This is a follow up to last week’s blog post, where I wrote about the things we got up to during our first two days on the Isle of Skye. This week’s post will cover the rest of the week, including our visits to some of Skye’s most iconic sites. If you’re planning a trip to Skye, I’d recommend going back and reading last week’s post as well as this one, as there are some hidden gems in there!
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Coire Lagan
One of the most photographed places on Skye has to be the Fairy Pools. They are surely on the itinerary for every tourist on Skye, and recently a new path has been laid and the car park expanded to accommodate the number of visitors to the site. We drove down there (because can you say you’ve been to Skye if you don’t visit these must see places?) but to be honest, we were a bit disappointed. Yes, the Fairy Pools were pretty and the backdrop of the mountains was magnificent, but there are plenty of other places which are just as beautiful without the crowds of people milling around. Still, we’d been there and seen them, and wouldn’t be leaving the island wondering ‘what if the Fairy Pools were really as good as they looked?’.
While we were down that way, we headed to Glenbrittle to walk up to Coire Lagan. This 7.5km circular walk from our Pocket Mountains guide took us from Glenbrittle Beach into the foothills of the Cuillins, where a small lochan is perched dramatically at the bottom of a jagged ridge.
There is limited, free parking at the end of the road leading to Glenbrittle campsite, near the beach. From here, we walked through the campsite to pick up a hill track, which climbs steadily on a good path nearly all the way to the lochan. It was a very varied walk up, with the weather not quite able to decide if it wanted to be sunny or snowy! Happily it settled on sunshine in the end, and we trekked upwards towards the rocky peaks directly ahead of us.
At a cairn near the top, the path ends and you can either take a path doubling back to the left to circle back to the start, or continue on across the rocks and scree to climb up to the lochan. This isn’t too difficult technically, although there may be one or two places where you need to use hands as well as feet. There wasn’t anything that freaked me out with my fear of heights! The lochan is more than worth a visit and would be a fantastic place to stop for lunch.
We spent a while enjoying the peace and tranquility of the lochan, before descending back the way we’d come up the scree (less enjoyable going down than up). I’d definitely strongly advise sturdy boots if you’re planning on making the detour up to the lochan. Overall though this isn’t a challenging walk – it’s a bit like the Beinn Eighe Mountain Trail, but with a bit more scree and not way marked.
When we made it back down to the cairn, we took the branching path to return along a different route. This track was narrower and rougher than our original trail, but it was still clear and easy to follow. It certainly felt like we were walking in the middle of nowhere, especially when we came across a herd of deer who weren’t remotely bothered by our presence! The view of the day though was a fabulous waterfall plunging off the hillside as we neared the end of the trail – much better than the Fairy Pools and we had it totally to ourselves.
Dog friendly rating – 3.5/5. While we didn’t see any livestock on this walk, we did encounter deer, and there were a few places where the dogs needed to be agile to scramble up to the lochan. Neither of ours had any trouble, but less mobile dogs might struggle. We came across a few streams on our way up but if you’re doing this walk on a hot day I’d suggest taking some extra water for your dog. The final return is along a quiet road where we only saw a few cars, although this may be a different story in the summer months. There were however no stiles to worry about clambering over!
The Quiraing
The Quiraing is one of Skye’s ‘iconic landscapes’ and, unlike the Fairy Pools, it certainly lives up to this label. There is a large pay and display car park next to the path which leads to the Quiraing, with most people following an out and back route to their view point of choice before returning to their cars.
We followed a 6.5km circular walk from our Pocket Mountains guide. The route makes use of the main track up to the Needle and the Table, but continues on past these to contour around the ridge, climbing up to the top and following the ridge most of the way back to the start. It’s amazing how all of the people disappeared as soon as we crossed the stile to leave the main track!
Although the path here is well trodden and walked by probably hundreds of people a day, you still need sturdy boots and to be happy to clamber across gullies and narrow-ish paths to get around. Once you continue on to climb up the ridge, the path disappears in places and it becomes a steep grassy slog, but fortunately it’s not too long and once you’re at the top, the reward is more than worth the effort. After you reach the highest point of the ridge, you cross a grassy shoulder (pathless) to reach a gate, where you begin the descent back down to the car park. This is mostly gradual, but the path is steep and eroded in a few short stretches.
It almost goes without saying that the views on this walk are phenomenal. Right from the start, no matter where you look it’s amazing. My favourite view of the day though was the aerial view of the Quiraing from the top of the ridge – it feels like the kind of view you should only be able to get with a drone!
Dog friendly rating: 2/5. While this is a fantastic walk, it’s not the most dog friendly option. Ours got around with no difficultly, but there were two stiles which we needed to navigate (one where there was a gap in the fence the dogs could wiggle under, one where we had to lift them across), and the combination of sheep everywhere and cliff edges makes leads a definite yes on this one. While there were a few puddles, there were long enough dry stretches that I’d suggest taking water for your dog on warmer days.
Scorrybreac Circuit
The original plan was to drive down to the Old Man of Storr after finishing our walk at the Quiraing, but after noticing how much the Quiraing car park had filled up in the few hours it took for us to do our walk, we decided to scrap that plan and to go to the Old Man of Storr earlier in the day later in the week to minimise the crowds. Flicking through the Pocket Mountains guide for inspiration (I told you we used it a lot), we picked out instead a 3km circular walk from Portree, the ‘Scorrybreac Circuit’.
