The Isle of Skye is such a beautiful and unique landscape, regardless of where you are on the island. But there is undeniably something extraordinary about the Trotternish Peninsula, from its stunning coastal views to the otherworldly interior landscapes, you’ll want to stop to admire the view (and take pictures) every 5 minutes. Owing to a colossal landslip created over millions of years, this is where you’ll find the most dramatic landscapes on the Isle of Skye. The sheer amount of natural sights and attractions is unmatched elsewhere on Skye, making this 50-mile loop around the peninsula a must-do during your time on Skye. Below we present our Trotternish Loop Travel Guide, which includes information on the best attractions, how to plan an itinerary, and advice on how to make the most out of your time in the area.
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You might also be interested in these pages:
Top Things to See and Do on Skye
4-Day Roadtrip Isle of Skye Itinerary
Isle of Skye Travel Guide: Things to Know Before You Go
Where to Stay on the Isle of Skye
Skye’s Best Hiking and Walking Trails
Best Scenic Drives and Routes Through the Scottish Highlands
Orientation – Where is the Trotternish Peninsula
Owing to a colossal landslip created over millions of years, this is where you’ll find the most dramatic landscapes on the Isle of Skye. The Trotternish Peninsula is located in the northeast corner of Skye, and the loop around starts in Skye’s largest town, Portree, regardless of the direction you choose to take.
If you were to drive nonstop, it would take you about 1h40 minutes to drive around the entire peninsula. This can be cut to 1h25 if you skip the northern tip of the peninsula, which is an interesting option to save some time, particularly if you want to hike the Quiraing trail.
At its shortest, including all the photo stops and viewpoints, this loop is a half-day roadtrip but it can easily turn into a full-day trip depending on how many hiking trails (there are several to choose from) you want to do along the way. If you are not interested in hiking, there are plenty of waterfalls and beautiful viewpoints worthy of a stop along the way.
Note that during the high season (summer), there will undoubtedly be more traffic than at other times of the year which may slow you down at some points. The same applies to parking spots, where some places may be full at midday during high season. Also note that if travelling during the winter months, you’ll have significantly fewer daylight hours and won’t have as much to visit all the attractions combined with some hiking.
Visiting the peninsula can be quite difficult by public transport. Although there is a city bus that circles the peninsula, the timing and frequency of the service will limit your ability to see multiple sites in one day.
For advice and tips on how to drive in Scotland, check out our Scotland Roadtrip Driving Guide. For advice and tips that are more specific to Skye with a focus on single-track roads, check out our Isle of Skye Road Trip Driving Guide.
If you haven’t booked your rental vehicle yet, we highly recommend using Discover Cars to get the best rates on your rental in Scotland.
Alternatively, a good option is probably to join a Skye group tour from Portree.
Alternatively, you can join an organized tour from Inverness (1-day) or Edinburgh (3-day).
Roads of the Loop
Overall, the roads of the Trotternish Peninsula are easy to navigate and in good condition (though you might come across the occasional pothole, especially soon after a harsh winter). The main attractions are for the most part well sign-posted. However, there are a few sections of the A855 road leaving Portree that are single-track, as is the entire road connecting Brogaig to Uig, which is the road you need to take to get the Quiraing. For advice and tips on how to best navigate these roads, check out our Isle of Skye Road Trip Driving Guide.
Food, Facilities, parking, and toilets
There are a few public toilets along the loop: in Portree, at the Old Man of Storr, and at The Skye Museum of Island Life. However, there are several restaurants along the way where you will likely be able to use the restroom in case of emergency. For a lunch stop, we particularly enjoyed The Galley Cafe & Takeaway near Uig. They offer delicious hearty dishes and seafood plates for a quick lunch stop when looping around the peninsula (or after a good hike at the Quiraing or a nice stroll through the Fairy Glen).
Most of the attractions highlighted below have dedicated off-road parking lots. Occasionally, you will also find food trucks in some of the parking lots, but none of those were open when we visited in September.
Main Trotternish attractions
The following attractions are listed in the order you will see them if you drive the loop counter-clockwise starting with the east coast of the peninsula, and skipping the northern tip of the peninsula by cutting across from Brogaig to Uig and stopping at the Quairing along the way (you will find a map of all these attractions at the bottom of this section). We chose to cut the attractions from the northern tip from this list as unless you’re only stopping briefly for a few photos, you won’t be able to see everything along the Trotternish Peninsula in only one day. We have however highlighted several northern tip sites of interest in another section section below.
Loch Fada & View of Storr
Here you can get a fantastic view of Skye’s most famous landmark with the beautiful Loch Fada in the foreground. There isn’t a proper parking lot here, only a small lay-by with space for 1-2 vehicles.
Bride’s Veil Falls
You can easily see the falls from the road, but it’s worth a quick stop to better appreciate it as there is space for several vehicles. You can also do a short scramble up the side of the falls for better views of the surrounding scenery.
Old Man of Storr hike
The Old Man of Storr, a towering pinnacle and an iconic landmark of the Isle of Skye, is where you can experience one of Scotland’s most spectacular hiking trails. Although you have probably seen many pictures of the area before, there is definitely something special about seeing it with your own two eyes. Most people can complete this out-and-back hike in under two hours.
