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Isle of Skye

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tickmike:
Going to the Isle of Skye soon.  :)

Any suggestions for places to see, things to do and also nearby on the mainland, including any nice restaurants .

The plan is,
Taxi to a local Railway station.
Using all first class trains, go to Birmingham New Street station, Catch Virgin train down to Euston, Wait in the Virgin First class lounge for our Daughter coming up from Kent, Catch the New Caledonian Night Sleeper train with for the first time 'en-suite' facilities to Inverness.
Then collect our car hire, drive to Skye via the old Military road, Skye for one week.
Drive down to Glasgow Airport, Fly to Gatwick with BA business class, Train up to St,Pancras, say goodbye to our daughter, walk to Euston station , quick cup of tea and a free snack in the First class lounge again, train up to Birmingham and then train to our local station, taxi home, put the kettle on for a cup of coffee.   ;D

Ronski:
You could always stop off and say hi to Mr & Mrs Weaver

https://goo.gl/maps/Q6jbFDSi2HsbgG9U8

sevenlayermuddle:
Worth stopping for the “classic” photo at Eilean Donan Castle, per so many commercial calendar shots.  Before the Skye bridge was built, you’d have the castle to yourself.   Nowadays, you will have to form an orderly queue behind dozens of Japanese tourists  to take *that photo from the car park,  but still worthwhile imho and actually, Japanese are quite good at orderly queuing.  Personally the photo from the car park is the goal, the castle itself would be even more queuing, and not that great.

https://www.eileandonancastle.com/visit/

Since I know you have an interest in railways... if stopping in Glasgow or just time to kill, one bit of advice I often give these days is... take a ride on the subway.  Third oldest underground railway in the world, behind London and Budapest.   In my youth it was still wooden carriages, that visibly twisted from end to end as they rattled along.  The doors were manually operated concertina affairs, like old fashioned elevators.   It’ was modernised in 1970s but still fascinating, amazingly compact, and how the lines drop down away from platforms in each direction, having originally been cable driven.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Subway

* PS  afterthought, the car park photo can be good but just to clarify... the actual photo on the page I linked is not from the car park, probably a drone shot. :)

Weaver:
Car hire in Inverness is a good plan. I have done the old sleeper several times and the new one sounds fantastic. As a railway nut I’m surprised you can resist the train to Kyle of Lochalsh (autocorrect just now as ‘locals hell’) or Fort William-Mallaig. There is car hire locally, but ask my wife Janet about it.

For insider tips you need to talk to my wife Janet who is the world’s leading expert on Skye tourism janet@skyeshepherdhuts.co.uk - because I don’t get out any more of course.

Janet knows all the good eateries too. I would absolutely love to say hello to any kitizens.

Please feel free to ask any questions (I’ll just ask Janet then). Many of the most interesting things are not know or not publicised, unlike Orkney where they have got their act together. The Norse Cathedral for example. Spar Cave might be google-able.

Heasta is a beautiful place to stay. My neighbour Sally has a superb B&B and my wife has her posh Shepherd Huts, lined with sheep wool so they are extremely cosy. Janet knows all the rubbish places to eat as well the superb ones because she or her guests report back.

Eilean Donnáin is always misspelled always as ‘donan’ for some reason and mispronounced with a long ‘o’; correct pron is ‘ill-ann’ (not like Eileen), first syllable stress [always, in every stressable word], then donn as in ‘bonny’ or more like ‘bunny’ and the final n sounds like ny in canyon - so ‘illann donnañ’. I visited there when I was a student at smo.uhi.ac.uk and it is beautiful inside. It’s entirely modern, having been (relatively) recently been rebuilt from a pile of rubble after it was blown up iirc.

If I were driving from Inverness I would drive via the north road - over the Black Isle and across then down through Srath Carrann - as there’s a lot less traffic. If you go that way, watch out for unmarked police cars. That’s where I got done the last time when I was coming home from the airport. Janet told me that recently three guys got done for doing over 140 mph on the straight there. Do not drive in the dark, too dangerous with deer all over the road.

EE or perhaps Three good 4G+3G, O2 no reception at all in some places but may have improved now.

sevenlayermuddle:
Agree with Weaver, re Northern route from Imverness to Kyle, I gave exactly the same advice to friends a few weeks ago.   I’ve never driven it, but having researched it a little, I found myself  wanting to do so!   

Don’t be put off by single track roads up North.   They are very easy and fun to drive, with copious and well marked passing places.   Just be aware that the highway code requires us to use the passing places to let others overtake and the locals, often quite assertively, expect us to have read that bit.

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