Isle of Skye - Day 1 Itinerary

    In May 2017, my boyfriend and I went on our first long trip together to the Isle of Skye. This is the best holiday I have ever been on and I still can’t stop sharing photos, as I was completely awed by the beauty of this place. We spent four days there and we tried to see as much as we could from the island. Before we started our journey, we did a bit of research and I found this great website Walkhighlands, which gave me a lot of suggestions and was very useful for planning our trip. Also, we bought an Isle of Skye guidebook Walking the Isle of Skye by Terry Marsh. 
     In this blog post, I will share the itinerary of day 1 from our Isle of Skye Trip.

    We left Glasgow around 9.00am and headed for Mallaig. We stopped quickly at Glencoe.Afterwards, we drove to Glenfinnan. There we stopped for longer and climbed to the viewpoint. It’s a very short walk and it starts from the parking lot at the National Trust of Scotland and it takes just a few minutes. From above you get a panoramic view of the surroundings with the Glenfinnan Monument and the Glenfinnan Viaduct (a.k.a Harry Potter Bridge).

   ​Back in the car, our next stop was the Silver Sands of Morar. I’ve been there before on an organized trip (you can read about it here) and I knew that the silver beach looks spectacular especially on a sunny day. Yes, that day was sunny indeed. So, I wanted to show this little gem of Scotland to my boyfriend as it was on our way to Mallaig.

  ​In the afternoon we reached Mallaig and got tickets for the next ferry to Armadale. The ferry took one hour and in which we got some rest and snacked on our sandwiches. 

    Finally, on the island, we arrived at Armadale where our Isle of Skye adventure began. For the first day, we planned to go on a walk to the Point of Sleat and to stay the night at Ardvasar in order to have more time to explore the southern most point of the island.
   We drove to Aird of Sleat and parked just before the road finished. There is a farm gate through which the walk starts. On the Walkhighlands website it says that the walk is between 3-4 hours. We did it in 3 hours, as it was already 4.30pm when we started, and we wanted to make it to the B&B around 8.00pm. The total distance of the walk is 8.5km and the terrain is very easy. First, you walk on a broad rocky path. Then the walk continues through a moorland beside a fence. After the moorland, there is a bit of a climb following concrete stairs on which you have to descend. There we saw a beach with the most beautiful turquoise blue water, so we stopped to enjoy the view. From there the Point of Sleat is not very far. The lighthouse is on rocks, so you have to be careful there. 

    On the way back, we knew where to go through, so we hurried as it was getting late and we wanted to go for dinner. We reached the car around 8.00pm and drove the Homeleigh B&B in Ardvasar. Our plan was to check in and leave our stuff and go for dinner at the Ardvasar Hotel. At 8.30pm we were ready and headed to the hotel for a well-deserved meal. However, when we arrived 15 min later, they told us that they stopped serving food at 8.30pm. We were really disappointed as there was nothing else close by, not even a shop, so we went back to the car wondering what to do. The nearest restaurant was half an hour away and we were not sure that when we arrive, they will still serve food. Our B&B host saw that we were back and after we told her what happened at the hotel, she offered to make sandwiches for us. She was also surprised that the Ardvasar hotel was not serving food, as on the way she told us that the kitchen is usually opened until 9.00 pm. We were lucky to have such a nice host and were very grateful that she made us a platter of sandwiches with snacks and sweets.

    With that little dinner fiasco our first day on the Isle of Skye finished. After finishing our sandwiches, we went to bed as the following day we were going for a long walk at the Fairy Pools.​

P.S. Don't Read This