Help—one short day on Skye

You are aware of your time limitations tomorrow due to it being a temporary one vessel service? First arrival at Armadale at 0915, last departure at 1615.
And very limited capacity so all sailings will be full. You certainly want to be in line at Mallaig by 0745 (for the 0830 sailing) and Armadale by 1530.

After the 0830 from Mallaig the next sailing is at 1045 then 1255 then 1515. The second sailing would give you a very bare 4 hours on Skye.

The other ship on the route is currently supporting services at Oban while one of the Oban ships is supporting Islay services.

One could ask why in at least one direction you are not using the bridge.

We are indeed using the bridge in the morning (driving in from Plockton). And apparently we will also be using it to get back. At 5:09pm today (Tuesday, the day before the sailing), we were notified that our booking on the 6:30pm ferry from Armadale was cancelled. It’s disappointing but I guess now we have more time on Skye. Any suggestions would be most welcome :)

I can very recommended this place, Shame you can't be there for the sunset its staggering.

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/skye/rubhahunish.shtml

Kilmarie, then walking up to the top of the pass to give you a view of the Cuillin main ridge and maybe on to Camunsunary bay and the Skye Trail to Elgol.

Send you a personal msg too

Thanks so much, Richard—I really appreciate it. The whole day is turning into a bit of a disaster as we had booked a place to stay in Morar based on the ferry and now have a long drive at the end of the day to arrive there. I’m not sure what to do at this point—I tried to pivot to a three isles tour of mull/staffa/iona on Thursday (so instead of skye tomorrow we’d make our way down to Oban and stay there) but they are all booked as well. I feel really stuck—in Plockton tonight, booked for Morar tomorrow night and Loch Awe (Ben Cruachan Inn) for Thursday night, our last night before catching the train in Glasgow on Friday. Willing to rebook somewhere and lose the deposit on Morar if it makes more sense—getting to/from Mor will involve a lot of backtracking. So disappointed and don’t know what to do.

Unfortunately the Skye ferry has been a very short notice change (they rang you only 90 minutes after it was confirmed) due to a short notice refit over run on one of the big ferries.

You could lose Morar, go to Oban instead tomorrow night (after Skye) then go foot passenger to Craignure on the 0725 boat on Thursday, service bus to Iona and back to Oban, pick up the car then drive to Loch Awe as planned.

Oban as a town can not possibly all be booked up.

Due to the ferry problems you need to book foot pax to Craignure as those are also relief ships currently

Or from Oban on Thursday drive down to the slate isles and then to Kilmartin

If you stick with Morar you could go to Glenfinnan for the Jacobite memorial and see the steam train through. From Mallaig there are the wildlife cruises and the mailboat to isolated Inverie on Knoydart.

And of course the beaches at Morar to enjoy.

Eek
I would look to skip Morar and stay on Skye .
There are big upsides to that ,hard to enjoy your part day knowing you are looking at a 130 plus mile trip at the end of the day and then having to retrace the last 30 back to Fort William the very next morning to head towards Oban.

I am back to Morar myself in July ,I volunteered at Highland Games last year and the Secretary only emailed me last week to check I was coming again.

Thanks so much, isn31c and Richard—those are great suggestions. I just checked and the ferry is showing no sailings at all on Thursday the 16th, so unfortunately spending the night on Skye isn’t an option. It looks like we are facing a long drive and a lot of backtracking, which isn’t great. I’m running out of options, though. We could opt to skip Skye altogether I suppose, but it was my daughter’s top choice. We could also try to find a place near Fort William (I’m sorry, I can’t see my previous replies as I type this and don’t recall who suggested it—possibly me). The nice folks at our Morar place are unable to refund the cost of the stay, but at this point I just want to have a positive experience. Thanks so much, everyone.

I have sent a PM too.

You are far more likely to find somewhere at short notice to stay at in Oban than you are on Skye. I am certainly struggling to find anywhere on Skye for you.

Whereas Oban has lots of places to stay at tomorrow night.

In case I wasn't clear enough I was not suggesting Morar tomorrow night, then Oban the following day- instead suggesting a day based on Morar, ending at Loch Awe.

There are actually boat trips available on Staffa Tours (and maybe other companies) booked independently from Tobermory (Mull) on Thursday.

There is also a Staffa and Treshnish tour still available from Fionnphort on Thursday at 0930 (or it was earlier). It is not clear which side that starts from (Iona or Fionnphort). Just maybe if you spoke to Staffa Tours that would wait at Fionnphort for the bus to arrive at 0945 to connect.

I am trying hard here to actually keep as much as possible of your plans as possible, to be helpful to you and make use of your having a car.

Although the actual timetable was only confirmed today we knew this situation was happening last week (Calmac were advertising it). This is why I always suggest keeping in close contact with CalMac.

With an extra week to play with there wouldn't now be such a scrabble to find a solution.

The days are long long thankfully.

If you do decide to drive over tomorrow to Morar ,eat at Arisaig Hotel its excellent and has a public bar.
The hotel in Morar is a little sterile to my taste.

Booking.com has some availability tomorrow night for Fort William, also somewhere I know-the Ben Nevis Hotel- https://sm.dbm.guestline.net/availability?hotel=SMBENNEVIS&arrival=2024-05-15&departure=2024-05-16&adults=2&children=0

This is supposed to be a public forum- as Richard has resorted to sending you a 2nd private message this is my final attempt to help you. I am obviously totally wasting my time and energy.

Hello again, isn31c—please know that I am very grateful for your help! I’m juggling a lot of options right now and am focusing on the main forum since hopefully it can be helpful to others facing similar situations in future.

Yes, it would have been great to know this was happening last week, and a shame neither Cal Mac nor myself was more proactive. I did check everything before we left on our trip over a week ago, but it seems a lot to have to check in with them daily. Now we know! I will say that ferry issues are also discouraging me from pursuing some Mull options—I don’t have a lot of confidence that I won’t rework the next couple of days only to face a similar issue with the ferries to/from Mull. I’m going to follow up on everyone’s suggestions now but just wanted to let you know I do appreciate them all.

Ian ,your travel advice is absolutely brilliant you have rightly corrected a couple of utter clangers I have dropped.
Please don't think anything I wrote in a Pm relates negatively it was a suggestion to maybe overnight on Rassay if needs be.
Plus it was some personal photos ,I didn't want to post in the forum.
Although ,I entirely see how it could appear.
First pint is on me when we get to meet!

We both know Calmac had a annus horrilibus last summer and this one seems to heading the same way

Vist Scotland ,Portree
01478 612992
Opens 10am

Vist Scotland, Fort William
01397 701801
Opens 11 am

They can book you accomodation

The Facebook group ,Skye Rooms is another maybe, sign up activates in a few minutes

Best wishes, do let us know where your travels take you