Skye to Inverness

Minimum Duration: 3 days

This trip winds through some of Scotland’s grandest scenery. Leaving Skye and heading northwards takes you away from the main tourist routes and into some of the last wilderness areas of Europe. The countless west coast bays and islands are constantly visible and pretty little fishing villages and sandy bays abound. Inverewe Gardens are a magnificent example of what can be made of the Gulf Stream’s warm waters caressing the west coast and keeping away the worst of the winter cold. The rugged and mountainous landscape offers a never ending series of stunning views.

Castles, beaches and most of all, silence and scenery are offered on this route. The rushing tide race of Cape Wrath at the extreme north west tip of our land, where the North Sea meets the Atlantic, is well worth the time taken to reach it by foot, ferry and minibus link, up the basic one track road. It won’t be the only single track road you take as there are so few visitors to this unspoilt region and single tracks are quite common.

Ben More Coigach near Ullapool
©Duck Foot Design

Reminders of the Highland Clearances are constant in the roofless tumbledown shells of old cottages, left by their inhabitants when forced off the land to make way for sheep. Many were forced from Scotland itself and travelled to Canada, the USA, Australia and New Zealand to form the large Scottish communities in those countries. A Museum of the Clearances shouldn’t be missed at Strathnaver in Bettyshill. Some of the best beaches in Europe are stretched along this North Coast.

The last third of this route travels through more gentle country, but still remote, beautiful and sparsley populated. All the more surprising to find a golf course regularly voted in the top 20 in the world, Royal Dornoch, a real Hidden Gem of a golf course. Between Dornoch and Inverness, one last treat - the Glenmorangie Distillery with guided tours and a wee dram of the "Water of Life."