06 · Twelve hours · from Inverness, Fort Augustus or Fort William · Best April to September
Skye, the Fairy Pools and Talisker
5 photographs · Silent Glen
In short
The long way to Skye and a different road home — Glen Shiel, Eilean Donan, the Fairy Pools under the Black Cuillin, Talisker at Carbost, and back through Lochcarron and Achnasheen rather than the way you came.
How the day runs
Twelve hours, three stops, and none of it fixed.
Open a stop for the detail, or show it on the map. The ones marked optional are offered on the day rather than fixed into it — take them or leave them.
-
Start You’ll be collected
An early start, earlier than the other days. Skye is two and a half hours away before anything begins.
-
Pass by Glen Shiel and the Five Sisters
An hour of the best road in Scotland before anybody is on it.
- 01
Eilean Donan Castle 45 min
At Dornie, where three sea lochs meet. Early, before the coaches turn up.
Details CloseThe most photographed castle in Scotland, on a tidal island where Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh run into each other. Almost everything standing is a twentieth-century rebuild of a ruin, which nobody minds and which is worth knowing. Going through it is optional and ticketed; standing on the shore looking at it is free and is what most people actually came for.
-
Pass by Sligachan
The first proper sight of the Cuillin, and the old bridge under them.
- 02
The Fairy Pools 2 h 30
Glen Brittle, under the Black Cuillin. A rough walk in and the same walk back.
Details CloseA chain of clear pools and small falls coming off the Cuillin down the River Brittle. It is about a mile and a half in and out on a path that is stony and often wet, with river crossings on stepping stones — after heavy rain those go under and the pools become a different, louder thing you look at from the bank. Boots rather than trainers. The car park is run by the community and is paid, which is not us charging you.
- 03
Talisker Distillery 1 h 30
At Carbost on Loch Harport. Skye’s oldest working distillery, 1830.
Details CloseFounded in 1830 and still the only distillery on this side of the island. Tours book out in summer and have to be booked in advance rather than turned up for, so tell us when you enquire and we will get it in the diary. The driver is not drinking, obviously; they will give you your dram to take away instead.
-
Pass by Loch Carron and the Achnasheen road
The long way home, and the reason the day is twelve hours rather than ten.
Details CloseOff the island and then north-east instead of back down Glen Shiel — along the side of Loch Carron, up Strath Bran to Achnasheen, then down through Garve to Inverness. It adds most of an hour and it means you do not spend the last part of a long day looking at scenery you already looked at in the morning. If the light has gone or everyone has had enough, we go back the way we came instead and nobody minds.
-
Rogie Falls Optional 30 min
Near Contin, ten minutes off the road home. Salmon in season.
Details CloseA short boardwalk through the pines to a suspension bridge over the falls. In late summer and autumn there are salmon trying to get up them, which is either the best twenty minutes of the day or nothing at all depending on the fish. Offered on the way past rather than promised, because by this point in the day it depends entirely on how you are all feeling.
-
End Back at your door
Back through Garve and down to Inverness, usually after dark in winter.
Durations rather than times, on purpose. The order moves, stops get longer or get dropped, and the whole thing bends around the weather and around you — Dan will tell you on the morning what the day actually wants to be.
Map and imagery by Google, which sets its own cookies.
The next five days at Carbost, Skye
Met Office ·
Forecasts this far out are a shape rather than a promise, which is the whole reason the day is not fixed until the morning.
Highlights
- Glen Shiel and the Five Sisters early, before the road fills up
- The Fairy Pools with time to actually walk them rather than a twenty-minute stop
- Talisker at Carbost, the only distillery on that side of the island
- Home by Lochcarron and Achnasheen, so no part of the day is driven twice
- One party in the car for twelve hours, which on a day this long is the whole point
What’s included
In the price
- Collection from your door and back to it at the end
- The car to yourselves for the whole day — one party a day, nobody else aboard
- All mileage and charging, which on a day this long is not nothing
- Free cancellation up to 48 hours before, for a full refund
Not included
- The Fairy Pools car park, which is charged by the community that maintains it.
