After three fantastic nights at the Inverlochy Castle Hotel in Fort William, we moved on to the Isle of Skye on the western side of Scotland. The Isle of Skye is a popular place for people in the UK (and from elsewhere) to go on vacation, but there aren’t many – if any – chain hotels.
We were trying to book our stays with hotel points and free night certificates during our trip to Scotland with our friends, so the lack of chain hotels on Skye made that a little more tricky. Thankfully we were able to find a workaround by booking a property through Cottages.com using Wyndham Rewards points.
The property that we booked was called The Two Byres; a three bedroom, two bathroom house in Upper Halistra. I’d thought ahead of time that the Inverlochy Castle Hotel would be my favorite stay during this trip, but The Two Byres might’ve matched – or even exceeded – it.
I’ll share more about how we booked it with points at the end of this post, but for now here’s a review of our stay where I’ll share why we loved it so much.
As you can see in the photo above, it’s an attractive-looking property. It looks like it might be two modular homes linked together, but I’m not certain if that’s the case. Even if it is, it doesn’t feel like a modular home inside whatsoever.
I recorded this walkthrough video when we arrived to give you a sense of its layout. Note that at the beginning I said that it’s a two bedroom cottage; I corrected it at the end of the video as it’s a three bedroom cottage.
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When walking in the front door, there was a laundry room off to the left. This had both a washing machine and tumble dryer, as well as a drying rack. We’d brought along our own laundry detergent, but I think there was some available there already.
Back in the initial entranceway, there was a door through to the rest of the house. Off to the left were the living room, dining room, kitchen, one of the bedrooms and one of the bathrooms, while off to the right there were two bedrooms and the second bathroom.
The dining room had a long dining table that seated six people, along with glass doors looking out over a sheep field. The lights hang down low, so watch your head if you lean over the table.
The kitchen was extremely well equipped with a large fridge-freezer, a built-in oven and microwave, dishwasher, stove top, toaster and more. The cupboards were stocked with all the plates, dishes, silverware, cooking equipment, etc. that you could need.
There were some odds and ends like spices, oil, etc. along with some packets of instant porridge (oatmeal) and items like that. I imagine what’s there will partly depend on what previous guests have left behind, so it’s worth stocking up at a grocery store before your arrival. We’d stopped at the Co-op Food on Main Street in Broadford on our way in. Here’s its location on Google Maps; it’s about an hour’s drive from The Two Byres, so it’s better to stop on the way in than arrive and have to head back there afterwards. There are some smaller general stores that are a little closer by though.
One thing I was confused about was that there wasn’t an electric kettle. Having lived in the US for 15 years before moving back to the UK just before this trip, I never expected an electric kettle in Airbnbs we stayed in there, but in the UK having one is a given. After heating up some water in a pot on the stove to make a cup of tea the night we arrived, thankfully Shae and Megan worked it out the next morning. Rather than having an electric kettle, at the kitchen sink there’s a tap that dispenses boiling hot water almost instantly; it just takes a couple of seconds to get up to temperature.
At the far end of the kitchen there are double doors. Those lead out to a deck with a picnic table on it. There’s a wall behind it which helps block the wind if it’s coming from the south, while allowing you to look out towards the water.
Back inside, the living room was beautiful. There are two three-seater sofas, along with a couple of armchairs looking out towards the water. A wood-burning stove is in the middle of the far wall, with lots of wood provided for maximum coziness.
There was a TV, but we didn’t have time to watch that as we were so busy during our time there. There are also lots of books and magazines provided if you want to snuggle up on a rainy day, as well as a few board games.
The living room, kitchen and dining room didn’t have floor-to-ceiling windows due to the height of the roof, but the windows and doors still let in a ton of daylight, even on a somewhat overcast day.
Over by the two armchairs was a table with a telescope on top and binoculars beneath. The Isle of Skye seems to have low levels of light pollution, so it’s a great place to look at the night sky.
