We've planned to spend the night in Glencoe (at the Clachaig Inn - thank you @Janisj for the rec!) on our way from Tobermory to Portree, arriving in Glencoe around mid-morning and spending a day at leisure enjoying the scenery. The next morning, on our way to Skye, we'll stop by Glenfinnan to watch the Jacobite cross the viaduct (a non-negotiable for my sister).

The train will cross the viaduct around 10:50-11am. The ferry crossings we'd be looking at for Mallaig - Armadale are either 12:15pm or 2:30pm but we'd be cutting it too fine with the earlier departure and getting there before check-in closes so the 2:30pm crossing is what we'd be looking at.

With that in mind, we wouldn't mind getting to Skye a bit earlier to have the advantage of an extra afternoon there, whether it be to spend that time doing a boat trip from Elgol or perhaps in Talisker Bay - the things that we won't have time to see unless we are able to carve out the time to fit in an extra half day on Skye (NB: if we took the 2:30pm ferry, we'd miss the last boat ride or distillery tour, whichever option we selected from Elgol or Talisker).

The only way we'd manage this is by driving the longer route to Skye over the bridge as opposed to waiting for the 2:30pm ferry. Note: I know we'd pass sights like Eilean Donan if driving over the bridge but we'll visit on our departure from Skye.

For my Scotland savvy Fodorites, what do you say? Should we take the longer route to get to Skye earlier to be able to fit in Elgol orTalisker Bay, or instead bide our time in Glenfinnan and take the later ferry?

Driving from Glnfinnan to Kyle of Lochalsh and over the bridge will save you very little time really. The drive would take about 2.5 hours. Sure you'd save a bit but that is a LOT of extra time in the car.

I personally think you could easily catch the 12:15 Ferry -- and it gives you the chance to see the train twice -- once on the viaduct and again in Mallaig. Get to Glenfinnan early enough to explore and wait for the train, then hop in the car and drive on to Mallaig. Sure, you wouldn't be able to longer long at Morar etc but you'd get to Skye sooner and a lot less stress on the driver.

I would much prefer to take the 12:15pm ferry (we'd have even more time up our sleeves and as you correctly say, far less time on the road) but I'm worried we'd be cutting it way too close with timing. I understand check-in closes at 11:55am and that we're looking at a 40 minute drive minimum to get to the ferry terminal, so my fear is that even if the train crossed by 11am at the latest (West Coast Railways currently note the estimated crossing time over the viaduct at 10:58am), we'd have a very tight buffer time to get to the car from the recommended viewpoints near the visitor centre and account for any possible delays on the road such as slow moving vehicles.

If it was me I'd do the distillery tour in Tobermory, take the later ferry, and spend more time in Glenfinnan (e.g. visit the Jacobite monument.)

We don't have time for the tour in Tobermory as we leave for Glencoe in the morning to spend the day in the area.

We initially intended to spend the time at leisure in Glenfinnan but we would prefer to allocate the extra time we have on our hands towards Skye instead. Just need to figure out what.

I'm also now thinking, we could possibly take the 2:30pm ferry (to have some more time around Glenfinnan or elsewhere en route to Mallaig) and maybe plan to just do the Fairy Pools that afternoon to fit in Talisker on another day (and on said other day, do a distillery tour and stay in Carbost for lunch, the head to Dunvegan Castle and Neist Point) - what do you think?

That would be if we favour the Talisker Distillery tour over other options on Skye such as the Elgol boat tour or the Sleat Peninsula.

That should read 'linger long' . . .

janisj To take some pressure off and not add on more to our plates we will just take the 2:30pm ferry so we aren't needing to rush. We'll get to Armadale by 3:15pm so perhaps will just have an afternoon at leisure, maybe stopping in at Torabhaig Distillery on our way towards Portree.

With what you said earlier, would you suggest we stop in Morar en route to Mallaig?

Oh with the later ferry you can stop all sorts of places between Glenfinnan and Mallaig. The whole drive is glorious scenery

A few -- not my own photos just shots along your drive:

Arisaig





Lochailort





Silver sands of Morar

I answered your query on the tripadvisor forum but now see you are probably choosing the ferry option.Keep an eye on the forecast because if any route is going to go off, it’s the Mallaig crossing.That said, it’s a beautiful driving route and the Camusdarach beaches/Silver Sands of Morar are well worth a stroll.Also beautiful is Loch nam Uamh, gorgeous.

It’s a shame to miss Elgol (fab drive though 14 miles of twisting single track each way from Broadford). - doing the Coruisk trip would be my preferred add on to that journey.

Armadale is actually very attractive IMO though theres not a huge amount there - a wee cafe, a couple of shops and a gallery selling some rather nice things.The Clan Donald Centre , cafe and adjacent castle and excellent if expensive small museum and grounds.That area of Skye offers glorious views to the mainland mountains across the sea.
The newish cafe An Crubh is also very good and gives fab views from its panoramic windows.

https://ancrubh.com

Isle Ornsay is very pretty too and has a quality small art gallery beside the hotel and bar. Lovely spot all in.

Scotlandmac Fair to say I'm scouring far and wide on any input as I'm actually finding this one of the trickier decisions. It's only a few hours of time but it offers a number of possibilities. In an ideal world we'd make the 12:15pm crossing to have the glorious views of the Sleat Peninsula as we enter Skye and have time to see some more of it, such as Elgol, but I'm fearful it'll be much too tight - and the earlier ferry would mean missing out on any stops en route to Mallaig. I might actually post about the Jacobite specifically to see if I can pinpoint with any more accuracy what the usual latest crossing time is to see if we can make it work in any way.

We'd have to be back in our car and leaving Glenfinnan at 11:10am at the absolute latest to get to the Mallaig ferry terminal in time assuming we encountered no slow moving traffic