- Talisker tours, which are ticketed and must be booked ahead. Say when you enquire and we will arrange it around the day.
- Entry to Eilean Donan, if you want to go inside rather than look at it.
- Food. There is somewhere at Carbost and somewhere at Sligachan; we will tell you which suits the day.
The day
Skye in a day, done honestly
Skye is two and a half hours from Inverness before anything starts, and most day trips solve that by cutting the island down to two photographs and a car park. This does the opposite: two places, properly, and a long drive that is part of the day rather than the price of it.
The two are the Fairy Pools and Talisker. One is a walk into the Cuillin and the other is a distillery on a sea loch, and between them they are most of what people mean when they say they want to see Skye without meaning the Old Man of Storr and a queue.
The road there is not a transfer
Glen Shiel is genuinely one of the great roads in Britain, and at half seven in the morning it belongs to nobody. Eilean Donan an hour later is still quiet. Both of those stop being true by ten, which is when a coach leaving Inverness at nine arrives.
That is the same argument as every other day here, and it is the only one that matters on Skye, where the difference between eight in the morning and eleven is the difference between a place and a car park.
Home a different way
Most Skye days come back down Glen Shiel because it is the way they know. We go north instead — along Loch Carron, up Strath Bran, through Achnasheen and down to Garve.
It costs the best part of an hour and it means the last three hours of a very long day are new road rather than a rerun. If the weather has closed in or you have simply had enough, we do not do it. That gets decided in the car, late in the afternoon, by you.
Book now
Tell us the week. We’ll tell you the weather.
Every day is quoted individually — party size, pick-up point and how far you want to go. Expect a reply from Dan within a working day, and a written itinerary before you pay anything.
Thank you. Dan will reply within a working day.
silentglentours@gmail.comThe other days
If this one is not quite it.
Glen Affric
The finest glen in Scotland, taken slowly — Dog Falls, the water at Affric before the wind gets up, and Plodda Falls on the way home.
From Inverness or Fort Augustus · All year, best in October
Book this tour
Chasing the Jacobite
The train everyone photographs, from the places the photographs are taken. A day that moves: one sighting at Glenfinnan promised, and two or three if you are quick back to the car.
From Fort William or Fort Augustus · June to late October
Book this tour
Loch Ness, the whole way round
Urquhart Castle in the first hour it opens, lunch and a walk at Dundreggan, and back up the single-track east shore that the coaches cannot use.
From Inverness or Fort Augustus · All year
Book this tour
The Road to the Isles
West until the road runs out, taken at its own pace — Glenfinnan before the car park fills, Arisaig, the white sands, and langoustines on the harbour at Mallaig. All year, and nothing to catch.
From Fort William or Fort Augustus · All year
Book this tour
The east shore
The single-track side of Loch Ness, which coaches cannot use and most hire cars will not. Foyers, the moor road, and Dores beach at the end of it.
From Fort Augustus or Inverness · All year
Book this tour
Applecross and the Bealach na Bà
The Bealach na Bà from sea level to the top in six miles of hairpins, a walk at the summit, and down the far side to the inn at Applecross for lunch on the shore. Back over the pass, or the long way round the coast.
From Inverness, Fort Augustus or Fort William · Best May to October
Book this tour
Wester Ross, from Invergordon
Built around a ship’s day in port and run for anyone else who wants it — Corrieshalloch Gorge, the pink sand at Gruinard, Gairloch, and the old pinewood at Beinn Eighe, home over Glen Docherty. Twelve hours, and the clock is the point.
From Invergordon, Inverness or Fort Augustus · Best April to October
Book this tour
Glen Coe and Glen Etive
Down the A82 into Glen Coe for the Three Sisters and the Kingshouse, then off it entirely — twelve miles of single track down Glen Etive to the sea, past the corner every Bond film crew has stood on. A waterfall first, if you fancy the climb.
From Fort Augustus or Fort William · Best April to October
Book this tour