hey all

My girlfriend and I arrive in Inverness next Tuesday and plan to tour Skye. We are looking to enjoy the outdoors and see some of the iconic scenery. I am looking for suggestions for stops on the below.

tuesday 8am pick up car in Inverness and drive to portree. Any land marks worth while to stop at? Was thinking to hit pig and see the fairy glen before dark.

wednesday-touring during the day. Staying in Dunvegan that night. Any suggestions for stops?

thursday-staying in Sleat. We would like to do a longer hike this day...any suggestions?

friday- drive to edinburgh. We are planning to stop in Glencoe on the way.

thanks!

>>Was thinking to hit pig <<. Would the be Uig?

Will you have foul weather gear? Next week is only supposed to be around 50% chance of rain each day. Are you staying in Portree Tuesday night? With an 8AM start from Inverness I'd plan on hitting the entire Trotternish Peninsula (up the east side hitting the Old Man, Lealt Falls, Mealt Falls, the Quiraing, Duntulm Castle), tyen all the way around to Uig/Fairy Glen ending up in Portree. (or in reverse -- Uig > Duntulm > the east side of the Trorretnish > Portree)

Out of Dunvegan -- for sure Neist Point, then maybe out to the end of Glen Brittle.

Out of Sleat there are lots of walks on the Peninsula or you can go around through Broadford and out to Elgol, which is fabulous, but I sure wouldn't want to be out there if the weather is awful.

www.walkhighlands.co.uk/skye/ has lots of useful ideas. We spent 3 nights in Skye (based out of Portree) in early October last year, and were very lucky with the weather. Even with an early start, I suspect your Tuesday will be long and tiring, and if you do plan to (i) stop en route (e.g Eilean Donan) and/or (ii) walk/hike some of these as opposed to just stopping by for photos/cursory look (e.g. Old Man of Storr, Brothers Point, Quiraing ... we spent a few hours each of these places) you will need to rationalize the choices or spillover a few activities for the next day. We also enjoyed the Coral Beach (not far from Dunvegan). Enjoy Skye!

Yes UIG! Sorry auto-correct...

We will be prepared for weather. We are coming from Boston, so i assume we will be dealing with the same...cold and damp.

Is the drive from Inverness through Torridon worth the extra time? We will be dealing with limited daylight, so any minutes we could save would help us accomplish more on Skye.

>>Is the drive from Inverness through Torridon worth the extra time?<<

Sure it is 'worth' it -- but you don't have the time. If this was June with the sun setting around 11PM I'd do it. But NOT in Nov. It would add more than and hour just behind-the-wheel time plus stops so IRL it would take at least 2 hours longer.

Janis’ recommendation to miss out Torridon is sound given the shorter days in November; however, Glen Torridon is such a fantastic Glen and quite different from the scenery on Skye that you might want to give it a go, perhaps having a stop in Plockton on the way to Skye. Probably best to make a decision once you have a weather forecast for the day of travel?

I was on Skye at the end of Sep and find the Fairy Pools obsession of tourists quite baffling; the area around the parking is mad! I was staying at the head of Glen Brittle and there were few tourists in what is an equally fabulous situation.

PS I should admit to being biased towards Glen Torridon as I am spending New Year’s Eve there this year,

We went to Torridon on our trip to Scotland last year but we had 14 days on the ground. With your limited time and with the shorter days I would focus on Skye. I tend to agree about the Fairy Pools being overrated. But I loved the Fairy Glen (which is up north on the Trotternish Peninusula). There is very limited parking there so try to go either early or later in the day but it is fabulous. As Janis said you could probably do that loop on the first day. I would skip the tip, which is where Duntulm Castle is. It is beautiful but there is really not that much to see. You can see Old Man of Storr, Kilt Rock then cut across the Quirang to do some hiking (weather permitting, be sure you bring rain pants). That road brings you out to the other side where you could go to Fairy Glenn. We loved Skye!

While in Skye had a super lunch at the Flodiigarry Hotel in the bar. HIghly recommend it if you are looking to sit down for lunch. It is on the east side of the Trotternish Peninsula not too far from where you enter the Quirang. We had dinner at the Skeabost Hotel (not far from Portree) and the food was excellent. We had planned to go back and change our clothes before we went to dinner as we had been hiking most of the day but...we ran out of time. We cleaned up the best we could with what we had in the car and it didn't seem to bother anyone that we were not dressed up.

Glencoe is definitely worth a stop on your way back. It is beautiful!!!

>>You can see Old Man of Storr, Kilt Rock then cut across the Quirang to do some hiking . . . <<

I love that road -- be prepared for narrow and very single track.