7 Nights Isle of Skye - Itinerary Suggestions

Skye is a large island and you will have no trouble filling your time. The island is divided into a number of peninsulas, so could focus on a different one each day. The Walk Highlands website is the best resource for finding great walks and hikes and their site breaks Skye up into different areas, broadly corresponding with the peninsulas. The site can also help you avoid the busiest sites (Old Man of Storr, Neist Point, Fairy Pools, Kilt Rock). I can assure you that any walk you choose will be equal to those 'honey pots'. The site covers Raasay too.

Some of my favourites are as follow - none are particularly hilly, but take you into some fine scenery and away from crowds. Each is in a different part of the island and if you like the sound of them, they could be the focus of the best part of a day each.

Point of Sleat - you could then explore the Sleat loop road and the small shops of Armadale. Good cafe at An Crubh community shop on the way back up towards Broadford.
Rubh an Dunain - park at Glenbrittle beach, cafe at campsite. Maybe take a peek at Fairy pools on the way back to your accommodation.
Dun Fiadhairt - near Dunvegan but very little known area. Most rush through to get to the Coral Beach (which has a wholly inadequate car park for the number of visitors! Maybe include Dunvegan Castle on this day. Various food options in Dunvegan and the castle has a good cafe in their car park.
Waternish Point - Waternish peninsula. Maybe also visit the ruined church of Trumpan. Yurt cafe at Skye Skyns. Some small galleries including a pottery and an artist on the Waternish. Also Donnie's Tablet shed at Geary - one of our famous honesty boxes selling local produce and crafts. They can be found all over, but Donnie's Tablet is a must!
Isle Oronsay - Cafe at Struan - Bog Myrtle. This is presumably very close to your second base camp in Skye. (NB: there is another Isle Oronsay on the Sleat Peninsula).

Good restaurants include The Dunvegan and The Old School in Dunvegan, and Gasta @ Isle of Skye visitor centre in Portree. For fine dining there's Lochbay in Stein, Edinbane Lodge in Edinbane, Kinloch Lodge on the Sleat peninsula, Scorreybreac in Portree.

Hope this helps
Jacqui (Skyegirl)

We did the Old Man, and it was a bit windy, but there were not large crowds. We also did the loop around the Quiraing, and there were very few fellow hikers. This was in mid-May, so maybe it gets more crowded.

Edinbane Inn is a nice pub with good food and local music at times. I enjoyed my meal there very much; especially as it had some good non-seafood options. I enjoy seafood but sometimes you want something else. :-) You can stop at Edinbane Pottery while you're there as they have some wonderful pieces.

I also ate at Frasers and the Bracken Hide on the outskirts of Portree. It’s a hotel with guest pods and a restaurant and bar. While I was there, I met a couple from Memphis and we wound up sharing a table together. The food was wonderful! I had grilled salmon that melted in my mouth and a berry mousse that will live forever in my taste buds. The only problem was the service, which was not so good. They had some younger servers there who were inexperienced, and the newness of the place (it had only been open a month or so) led to some glitches. But my Memphis friends and I got along so well that our dinner stretched to over 3 hours and by the end of it, we were laughing hysterically over the service misadventures. And we all agreed that the food more than made up for the bad service. I would hope that by now the service has been straightened out, as this was back in May of 2023. :-)

Whatever you choose food-wise, make sure you have reservations ahead of time! I would book as far ahead as possible for for the nicer restaurants but even the pubs and smaller places need to be booked a few days ahead of time.

Thank you all so much for all these wonderful suggestions! It's giving me so much to research to start to narrow down itinerary and also make some food reservations.

Mardee,

Edinbane Inn has just changed hands. They re-opened on 14th April and I don't know what the new food offering will be like as I haven't been there since the new people took over. The new owners have told local musicians that there will NOT be live music sessions any more. This is very sad and will likely affect the amount of local and tourist business that they get.

The best bet for that is either the Old Inn in Carbost, Seamus' bar at the Sligachan Hotel (which has two excellent young musicians most Sunday afternoons from 1pm to 3pm through the summer), or 1820 in Portree, which has a regular Sunday afternoon session with various local musical talent (any trad players welcome to join in).

Jacqui

If you’d be interest in fine dining, west of Dunvegan there’s the excellent Three Chimneys restaurant, with a Michelin Star. Reservations are a must.

When we left after dinner, around a curve and at a wee bridge, sheep had laid down on the road. That was a surprise, and it took some coaxing to get them to move enough for us to get our rental car by them. If you’re coming from London, driving on the left side of the road may not be as different for you as it was us, but you probably don’t encounter that many more sheep!

Cyn,
The Three Chimneys is very good (and I can see it from my house!) but alas it hasn't had a Michelin Star since 2016 when chef Michael Smith left to set up his own restaurant, the Lochbay. He soon won the star back at Lochbay and has retained it ever since. Lochbay remains the only Michelin starred restaurant in Skye. The Three Chimney, Scorrybreac and Edinbane Lodge are listed in the Michelin Guide but do not have a star.