This hike is one of two amazing hikes you can do on the Trotternish Peninsula along with the Quiraing (there are many others too, but these are the two you should try to do during your stay here).
For more information on this trail, check out our Old Man of Storr Hiking Guide.
Old Man of Storr Viewpoint
If you don’t want to do the hike or don’t have the time, you can go ahead to this spot, which is where the tour buses stop briefly so that people can take photos of Storr and the surrounding cliffs from below.
Lealt Falls
More than a quick photo-op, the Lealt Falls area offers many walking and short hiking options to better view the falls from both above and below (you can get much closer than we actually did), in addition to short trails offering spectacular views of the peninsula coastline (which is we spent most of our time). Parking here is easy thanks to the large car park.
Kilt Rock & Mealt Falls
Here you will find two attractions for the price of one, both visible from the same observation point. One of these is Mealt Falls, one of Scotland’s most beautiful, plunging down off a sharp cliff straight into the sea. The other is Kilt Rock, basalt columns that look strikingly similar to a pleated kilt. Once you’ve arrived, there is a surprisingly large parking lot, making it one of the easiest places to park when looping around the peninsula. Don’t forget to look on the other side of the parking lot (to the south), the coastal views are quite spectacular there too.
The Quirang (and hike)
The second most popular area of the loop is the Quirang. A history of landslides has transformed the area into some of the most otherworldly landscapes you have ever seen. The good news here for those that aren’t keen on hiking long distances, you can still get some of the best views of the Quiraing from just beyond the parking lot, requiring almost no effort at all – though we still do highly recommend the hike, it was one of our favorite hikes! The full circuit is a more challenging hike than the Old Man of Storr, requiring on average about 3 hours to complete.
For more information on this trail, check out our Quiring Hiking Guide.
Fairy Glen
The final stop of this loop is the Fairy Glen, a small area made up of round hills and ponds where you can take a leisurely stroll. It will take about 30 minutes to cover the area on foot, but you can definitely stay longer if you enjoy the scenery at the fairy-like atmosphere. There is a tall basalt rock standing on a hill giving it the illusion of a castle (it’s in fact called Castle Ewen). You can climb to the top for some stunning views of the surrounding area.
For more information on this area, check out our Fairy Glen Guide.
Sights along the road
We don’t want to showcase any attraction in particular here. We simply want to provide you with some additional roadside views that show that the scenery is quite stunning even if you are not at a specific attraction or site of interest. Definitely one of the most scenic drives to do in Scotland.
Loop Map
Northern Tip of the Peninsula
We highlighted above the main sights and attractions of the peninsula, which can also easily be seen within a day even if you plan on doing a hike or two. If you have more time to dedicate to the peninsula, however, you might also be interested in some of these additional attractions (not listed in any particular order):
Portree – although the loop starts in Portree, Skye’s largest town, we recommend leaving your visit here either at the end of the loop or saving it for another day (especially if you are based in Portree). It’s a great place to relax, wind down and explore at a leisurely pace. You’ll find a fair number of restaurants, pubs, eateries and gift shops.
For more information on visiting Portree, check out our Top Things to See and Do in Portree.
Skye Museum of Life – Less of an outdoorsy adventure, the museum is a great place to go if you want to learn more about the history of the Isle of Skye and its people. More information can be found on the museum’s website.
Duntulm Castle – The crumbling ruins of a castle, abandoned since the 1730s, are perched here atop a cliff near the northern tip of the peninsula. Built in the 15th century, it served as the seat of the chiefs of Clan MacDonald of Sleat. Note that there isn’t much left of the original castle, a 400-meter walk is required from the road to get there, and there is no dedicated car park.
Staffin Dinosaur Museum and An Corran Beach – Wait, what? Dinosaurs? Yeah, there is evidence of dinosaurs here on Skye! There are a few different spots where they can be seen along the peninsula, but most can be found along An Corran Beach where you can find around 20 fossilized dinosaur footprints in the rocks – however, to the untrained eye they can be quite hard to find, not to mention that they are also often covered by sand and/or seaweed, or are just plain invisible during high-tide. For more context and history, be sure to check out the Staffin Dinosaur Museum.
Brothers Point – Here lies a dramatic headland that juts out into the sea and marks the easternmost point of the Isle of Skye. To get to the eastern tip, you’ll have to hike (likely through very boggy terrain) just over 1.5km from the small lay-by off the main road where you can park (3km return trip – so plan about an hour to give yourself some time to enjoy the coastal views).
Planning your Trotternish itinerary
This road trip is great because it can be easily customized depending on how much time you have on the Isle and whether or not you want to do some of the amazing hikes along the way.
We recommend doing the loop counterclockwise and starting in the early morning. This is because most of the sights of interest are on the eastern side of the peninsula and the light will be better for photography and enjoying the scenery — not to mention that the roads won’t be as busy and parking will be much easier early in the day.
As highlighted above, we propose an itinerary that bypasses the northern tip of the peninsula. Following this itinerary in addition to hiking the Quiraing trail will likely take you 6-7 hours, which we feel makes for a good but not overly demanding day of exploration. Adding the northern peninsula sites (including stops) would likely add another 2 hours to the loop.
