INTRODUCTION
I remember it was during the 4 weeks Easter Vocation during my school days in the University of Glasgow when myself and a group of other 3 classmates rent a car and decided to explore the west coast of Scotland, which is popular for it’s Loch (lakes), highlands, beautiful coast and beautiful islands.
For a start, Isle of Skye was situated in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It is a very huge island, stretching as wide as 80 kilometer from end to end, even bigger than the country where I stay in, Singapore. I am not sure how wide the area are within the Inner Hebrides, but I was told it stretches many hundreds of miles, and from the west coast of Scotland to before Lewis and the outer islands which make up the Outer Hebrides, which I will be covering in the next reviews.
It was a week long vocation for us when we decided on this trip, the main aim of this trip is to explore the beautiful and well known Inner and Outer Hebrides, and of course we did not waste the trip along the way from Glasgow to Isle of Skye.
Along the trip, you will pass by the beautiful Loch Lomond, the beautiful highlands along the way to Fort William.
TRANSPORTATION
As I have mentioned, we drove up to Isle of Skye. Basically Isle of Skye is not a very accessible place in Scotland, though it is improving as the Isle becoming more popular with the need of people to getaway from the busy city life.
There are bus services linking Glasgow to Portree, via Fort William. I have heard of other services linking to other cities, but they are limited. Price is very fair for Scottish standard, and it is the cheapest way to arrive to the island.
Ferry services, used to be the main and only mode of crossing to the island is also available at a few city like Mallaig. I am not sure how much it cost, but it should not be expensive.
As for driving, there is a new bridge built which linked the mainland to the island, located at Kyle of Lochalsh if I don’t remember wrongly. But beware there is a charge for using the bridge, which is rather expensive.
Being a sparsely populated island, and a huge island, the best mode of transport to explore the beautiful coastline and scenery inland is by car. You will miss out a lot if you are depending on local bus services.
A very popular method is by cycling. There are a few bicycle rental in Portree which you can take advantage of. But if it is during winter, I would not suggest this, as weather can be very changeable and cold, especially when day is short and distances between city is far.
FOOD & ACCOMMODATION
If you are expecting a luxury choice of gourmet food in Isle of Skye, you will be very disappointed. The biggest city in Isle of Skye is Portree, which is hardly populated in my opinions. The whole Isle of Skye has a population of about only 10000, and tourism is the mainstay that brought life to the island.
There aren’t many choices of selection of food in Portree, let alone the remaining of the island. But if you are not that particular about food, there are foods enough to make you go on.
There are no short of B&Bs in Isle of Skye, and a number of hostels. I don’t remember seeing any 5 stars hotels in the island 5 years ago, and I am not sure are there any now. Price is reasonable, and you get a good room plus a filling breakfast the next morning.
MAIN ATTRACTION
The main attractions in Isle of Skye are all her beautiful nature and scenery. For climbers, and I really mean climbers, they might be tempted to climb the rocky Cullins, which is 3257 feet above sea level. Slope is steep, so it was not recommended for leisure walkup.
The ’Old Man of Storr’, a rocky column just located not far from the north of Portree is beautiful. Under the shinning sunshine, the bare mountain is beautifully reddened by the sunlight. It will be a magnificent view for many. But as the weather of Isle of Skye was very changeable, many tourists just managed to see the dull side of it. I was lucky in the morning, but not so in the late afternoon.
Along the beautiful coast, there is the Kilt Rock, which is also very beautiful and should not be missed if you are a nature lover.
For Castle lover, like myself, you will not be disappointed by the ruin of Duntulm Castle, and the Dunvegan Castle, which is closed during winter, and the ruin of Armadale Castle. Though the Dunvegan Castle is more complete in the sense of structure, I still like the ruin of Duntulm Castle. Though in the ruin state, but it will naturally stimulate my mind to think and imagine it’s original state and appreciate it more, though it is a sad sight to realize it is still in this state after all the imagination.
Besides all these, there are the Aros Skye Heritage Centre, Skye Croft Museum and the Clan Donald Centre. I did not enter either of these as we are not really interested in them. But given the opportunity again, I might want to spend some time in the Clan Donald Centre, which describe the Clan.
SUMMARY
On the whole, the Isle of Skye is a place for nature appreciators. If the weather is on your side, any scene that came across your sights will not disappoint you. But the weather can be disappointing to my tourist, as it is often dull and cloudy, which is again the nature of Scottish weather.
If you have more than a week in Scotland, and want to stay away from the crowd, this is the one of the most wonderful place in Scotland that you should visit.