4.25 mile trail you can hike, but with all our other stops already that day and more to come, we quickly realized that we wouldn’t have time to hike it and so continued past its turnoff.
MacKenzie Stores
We were starting to get a little peckish by this point, so we took a look on Google Maps to see where we could grab a snack along our route. I saw that there was a convenience store just outside of Staffin called MacKenzie Stores and one of the reviews online said that they had incredible samosas.
You can’t go wrong with a good samosa, so that’s where we stopped next. We had to wait a few minutes for the samosas; that’s no bad thing though because it was due to them being cooked fresh rather than them sitting around under a heater all day.
The online reviewer hadn’t guided us wrong – the samosas were indeed very good. Having also purchased a few other snacks to go, we hopped back in the car to drive just a few minutes down the road.
Staffin Community Hall
I debated whether to include this in the post, but I figured it might be handy to know on your own drive around Skye. Other than Bakur Bar earlier in the day, we hadn’t stopped anywhere with restrooms. We’d asked at MacKenzie Stores if there was a restroom nearby and they confirmed that Staffin Community Hall had public restrooms available.
Kilt Rock Waterfall
Our next two stops were at a couple of waterfalls. The first was Kilt Rock Waterfall, an almost 300 foot tall waterfall on the northeast side of the island.
We’d hoped that we’d get to see puffins there, especially when spotting signs stating that birds nest along the cliffs from February to June or July. There sadly weren’t any to be seen the day we visited, even though we were there at the end of April.
Lealt Falls
After that we checked out Lealt Falls from a distance.
Old Man Of Storr
One of the iconic images of Skye is the Old Man of Storr, a basalt rock feature which was once part of a volcanic plug. There’s a 2.25 mile hiking trail to and from the formations which seemed very popular the day we were driving round the island based on how many cars were in the trailhead parking lot.
Once again though, unfortunately we hadn’t built in enough time to do the hike, so we stopped for a couple of photos and have the intention to return in the future to see it at closer range.
Bride’s Veil Falls
Kilt Rock Waterfall and Lealt Falls weren’t the only waterfalls we saw that day. We also visited Bride’s Veil Falls which lead in to the nearby Loch Leathan.
Sligachan Old Bridge
When arriving on Skye a couple of days before, we’d driven past a cute-looking old stone bridge. We made a note of its location to stop at on our way back out, but it actually ended up being along our route this day.
Heroes Of The Hills / Collie & MacKenzie Statue
Next to that bridge is an area known as Heroes of the Hills which features a Collie & MacKenzie statue. The statue features – and is named after – Norman Collie and John MacKenzie. Collie and MacKenzie were mountaineers in the Cuillin Hills – a mountain range on Skye.
The way the statue was installed was lovely. In addition to the statue being set on top of rocks like they’re atop a mountain, they’re looking out at the Cuillin.
Fairy Pools
Our last stop that evening was our third fairy-related activity of the day – the Fairy Pools. After leaving our car in the site’s parking lot at the top of the hill, we started walking down towards the pools.
The round trip journey is only 1.5 miles or so, but it can take longer than you might expect due to all the downhill and uphill.
There are pools all along the route, as well as waterfalls, making it a lovely scenic walk.
We’d stopped at Sligachan Old Bridge earlier that day and apparently if you dip your face in the water there, you’ll be granted eternal beauty. We hadn’t realized that was the case there, but we had heard the same thing about the Fairy Pools.
Shae and Megan therefore popped on their fairy crowns again and dipped their faces in the water.
We’d planned to walk all the way to the end of the trail for the pools there. It was getting late though (it was 7:30pm), with the sun going down and an hour’s drive back to our vacation rental ahead of us. The four of us were about halfway down the trail by that point, but decided to make our way back rather than adding another ~45 minutes to the day.
We also made that decision because we had another adventure we needed to fit in at the Fairy Pools. My niece had done the Ice Bucket Challenge a few days before and nominated Shae to do it next. We didn’t have any ice at the house, so it wasn’t a viable option unless we bought some bags of ice at the store.
Instead, we decided to go one better. Shae recruited me, Mark and Megan to do the challenge with her; not by pouring a bucket of ice over our heads, but by plunging into one of the Fairy Pools!
Shae had come prepared by bringing a tripod, so we set that up in the water to record the video – here it is.
View this post on Instagram
Dunvegan Bakery & Coffee Shop
After checking out of The Two Byres on our final morning on Skye, we stopped by Dunvegan Bakery & Coffee Shop on our way off the island.
Dunvegan Bakery has all kinds of sweet and savory baked goods – bread loaves, pies, pasties, cakes, pastries and more.
We got a collection of various items to kick our day off well. While they might not look as fancy as items you might get from a boutique bakery in Manhattan, they were absolutely delicious and so we’d recommend getting something to eat there on a trip to Skye.
Saga 2025 Trip To London, Liverpool & Scotland – All The Posts
Here are links to all of the posts in this series:
- Saga 2025: Trip With Friends To London, Liverpool & Scotland – An Intro
- Saga 2025 Day 1: London – Police Station Hotel, British Museum, Dinner In Darkness & Abbey Road
- Saga 2025 Day 2: Liverpool – Cavern Club, Hard Day’s Night Hotel, Cocktails & More
- Visiting The Kelpies In Falkirk, Scotland By Day & By Night
- Saga 2025 Day 3: Falkirk – Kelpies, World’s Only Rotating Boat Lift & More
- Saga 2025 Day 4: Drive From Falkirk To Fort William – Castles, Distillery, Monument & More
- Hotel Review: Inverlochy Castle Hotel In Fort William, Scotland
- How To Watch The Jacobite Steam Train On Glenfinnan Viaduct (Harry Potter Hogwarts Express Train)
- How To Find 6 Harry Potter Filming Locations Near Fort William, Scotland
- Jacobite Steam Train Review: What It’s Like Riding The Hogwarts Express
- Saga 2025 Days 5-7: Fort William – Harry Potter, Castles, Waterfalls, Mountains, Distillery & More
- Review of The Two Byres – Vacation Home On The Isle Of Skye, Scotland (Booked Via Cottages.com With Wyndham Points)
- Talisker Cask Draw & Tasting Experience – Fun, Tasty & Strong!
- The Three Chimneys Restaurant Review
- Saga 2025 Days 8-9: Isle Of Skye – Whisky, Fairies, Castles, Waterfalls, Views & More
- A Tearoom Where You Can Feed Highland Cows? Yes Please!
- Saga 2025 Day 10: Skye To Inverness – Coos, Castles, Nessie, Another Whisky Experience & More
- Saga 2025 Day 11: Inverness To Aberdeen – Standing Stones, Pyramid, Castle & More
- Saga 2025 Day 12: Aberdeen – Time Travel, Castles, Coos & More
[…] Saga 2025 Days 8-9: Isle Of Skye – Whisky, Fairies, Castles, Waterfalls, Views & More […]