Jacqui

Our last trip to Skye we really enjoyed spending one day exploring the area next to Skye. The route (110 miles) was Portree - Duirinish (highland cows in village) - Plockton (a pretty small village) for lunch - photo stop at Eilean Donan castle (no need to actually visit the castle) - Gleneig to take the ferry to Kylerhea - back to Portree. You can do the drive in either direction.

Also, if you are looking for a memento of your trip, Skye Silver, near the Three Chimneys and the coral beach, has lovely pieces, most with a Celtic motif.

Cynthia, great recommendation for the Duirnish, Plockton, Glenelg route. The excellent croft cafe in Duirnish is on a working croft with Highlands Coos. There's also a nice cafe at Balmacara Square and the pub in Glenelg is very good. The manually operated turntable ferry from Glenelg back to Kylerhea in Skye is a good way to come 'home' to Skye.

Sadly Skye Silver don't make any of their pieces on the island, so I prefer to recommend Love from Skye in Broadford. A wonderful family run jewellery business (almost opposite the COOP supermarket), where they design and make all their pieces on site. Many celtic designs, or you could buy a traditional quaich (a two handled drinking vessel often used at gatherings such as weddings or baptisms to offer a welcoming drink), or a Harris tweed teddy bear made by the owner's mum.

Jacqui

Wanderlust, this is the link to the roadtrip around Skye that we followed. This way we were able to see all the important sites and scenic areas in an orderly fashion and without doing any backtracking.

https://www.ontheluce.com/isle-of-skye-itinerary/

Here are some restaurants we enjoyed on Skye:

Edinbane Inn in Edinbane- about a 15 minute drive from Portree
A Taste of India in Portree
The Old Inn located on Loch Harport
Fraser at Bracken Hide in Portree
The Rosdale down by Portree Harbor - love the appetizers; main dishes were mediocre; very friendly bartender

Jacqui, I hadn’t realized the current history at the Three Chimneys. Thanks for the update. I found an article about the status of the restaurant
https://www.londonbornandbred.co.uk/post/dinner-at-the-world-famous-three-chimneys-skye#:~:text=Head%20Chef%20Scott%20Davies%20hasn,he%20is%20chef%2Dproprietor),

and it says about the current chef not pursuing regaining that Star:

That doesn't make the menu at the Three Chimneys any the poorer, or the friendly and knowledgeable service any less attentive.

Cyn,
Indeed the Chimneys is still a very good restaurant. They have recently changed head chef again with Scott Davies moving to a castle hotel/restaurant in Perthshire. The new chef has only very recently introduced his own menu and this will be his first season at the helm. There have certainly been some issues at the Chimneys as the General Manager has also very recently departed. They've also got plans to massively expand, doubling the size of the restaurant and building two new bedroom blocks and some glamping pods. Many people I know work there and living so close we are privy to a lot of the goings on there....

Jacqui

Ha ha, Jacqui, it sounds like major changes are happening at the Three Chimneys! With all the planned expansion, maybe that twisty, narrow road to get there will become a 6-lane highway, and could the sheep previously bedding down on the warm asphalt be replaced by elephant seals?!?

I hope any changes there will be for the better, for everyone involved. Skye’s such a special place, it doesn’t need to become a high-rise resort with a mega food court!

Loads of good advice above so I’ll just add in my own tuppence worth about walks in general.

Walkhighlands is an excellent resource for planning walks throughout Scotland,it’s well worth a study.(I also used to like Mary Welsh’s lovely series of books on walks in specific areas…she did one for Skye,Quite old now and I don’t think they will have been reprinted.)

My favourite walk on Skye is from the parking area at Kilmarie, down the Elgol road, then following a good track, very stony for the final section, up to the high point above Camasunary.The view over to the Black Cuillin above Camasunary bay is just a jaw drop.The path ascends for about 200m or just under so there is a bit of huff and puff.You can also follow it down to the bay itself which is glorious on a sunny day( with a 200m or so pull back up!) There have been , sadly, litter problems on the beach in the past (washed up from boats/shipping) but last time we were there it was fine.An amazing spot and usually hardly a soul there.

A restaurant I’m really keen to try down the Elgol road is Coruisk House which looks lovely.This year perhaps!

Agree with Skyegirl about Point of Sleat and Rubh an Dunan as walks…the former will also take you to what I think is Skye’s best beach(the island is not really renowned for beaches)…Camus Darach.Lovely white sands.

Uphill all the way but around 90mins- 2 hrs will take you up to Coire Lagan and the beautiful high Lochan there beneath the Cuillin peaks.A well trodden trail giving stunning views.

