heading up near Inverness in September for a wedding and thought we'd take a few days extra. Our first thought was to find a B&B or self-catered cottage on Skye, but I thought i might ask on here if anyone's got any tips on places to stay. Is Skye just the obvious thing and we're missing some secret highlight of the highlands?
Requirements:
not too pricey
walking distance of a pub (and perhaps even a shop)
some beautiful rugged, barren scenery.
We're not gonna be bringing bikes, will do a spot of hiking but nothing too serious. We'll have a car.
Can't really go wrong on Skye, but see also:
Plockton's a pretty little place to stay and day trips to Skye are easily doable from there
Applecross; beautiful, great pub
Sheeldaig (sp); ditto
Drive across to Torridon - walk round back of Liathach, up Ben Damph.
Perhaps take a trip up to Gairloch & Ullapool.
plockton is a cracking wee village.
Applecross, Gairloch, Kintail are all good. Skye is great for walking - less so for biking. Shieldaig is lovely, and a bit off the beaten path. September can be awesome, with trees and heather turning and love days. It can also be wet, that's the chance you take.
You know it's a 3 and a half hour drive from Inverness to Skye, right?
It's like going to Manchester and just nipping up to Glasgow whilst you're there.
Skye will be absolutely rammed with Chinese / Japanese tourists if the report I watched on the news the other night is to be believed.
perchypanther - Member
You know it's a 3 and a half hour drive from Inverness to Skye, right?
If you're driving a horse and cart maybe! 😆
Nip up north to Tain and go to the Glenmorangie Distillery.
South is Aviemore and loads of walks. Out to Elgin (east) and there's some lovely seaside walks, loads more ditilleries (you can see a theme developing with my trips to Scotland...).
Skye is a LONG way - easily 3.5hrs.
If you're driving a horse and cart maybe!
At 40 odd miles per hour? Is it Champion the Wonder Horse?
Agree re Skye being rammed, if my instagram feed is anything to go by, everyone seems to be there or heading there!.
Err, 2.5hrs will get you easily onto Skye from Inverness
School holidays innit, will be quieter in September.
Air BnB is always a good bet. Skye is a lot bigger than people seem to think though, takes a while to get about
😆perchypanther - Member
If you're driving a horse and cart maybe!
At 40 odd miles per hour? Is it Champion the Wonder Horse?
google suggests, 1.40 to broadford, 2.30 to portree. 2.56 to uig.
so given the lack of polis up there, you could probably do broadford in an hour! 😆
Err, 2.5hrs will get you easily onto Skye from Inverness
Not in my cart. Champion gets a bit tired and has to stop for a nosebag.
Skye being rammed - this is what I was worried about; researching a bit last night and there was all this talk of high-end tweed boutiques and posh hotels. Then I get caught in the classic doublethink that I want to be a tourist in a beautiful area that isn't, er, full of tourists 😆
You know it's a 3 and a half hour drive from Inverness to Skye, right?
yeah but it's about 12 hours from Bristol 😉
Another vote for Sheildaig. Worth remembering that a lot of Highland places/roads are now getting clogged/spoiled with folk doing that silly NC500 thing. Try and avoid those bits.
Skye is beautiful, but a total tourist trap. The worst B and B I have ever stayed in was on Skye. The one opposite the Talisker distillery was ok and the food was good as was the free entertainment. Scenery is little short of staggering and every time I've crossed the bridge I've parked and walked back across it to drink in the views. However
is accurate and less touristy than Skye. The Sheildag route on to the peninsula is really nice, but the Bealach na Ba is an awesome bit of road (youtube it).Applecross; beautiful, great pub
Also, you might want to think about heading a bit further north to say Achiltibuie and the Summer Isles. We stayed at 192 which was walking distance (if you like walking) from a pub and a hotel. The hotel had a Michelin star (at least it did then), same food in the bar as the restaurant.
More central, and closer to Inverness is Aviemore - not a fan of Aviemore but there are plenty of hotels and B anBs in the surrounding area, Kingussie, Newtonmore or the Glenmore road and absolutely no shortage of things to do, high walks, low level walks, canoe hire on Loch morlich, bike hire for fun trails, etc etc.
