Duration of stays during 16 day trip

Torrin is a tiny community with a good cafe (Amy’s Place). It is on the way to Elgol which is good if you want to take boat trips to Canna or Loch Coruisk (recommended). But it will take you a good 20 minutes to get back to Broadford where you will find a supermarket and a few restaurants. You’d be looking at well over an hour to get to the Quiraing or Old Man of Storr. Personally I wouldn’t rule it out as it’s a lovely part of the island and wherever you stay you’ll be doing a fair bit of driving as Skye is bigger than many people realise and the roads are slow.

Not all B&Bs will have opened their diaries for 2027 yet. Check again late December/early January and you might find more availability.

Also be aware that the ferries from Skye to Harris (for the sites you mention in Lewis) and from Stornaway back to Ullapool - to get you to Inverness need to be booked well in advance.

I assume you mean Culloden battlefield?

In terms of nights, maybe a minimum of 2 nights Glencoe/Fort William, 3 or 4 nights Skye, 3 nights Lewis/Harris, 2 nights Inverness, 3 nights Edinburgh.

Just an FYI, if you do visit Lewis, the buildings at Geiranan Blackhouse Village on Lewis are all reproductions (although they are interesting to see). If you want to see the real thing, visit the Blackhouse in Arnol, which is authentic. The Dun Carloway Broch was also worth a stop, as was the Shawbost Norse Mill and Kiln. To get there, you must walk up some steps made of flat stones, then walk about a half mile to the 2 buildings, though.

For what it's worth, I loved Harris and Lewis. And it's a fun ferry ride from Skye. You pick up the ferry at Uig on Skye and take it to Tarbert on Harris. The coastline on Harris is beautiful, but Lewis has all all (most of?) the neolithic sites.

I agree with Mardee, the Arnol blackhouse is much better than Gearrannan Blackhouse Village. Many of the houses at Gearrannan are modern reconstructions and have been 'sanitised' for modern tastes... Arnol Blackhouse is the real thing and was lived in until the 1960s. It is still furnished very much as it would have been a hundred years ago with an open fire, box beds and cows sharing the same roof. The curators are excellent and very happy to talk about life in the blackhouse. It wasn't as primitive as you might think.

The fire was never allowed to go out as the heat was needed to keep the thatch dry and in good condition. Even in the ddepths of a hard winter, the house stayed warm and cosy. (If the black house was abandoned or uninhabited for long, with no fire, the thatch soon begins to decay and fall in. )

The black house was a very successful design for the conditions at the time. Peat was the only source of fuel on the iisland as there is very little wood. It burns slowly producing a steady heat and the smoke produced is not carcinogenic (although the smell does linger on cloths and hair...) There is no chimney so the smoke finds its way through the turf roof. The tar in the smoke coats the timbers and helps preserve them. It also prevents fungal growth in the turf, thatch and timbers. It discourages midges, mosquitos, wood boring insects, house flies and other species which might carry disease or contaminate food. Meat and fish could be hung above the fire to dry and smoke them. Carbon dioxide stopped sparks setting the turf alight.

Traditionally people lived in half of the house and animals were kept in the other half. As well as producing warmth, ammonia from their urine stopped people from getting tuberculosis.

In the early C20th new housing legislation meant that animals and humans could no longer live under the same roof. The byre had to be separate from the house. Families moved from the black houses into more ‘modern’ white houses. You can visit one of these across the road from the black house. The houses lacked insulation and were impossible to heat properly during the winter. There was no damp course and condensation was a permanent problem and tuberculosis became rife.

Wow! Thanks for all the info! Skyegirl: Great to know about how some B&Bs list openings months from now. We'll definitely check for those. (Just found a place that looks like a more central location in Ardenlee (but more pricey).) Also, good to know about booking early for ferries. (I assume cars can be taken on these?) And yes, Culloden Battlefield. The Scottish accent in the video I watched threw me off.

Mardee - Will definitely visit the Blackhouse in Arnol and the other historical structures you mentioned which sound so interesting.

wasleys - Great history lesson! They were amazingly creative resourceful people!

If we were to spend 1-2 nights somewhere between Inverness and our return to Edinburgh (where we'd stay for 1 night before flying home), what would you all recommend? Cairngorms National Park looks lovely for a day visit as does The Hermitage (on YouTube - although I need to research where exactly that's located!) Are these spots you'd all recommend for our passage south (or other places?) - where do you think would be nice places to stay over?

Thanks for sharing your time and experience. Very much appreciated and valued!

The Hermitage is just outside Dunkeld- https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/the-hermitage

Thanks, isn31C!

Well, it's up to you. There are a lot of different routes you could take.

When I drove from Inverness to Edinburgh in 2023, I actually took the route along the coast. From Inverness, I stopped at Culloden and then Clava Cairns, which is a Bronze Age circular chamber tomb cairn that is 4000 years old and about a half mile from Culloden. ,After that, I drove along the north coast through Nairn, then Elgin (the cathedral ruins there are just incredible), and continuing to stop at some of the small towns and fishing villages along the coastline, like Portknockie and Cullen and so on. I eventually headed south along the coast, stopping at the Bullers of Buchan and the Slains Castle ruins.

I loved that route, but that's me. I enjoy the coastline, and the small villages are really fun to visit. You certainly couldn't go wrong driving through Cairngorm National Park as well. Or you could even do a combination of the two. Given your interest in Neolithic sites, though, I would certainly recommend a stop at Clava Cairns, which isn't that far from Inverness and is well worth a visit. If you want more details, here is a link to my trip report, and you're welcome to look through it. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/scotland/solo-in-scotland-trains-cars-and-ferries-and-a-wee-dram-or-two