We took this photo with the astrophotography setting on our phone one night outside:
The binoculars came in handy too, especially for watching the sheep in the neighboring field. One morning we even got to watch a ewe giving birth to a lamp. Speaking of which – late April/early May is a wonderful time to visit Skye as it’s lambing season. We saw more lambs during those three days (across the whole island, not just right outside the property) than I’ve probably seen in my entire life.
Through the double doors behind the wood-burning stove was another picnic table. This time the wall was north-facing in case the wind comes in from over the water, although one side of the table still gets to enjoy water views through the paneless window.
Back inside once again, just off the living room was a work area with a computer for guests to use, as well as a printer.
Through the doors beyond that was one of the bedrooms featuring a king-size bed and curtains that worked pretty well to keep out the light in the morning.
This bedroom had a good-sized closet with plenty of hangers and a hairdryer on top.
This bedroom has its own private bathroom with a walk-in shower. There was both a rainfall showerhead and a handheld wand, while the towel racks were heated.
Back out off the main hallway there were two other bedrooms. One had a king bed, while the other had two twin beds. I don’t think these bedrooms had closets, but they did each have a dresser.
Those two bedrooms shared a bathroom that had a bath tub with a shower.
Unlike some vacation rental properties that only provide one or two toilet rolls, both bathrooms in The Two Byres came well stocked.
The owners also provided shampoo and body wash in both bathrooms. We’d brought our own, but it was good to see that that’s there.
I also appreciated that they provided washcloths, as sadly many hotels in the UK don’t offer those.
Another nice touch was that there was a welcome gift of some local Scottish tablet fudge. This is an acquired taste though as it’s quite smoky/peaty.
We had a truly wonderful three nights at The Two Byres. The worst part about it is that it wasn’t long enough – we’d have happily spent more time there. Seeing as we only had a couple of full days to explore the island, we spent most of our time outside of the house, so it would’ve been nice to have had a do-nothing day where we just stayed inside, enjoying the property and gazing out on the views – and ewes.
Overall, it’s a fantastic place to stay on Skye, especially if there are 4-6 people in your group. We’re already trying to find excuses to go back there sometime.
How We Booked The Two Byres With Wyndham Rewards Points
The Wyndham Rewards loyalty program has a partnership with Cottages.com in the UK. You can read about it more in depth over on Frequent Miler, but the gist of it is that you can redeem 15,000 Wyndham Rewards points per bedroom per night, with an equivalent cash price of up to $300 per bedroom per night. With The Two Byres being a three bedroom property, that meant it cost 45,000 Wyndham points per night. For reference, the nightly cost for our dates at the end of April/beginning of May was $540 per night. I imagine it’s much more expensive in the summer.
We managed to get it a little cheaper than 45,000 points per night though. If you have a Wyndham credit card issued by Barclays in the US, you get a 10% discount when redeeming points towards stays. That dropped the cost to 40,500 points per night, or 121,500 total for our three nights.
Even if you don’t have a stash of Wyndham points, you can often buy their points on sale for less than 1 cent per point. Depending on the cash price of a stay at The Two Byres, buying Wyndham points and then booking via Cottages.com might be a cheaper way to go. Just be aware that you have to call to book a Cottages.com stay using Wyndham points and then it takes a day or two to be processed, so it’s not as straightforward as booking it online and getting an immediate reservation confirmation.
Other Ways You Can Book The Two Byres
It looks like The Two Byres is bookable across many different platforms including Vrbo, Airbnb, Booking.com (our affiliate link) and more.
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 (Isle Of Skye, Scotland)
- 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
Was there air conditioning in the bedrooms? One issue that my wife and I have run across in GB is the very warm bedrooms where the only remedy is to open the window which makes for a very bright sleeping area at 5:30 in the morning while on vacation.
I don’t think it did have a/c. That’s definitely an issue in much of the UK during the summer, but is less of an issue on Skye. The average high in the height of summer on Skye is 61°F, so there’s little need for a/c. We were actually really fortunate with the weather during our stay as it was 62°-66°F; despite that, we were perfectly comfortable. I like it cool in the bedroom at night, as well as dark, and we didn’t have any issues.