If you want to escape the Fairy Pool crowds then exit the parking area at the opposite end and follow the big forestry track as it gradually ascends to a fabulous viewpoint over the Black Cuillin.Last July I sat up at the high point and enjoyed the vistas with the only company being a sea eagle which flew below me briefly before disappearing out of sight.

A walk round the tiny tidal island of Oronsay is gorgeous too.Check tide tables of course!

Ben Tianavaig takes about an hour or a little more to ascend…good track once you are on the ridge itself, no difficulty and again, we’ve been lucky each time to watch a golden eagle sweeping across the high moorland up there.The views up and down the coast are just out of this world.

Little Dun Caan on Raasay is also a cracker of a wee hill to do.The easiest option(I’m always for that!) is to drive north on Raasay beyond Holoman towards Balmeanach where there car parking and the walk is signposted and gives you a nice high start.The walkhighlands route is much longer with more ascent and starts from the village itself.

I love Edinbane Lodge, to me it’s offered the best fine dining on the island these past few years but I’m giving the Three Chimneys another go this summer.Have always enjoyed the latter too.The family have raved about Lochbay but we had a very disappointing meal there and have never gone back.Maybe we were unlucky but it does put you off.

For a meal with a stunning view, we’ve found the Cuillin Hills above Portree to have improved a lot recently and enjoyed Sunday lunch there on a couple of occasions.

Am Praban bar in Isle Ornsay is a favourite , usually really good tasty food and some of the best Langoustines ever.Venison is excellent too if on the menu.You can also eat more expensively in the hotel itself, lovely food there.

An Crubh, the shop/deli/cafe not far away also serves some really nice food though day time only.

Haven’t eaten in Kinloch Lodge since it changed chefs a couple of years back but it used to be excellent…they do afternoon tea too(or did.) Beautiful place.

The Duisdale also does reasonably good food, though can be a bit mixed and not cheap.

I’d also seriously think about doing the Loch Coruisk boat trip from Elgol…to me, the No 1 excursion to do if the weather is half decent.Fantastic trip into the heart of the Cuillin, glorious scenery and a short walk to Coruisk itself which has an almost gothic quality to it, savagely beautiful.

Wow wow wow! This is such a wealth of knowledge. THANK YOU! I am going to try and do as many of these suggestions as I possibly can. So many of these hike suggestions sound exactly like what we're looking for and will definitely look into the boat trip from Elgol as i'm obsessed with sea life (whales in particular) and being on the water. Thank you all so much!

Sounds like a fantastic plan! Skye is a dream, and mid-June should be beautiful with long daylight hours. Having Portree as a base with a car gives you great flexibility. Here’s a suggested breakdown to help group hikes/areas efficiently and avoid too much backtracking:

Day 1 (from Raasay to Portree):
Since you're coming from Raasay, maybe keep it light this day.
Explore Portree a bit, grab lunch at The Isles Inn or Café Arriba (great views).
If weather’s good, consider a short evening walk up to The Lump for sunset.

Day 2 – Trotternish Peninsula (North Skye):
This is a full day loop, easily one of the best hiking/scenic combos.
Old Man of Storr (2–3 hrs, popular, go early).
Lealt Falls & Kilt Rock – quick stops.
Quiraing hike (2–3 hrs, amazing views).
Optional stop at Duntulm Castle ruins or Skye Museum of Island Life if you’re feeling energetic.
Lunch: Pack one or grab from Single Track Café (limited hours).
Dinner back in Portree – maybe try Scorrybreac (if you can get a reservation – beautiful food and setting).

Day 3 – Fairy Pools & Glen Brittle:
Hike to the Fairy Pools (about 2 hrs round trip, easy-moderate).
Optional: continue hiking in Glen Brittle if the weather’s good – the scenery is dramatic.
On your way back, stop by Talisker Distillery (book in advance).
Lunch: The Oyster Shed near Talisker – rustic but fresh seafood.
Dinner in Portree – try Sea Breezes for local seafood.

Day 4 – Dunvegan & Neist Point:
Dunvegan Castle & Gardens (spend an hour or two, especially if it’s rainy).
Then head to Neist Point lighthouse walk (1.5–2 hrs).
Optional detour: Coral Beach near Dunvegan – easy and lovely.
Lunch: The Old School Restaurant in Dunvegan is solid.
Dinner: If heading back to Portree, Cuchullin Restaurant is nice and cozy.

Day 5 – Sleat Peninsula (en route to Isleornsay):
Drive south and explore Armadale Castle and the gardens (can be a rainy day fallback too).
Several shorter walks around Sleat with great coastal views – less crowded too.
Lunch/Dinner: Hotel Eilean Iarmain near Isleornsay – great food and setting.

Rainy Day Options:
Dunvegan Castle, Armadale Castle, or Talisker Distillery.
Explore local art galleries (e.g., Skyeworks Gallery in Portree).
A cozy café crawl around Portree never hurts on a drizzly day.