Here's the email I sent my Dad on our transport concerns between Inverness-Isle of Skye-Raasay. Our itinerary on Skye is simply to see Dunvegan castle and somehow make it back to Inverness in time for the sleeper to London (after spending one night on Raasay).

Does anyone have information on how the buses run on Skye? And have I missed anything important in the analysis below?

Thanks

Michelle

Dad:

It looks like the best way to get to Skye/Raasay will be the bus- however this makes it hard to do Culloden.

It may be wise, if you really want to see Culloden, to skip the cruise. I still plan to do the cruise though.

Culloden is open daily from 10-6. Cruise is at 10:30, so I don't see how you would go in the am and still make the cruise. The cruise ends at 1:30 and the bus leaves Inverness at 2 or 3- you might have time for a quick peek at Culloden-but it would be very,very tight.

There are buses that run on Skye every 15-30 min, the problem is our origin point in Inverness.

Example,trains from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh run at noon or 6pm with a 2+ hour transit. Because we need to end up in Sconser to catch the ferry to Raasay before 9-this would not work.

The problem with the train here, is we either leave too early from Inverness or get too late to Kyle of Lochalsh.

Coming back we have more flexibility as the trains run in our favor. We need to take a bus to Kyle of Lochalsh-(question when do those run?)and catch the train from there.

Besides the bus each way is going to cost about $25 per person, we should use our passes whenever we get the chance.

The trains go from the Kyle to Inverness at 3:04-5:33 and 5:18-7:50

Sleepers are running from Inverness to London at 8:40-8:07 am next day. This is an 11h 27m transit.

There is one other train at 9:22 that arrives at 2:10pm in London -but it has multiple connections and takes 16h 48m- we don't want this train!

Just as an FYI, to leave for London through Armdale (onSkye) to Mallaig, to Fort William to London would look like this:

Catch 2:05 ferry from Armdale to Mallaig
Arrive Mallaig 2:25 (next ferry is not until 3 pm, so we can't leave later or we could miss our train.)
Get to train station for 4:08 pm train
Arrive Fort William at 5:36
Depart for London at 7:50

The Highlands are very sparsely populated, so bus services are very infrequent. The buses from Kyle of Lochalsh to Kyleakin (the nearest point on Skye) run every half hour, effectively replacing the ferry service that used to link them before the Skye Bridge was built, but other routes often run once or twice a day. There are through buses from Inverness to Skye run by Scottish Citylink (www.citylink.co.uk). These leave Inverness at 0945 and 1715, and take about three hours to get to Sconser; in the other direction, they leave Sconser at 0937 and 1540 (2 hours later on Sundays).

GeoffHamer has given you good transport info - but I will repeat what I posted on another of your threads. Your trip up to Invernness is probabaly adding too much since you are traveing with seven people and trying to do it by public transport.

Inverness and Loch Ness are not the be all and end all some people assume they are. Loch ness is one of the least scenic lochs in the entire country. Urquhart castle is the best thing about Loch Ness. But you will be seeing a lot of other castles so you could skip this one. To skimp you time on Skye and Raasay to see Loch Ness might not be tghe best use of your very limited time.

(If I were going to Inverness, the trip over to Culloden would be more of a "Must" than Loch Ness)

Geoff Hammer:

Thanks for your input, I have the citylink info for buses from Inverness to Sconser and the times they list are 12:45 and 2005 (8pm) which is different from what you have.

I like your information better-it fits my itinerary, but can you advise how you obtained it or did citylink change their website between the time I looked this morning and your post?

It is so frustrating as there seems to be a plethora of timetable information and none of it jives. The people at Raaasay Island (we called) say the afternoon bus for Sconser leaves around 2 or 3, you have 5, and citylink has 8. How do I know what is accurate? Please help.

Thanks

Michelle

For all local transport connections, there are individual printed Travel Guides available for the Highland region, Orkney and Western Isles. Contact Sheila Fletcher at the Highland Council in Inverness (E-mail: [email protected] or Tel: 00 44 1463 702695).

I did contact Sheila and she sent me a response confirming my research. Not the answer I wanted to hear but at least I know I have the facts.

We're going to look at hiring a taxi service or to see if there is a minivan car rental available for that leg of our trip.

We're not going to let bus/train schedules prevent us from seeing what we came to see.

Thanks

MIchelle