Or there's the Far North and Orkney with a different vibe completely
EDIT bu**er forgot about the NC500, probably want to scratch Achiltibuie then
If you have a few days and want to sample a bit of variety, you could do worse than spend a day in Torridon from Inverness, stop over in Shieldaig or Plockton, spend a day on Skye then head east via Glen Shiel to A9. Gives you weather options to stay west on one of the Kintail ridges or head east to Cairngorms (Kyle to Aviemore c. 2:15 hours). You could come off Skye at the Glenelg Ferry, look at the Brochs on the way as a wee detour.
Stop worrying about Skye. It's still awesome.
At risk of sounding impractical, Tobermory on Mull is totally fantastic. Great pub (mishnish) and cool places to stay. Beautiful coast walks and mountains. Boats trips and wildlife. Remote and compact.
Took a Turkish mate a tour of the highlands last year. Tobermory, then Portree then Ullapool. Tobermory was the absolute winner. Reckon that it's still unconnected to the main land unlike Skye makes a difference.
Skye is also great but the weather always seems to be particularly fickle.
Skye is no doubt amaze-balls but it's not really 'on route'. I'd be tempted instead to stay somewhere like Dunkled, Pitlochry or Newtonmore / Aviemore areas on the way up, and then go back south via Grantown-on-Spey, Tomitoul, Ballater, Braemar and onto Perth.
I've been avoiding Mull since discovering that no locals live there any more and that the traditional island culture has gone.
Skye can be quite busy, especially if you go to the honeypots like the Fairy Pools or Quirang. However, Boreraig for poignant history and Camasunary/Coruisk for a dramatic setting further south are likely to be very quiet places to take a walk and are both stunning, in different ways..
Big recommend for Annat/Torridon/Shieldaig as a base, amazing place to be and good grub/ale nearby. Walk up Bein Damph for a sunset followed by a beer at the foot of the mountain in the Torridon Inn. Hike around the back of Bein Eighe to see the pinnacle ridge and the most amazing lochan in a dramatic coire; plus random pieces that were once a Lancaster.
My two centre on your spec would be Broadford & Annat.
Re the Mull suggestions. I wouldn't bother if you just have a few days. Not because it's rubbish, but rather the opposite. Well worth coming up for a week to do Mull alone. Beautiful island. Great walking and road biking. Not so sure about mountain biking thoughI'm sure there's bound to be some. Great for wildlife spotting too, and surrounded by some other fantastic islands like Ulva, Staffa and Iona.
I second (or about 10th) going to Applecross, i think one of the most agreeable evenings of my life was having ridden Bealach na Ba and stopping at the pub at Applecross sat outside with that view, then retiring inside for brilliant food and watch a great local girl sing in the bar, definitely ranks as one of my favourite pubs..
Applecoss - I stayed at Camusterrach a couple of miles away from Applecross. The walk to the pub and back built a decent appetite and rounded the evening off perfectly.
rugged & barren - Torridon or the like would be pretty good choice I'd have thought. Aviemore - need to head into the Cairngorms a bit to get the barren bit. Or the likes of Blair Atholl / Pitlochry or even Braemar / Ballater over the other side.
Most places still moderately busy in September TBH. Likes of the NW (but in towards Lairg / Oykell Bridge) might be better to get access to barren - but its not quite in the same rugged class as Torridon. Glen Africa / Kintail possibly - especially in some ways as you mentioned walking rather than biking.
You could go to a small island for a few days. Would be much quieter, and fell more remote. Rùm is nice, and has some proper rugged mountains and wildlife. Or Eigg is a bit flatter, but great beaches. Or maybe Raasay.
Or if you want really barren, East kilbride. Truly wild.
Spent 3 weeks in May touring around in our camper - Arran, Oban, Mull, Arisaig, Skye, Harris, Lewis - back to Skye and most of the NC500. The best bit was Lochcarron - Applecross - Lochinver, including the "wee road to Inverpolly" - simply stunning.
Applecross Inn was quite good, but breakfast at the Walled Garden was even better.
Mull is nice, and head down south to Knockvalogan and then up the west side via Ulva Ferry and Dervaig and then maybe take the ferry from Tobermory to Kilchoan and head back via Ardnamurchan.
Skye was more a disappointment - apart from the Cuillin and Quirang- and clearly maxing prices for tourists - Dunvegan in particular was expensive / verging on rip-off pricing.
I like Raasay but biased as I worked there for years! Definitely not busy!
Go to Applecross its stunning, lots to do. All the villages at the west end of the glen shiel road are stunning though they don't all have a shop or pub. Just look at Skye save going there for another trip.
😆Nobeerinthefridge - Member
Or if you want really barren, East kilbride. Truly wild.