Also notice that we only mentioned the Quiraing hike and not the Old Man of Storr hike, which we did on a separate day. Including the Old Man of Storr hike means adding another 90-120 min to your Trotternish Loop itinerary.
So if you would like to keep your Trotternish loop under 7 hours: we recommend seeing all of the main attractions listed above except for the Old of Man Storr hike and keeping it for another day if possible, as it’s only a 15-minute drive from Portree.
Nearby attractions on Skye
Sligachan Old Bridge and Waterfall – An ideal stop roughly halfway between the Skybridge and Portree, Sligachan is where you’ll find Skye’s most beautiful stone bridge, backdropped by the stunning Black Cuillin mountains. A short walk from the bridge, you can find an idyllic waterfall in a beautiful natural surrounding. We highly recommend taking this short walk to truly immerse yourself in nature away from the busy road by the bridge.
Dunvegan Castle – The ancestral seat of the MacLeods on Skye is the isle’s most stunning castle, and it is the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Scotland: over 800 years and counting. It’s also the only castle in Skye where you can tour the interior and learn about the rich history of the Clan Macleod. The castle’s gardens are also quite spectacular and vast, you can easily get lost in them for an hour or more.
Talisker Distillery – Sample some whiskey at Skye’s oldest and most famous distillery. Even if you are not a Whisky aficionado, the experience and the beautiful setting on the banks of Loch Harport make it a worthwhile trip. It’s also easily combined with a visit to either the Talisker Bay walk (see below) or the Fairy Pools walk.
Eilean Donan – Though not technically on Skye, it is a must-visit for anyone visiting Skye via the Skybridge. It is without a doubt one of Scotland’s most photogenic Castles. Sitting beautifully at the intersection of three lochs, this castle was originally built to protect the region against Viking invasions several centuries ago, however, the version you see today was reconstructed as a family home in the early 20th century.
Neist Point Lighthouse – A beautiful drive along a long and winding road will take you to the stunning vistas of Skye’s most photogenic lighthouse. You can also go for a short 2 km hike to visit the lighthouse up close (the interior is closed to the public, however).
To get the views seen in the pictures below, you only need to walk a few hundred meters from the parking lot. The landscape around the lighthouse is beautiful even if you view it from afar.
Preparing a trip to the Highlands?
You might be interested in these pages:
Top Things to See and Do on Skye
4-Day Roadtrip Isle of Skye Itinerary
Isle of Skye Travel Guide: Things to Know Before You Go
Where to Stay on the Isle of Skye
Skye’s Best Hiking and Walking Trails
Preparing a trip to Scotland?
You might be interested in these Scotland pages:
10-Day Scotland Roadtrip Itinerary (Edinburgh and Highlands)
Scotland Driving Guide and Tips
7 of the Best Castles to Visit in Scotland
Best Things to See in the Scottish Highlands
Best Hikes to do in the Scottish Highlands
We also highly recommend these guidebooks:
Rick Steves Scotland
Lonely Planet Scotland’s Highlands
Photography Gear
If you like our photography, you might be interested in some of the gear we use to shoot our travel and hiking destinations.
Camera Body – Nikon Z 6ii Fx-series Mirrorless Body
Main Lens – NIKON 24-120mm F/4G ED VR AF-S
Zoom Lens – Sigma 745-306 150-600mm f/5-6.3
Polarizing filters – Urth Circular Polarizing (CPL)
Camera Tripod – K&F Concept 64-inch Camera Tripod
Mini-tripod – Lammcou Flexible Camera Tripod
Camera/hiking backpack – Vanguard Alta Rise 48 Backpack
Universal Travel Adapter – VYLEE Universal International Power Travel Plug
Other Travel Essentials
Travel Insurance
SafetyWing is a travel insurance company that offers comprehensive coverage for travellers. Includes Medical Insurance and Travel Insurance. Primarily geared towards long-term travellers, digital nomads, and expats.
e-Sim cards
Airalo is the world’s first and largest eSIM store with eSIM plans for 200+ countries and regions worldwide. With Airalo eSIMs, travellers can get connected the moment they land at their destination and avoid nasty data roaming charges
eSIMS are a sustainable alternative to single-use SIM cards – they are 100% digital, require less energy to produce and be re-used rather than disposed of.
Car Rentals
Discover Cars is our go-to website for car rentals. We almost always find our preferred rate there.
Transfer from Airport
Welcome Pickups is our favourite private transfer service, which you can pre-book at a fixed price. Currently available in 220 cities all over the world (mostly in Europe, but with several major cities in Asia, the Middle East and the US).
Kiwitaxi is another private transfer service – we haven’t tried it yet, but it’s currently available in a few more countries (102 as of 2024).
Hotels and Accommodations (coming soon)
Photography Prints
If you found this blog useful, you can help support our blog by purchasing low-cost digital prints. Printed physical prints are also available for purchase.
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Well, that wraps it up! We hope you enjoyed our Trotternish Loop Travel Guide and that it will prove useful for planning your trip to Scotland’s beautiful Isle of Skye.
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