Five Days on the Isle of Skye

By Graham Kingston

Five Days on Skye
In this article (13,000 words, 29 photographs) we discuss our five days on Skye. We present a day-to-day account of our sightseeing activities; discuss the key attractions we visited; and provide our impressions, key facts, selected photos, and relevant references. We also discuss how we would plan our holiday if we could do it all again.
With our daily driving excursions we visited the Trotternish, Waternish, Duirinish and Sleat peninsulas. The weather was exceptional for our time on Skye which added a rich dimension to our sightseeing.
Key attractions included the Skye Museum of Island Life, The Old Man of Storr, Uig, Colbost Croft Museum, Kilt Rock and Waterfall, Shilasdair Yarn Company, and Armadale ferry pier. Just being able to drive to new destinations each day and observe the unique Skye landscape was a rare experience.
Crofting was a theme for us and hence we visited the Museum of Island Life near Kilmuir and the Colbost Crofting/Folk Museum. We present a short account of crofting including references for further reading in an appendix of the eBook.
We rented a well-appointed self-catering crofter’s cottage in Broadford as a base for the five days. As the second largest township on Skye, Broadford provided access to all the supplies we needed, as well as a selection of good restaurants. Broadford is a lower key township than Portree which we appreciated.
The Isle of Skye has a well-deserved reputation as a very good travel destination. We think you would enjoy it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Graham Kingston
• Release date: Mar 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311742476

Graham Kingston

IntroductionOS Wayfarer is not a business or an enterprise but a passion!At its core, OS Wayfarer is about self-publishing eBooks, especially our travel eBooks. So far, we have self-published eight travel eBooks.OS Wayfarer is sustained through the partnership of Graham and Katherine Kingston. It is our passion for travel, and my (Graham’s) passion (some might say obsession) for personal computing, photography, and project management, that has resulted in OS Wayfarer. Fortunately, Katherine knows her history, provides great editing, calms Graham’s exuberance, anchors the outfit in some reality, and ensures a measure of class.We endeavour, for less than the price of a cup of coffee, to share our travel experiences with you. We hope you enjoy our eBooks.Our approachFour key principles underpin our approach:•We love to take a “Do it Yourself” approach as much as is feasible: in respect of our travel, eBooks.•A cost-effective approach is always front of mind.•A commitment to maintaining standards is important to us.•A desire to share our knowledge and expertise thereby helping others to enhance their travel experiences.We strive to be professional; and to adopt practical, affordable, achievable, and effective approaches to the development and publishing of our eBooks.Our backgroundsTravelWe are retired baby boomers and we have been at this caper, in one form or another since about 2009.We travelled as a part of our professional working lives but to less developed countries. We lived and worked in Bandung, Indonesia (four years), Kitwe, Zambia (four years) and Kuching, Sarawak (two years). These wonderful opportunities provided a rich experience for our family and instilled a desire to travel (perhaps it was always there).We have travelled quite a bit since retiring and intend to continue. To date we have visited various parts of the world: for example, Athens, Prague, Isle of Skye, along the Queensland Coast, Istanbul, Bucharest, Budapest, and Barcelona (it just so happens that all these visits resulted in an eBook!).Earlier we travelled to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco, as well as Italy on two Insight Tours.ProfessionalI (Graham) started out as a Radio Technician before becoming a technical teacher, and technical teacher trainer. This foundation led to a very enjoyable career as an adviser, program/project tenderer and manager, and independent consultant in international development assistance.Katherine commenced her career as a primary school teacher before becoming an ELICOS (English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students) teacher, Self-Access Centre manager, and IELTS (International English Language Testing Service) Centre manager.

Book preview

Five Days on the Isle of Skye

By Graham Kingston

Five Days on the Isle of Skye

Copyright © 2015 OS Wayfarer

Smashwords  Edition

Written by Graham Kingston

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Contents

Introduction

Day 1: Broadford (Our Base); The Town; Broadford Bay; Aisling Cottage

Day 2: Our Plan; Portree; Uig (Heading North); The Skye Museum of Island Life; Uig (Heading South)

Day 3: Sligachan; Colbost Croft Museum; The Three Chimney’s Restaurant; Jann’s Cakes; Shilasdair Yarn Company; The Talisker Distillery

Day 4: Loch Ainort; The Old Man of Storr; Kilt Rock & Waterfall

Day 5: Kyleakin & Armadale

Conclusion

If only we could do it all again

Appendix A – A Short Account of Crofting on Skye  

Appendix B – References and Resources

Our other eBooks

About Us

Introduction

Overview

In this eBook we discuss our experience of visiting the Isle of Skye for five days. 

We present a day-to-day account of our sightseeing activities; identify the key attractions; and provide our impressions, key facts, selected photos, and relevant references.

Further information is provided in the Appendices: Katherine provides a short account of Crofting on the Isle of Skye at Appendix A; and Appendix B presents a consolidation of all the references contained in the eBook.

Impressions

We visited the Isle of Skye for five days in mid-September and thoroughly enjoyed it. The weather was really good, far better than we expected, with blue skies and temperatures around 4 degrees above normal at close to 20 degrees Celcius. We have always found travelling to the United Kingdom in September to be a pleasant experience.

Our decision to rent a renovated crofter’s cottage on the outskirts of Broadford and to hire a car for the week provided complete freedom to plan and adjust our own itinerary as desired. Broadford turned out to be a good choice for a base: all necessary self-catering supplies were available; fuel for our vehicle; a reasonable selection of pubs and restaurants; and a post office, pharmacy, gift shops as well as a bank with an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM). Our observations suggested it was more laid-back and less crowded than Portree. Skye is relatively small and so Broadford’s location to the south wasn’t a concern.

Over the five days we were able to observe the truly remarkable landscapes; notice the importance of tourism (arts and crafts, hill climbing, walking) supported by numerous Bed and Breakfast establishments (B&Bs) and hostels; and engage with the friendly folk of Skye around Broadford, Portree and Kyleakin as well as the peninsulas of Trotternish and Waternish, and to a lesser extent Duirinish and Sleat.

Living on Skye for five days you can sense a certain level of remoteness: for example, large department stores (clothing etc), electrical appliance stores, and computer stores are not present. The impact of the weather becomes apparent when you notice that most businesses will close for three-four months over the winter period. We envisage a certain resilience and determination is required to live on Skye. The use of ferries to islands such as Raasay and the outer-Hebrides point to an even more remote existence for some.

One theme for our time on Skye was to explore the history and nature of crofting. To this end we visited the Skye Museum of Island Life and the Colbost Folk/Croft Museum.

Although my photographic skills are still very much a work-in-progress I did manage to snap some favourite photos which we will treasure into the future; and some