I was so pleasantly surprised by this walk – I wasn’t expecting much, but it was a cracker. Starting from a small free parking area near the Cuillin Hills Hotel, you walk along the shore with fantastic views back towards the harbour, before the view changes to one of the impressive Ben Tianavaig. Apparently sea eagles nest on the cliffs of this mountain, so it’s worth keeping your eyes peeled. The path is a little up and down and rough in places, but it is definitely a walk I’d place on the easier end of the scale.
All too soon we were leaving the coast to climb a short but steep path zig-zagging up the hillside. From here, the ground soon levels out and it’s a very gradual descent to drop back down into Portree. The guide book talked about walking through an attractive silver birch wood at the very end of the walk, but this now seems to have been mostly felled.
Dog friendly rating – 3/5. We didn’t see any livestock on this walk, but this is a prime location for both seals and deer, so it’s not a great place to let your dogs run riot – in fact, there’s a sign up at the start of the walk asking for dogs to be kept on leads due to the presence of ground nesting birds. That being said, this walk has no stiles, and that’s always a big positive in our book.
The Old Man of Storr
I don’t think that there’s anywhere more closely associated with the Isle of Skye than the Old Man of Storr. As the gardener said to us when he came to cut the grass at our cottage, ‘You can’t come to Skye and not visit the Old Man’. Therefore we set out bright and early on the Wednesday morning to see this most iconic of viewpoints.
Rather than following the normal out and back route to the view point, we chose an 8km circular from Walkhighlands, which continues on past the view point to ascend to the top of the Storr – the summit above the Old Man. Even getting there early, the main track was the busiest of all the walks we did on Skye, with plenty of people all making their way to the view point. Everyone seemed to having a great time and happy to be there – I’ve never seen so many smiley people, especially walking uphill!
After stopping off at the view point to get ‘that photo’, we continued on, taking a fainter path and crossing a stile to contour around the ridge. I think we missed a faint track and ended up hiking up a steep grassy slope, which soon levels off and becomes a more manageable gradient. Keeping the cliff edge on our left, we climbed on and off until we reached the slightly dilapidated but very dramatic trig point at the summit of the Storr.
The views from here are excellent in their own right, and more than worth the climb. Continuing onwards, you eventually reach the route down, which follows a stream in a gully. This track is steep and eroded but with sturdy boots is manageable without too much difficulty. Looking back from the bottom it’s almost impossible to see where you came down! We went wrong again here and ended up having to climb over a fence to get back to the car park, but from the dip in the middle of the fence I think this is a common mistake. Better navigation skills needed!
Dog friendly rating – 2/5. Similar to the Quiraing walk, you will need to lift dogs over stiles, watch out for livestock and cliff edges, and carry extra water for your dog. That’s not to say that ours didn’t have a great time on this walk though!
An Aid Peninsula
When we got back to the car after the Storr, we were surprised by how tired we suddenly found we were! I think our busy week of exploring Skye was starting to catch up to us. We had originally planned to go and climb another hill in the afternoon, but we decided that we didn’t really fancy that – and again turned to our Pocket Mountains guide for ideas. Sam picked out a 3km circular around the An Aird peninsula, a short drive from the Old Man of Storr.
Like the Scorrybreac circuit, this was another unexpected delight. There is free (very limited) roadside parking on the grassy verge just before Balmeanach, and from here Sam jumped out of the car and raced (across very boggy ground) towards the coast. If you, like me, don’t like walking through bogs, walk down the road to the post box, where you can pick up a well surfaced track (at least we used it on the return leg of the walk).
The track soon steepens and drops down to a pebbly beach, with an outstanding view across the sea to Ben Tianavaig. At the end of the beach, there’s a small silvery stretch of sand, before the beach ends and you head onto the grassy peninsula. This is mostly pathless, but navigation is easy enough – keep the sea on your left.
Ben Tianavaig soon disappears, to be replaced with a view of the Isle of Raasay. The little ferry chugging back and forth across the sea was a charming sight! Look out for natural arches off the coast here, but be mindful of edges. In next to no time you’re in-between two beaches – head back to the beach on the right to retrace your footsteps to the start.
Dog friendly rating – 4/5. I think any walk with a beach automatically falls into the category of a great dog walk! Coal had a great time sprinting around on the beach, but we kept Merry on the lead as we could see sheep grazing on the shore at the other end of the beach. There are livestock and edges on the peninsula, but the inclusion of two walks along the beach and no stiles more than evens this out in my book.
Where we stayed
We’d wanted to go to Skye for years, but finding dog friendly accommodation was really difficult. Either it was nice but not dog friendly, dog friendly but cost a fortune, or dog friendly and last decorated in the 1960s. It took me many months of trawling the internet to find Mable’s Cottage, a very dog friendly cottage in a great location close to Uig.
The cottage sleeps four people and welcomes multiple dogs at no extra charge – a novelty! It really feels like a home from home: you can tell that the owners use the cottage themselves.
Dog friendly rating – 5/5. This cottage is so dog friendly it’s unbelievable! There was no extra charge for the dogs, and they had their own lavish welcome basket featuring treats, doggy chocolate and pawsecco waiting when we arrived. Dog beds are provided, and the enormous garden is enclosed – however we did have to keep Coal’s lead on after he got a bit too enthusiastic zooming around and nearly took himself out on the fence! The board games for rainy days even include a game where the dog can join in.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our week on Skye – we certainly managed to cram a lot in! Without a doubt there are plenty of other things and places we didn’t get a chance to see this time, and I’m sure we’ll be back one day in the future to tick off more places (and revisit some of our favourites).
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