I first discovered Skye in 1972. When I married Janet she fell in love with the place immediately and we decided that every year we would have one holiday on Skye, although we do go to other places as well!
What follows is a guide to the Isle of Skye based upon our own explorations. It is not a complete or definitive tourist guide, and it is not intended to be. It is simply a collection of our own views and experiences. Since the site is a private site run as a hobby, we are not under any obligation to advertisers and our views are therefore honest and impartial.
All the place names are in English, because we are English. We certainly have no objection to other languages and cultures, but since we do not speak Gaelic, there being no call for it in Lancashire, we have used English place names, rather than the Gaelic ones.
The photos on the site fall into three categories, "good"," not as good", and "better than a blank space for the moment." The reason for this is that the images fall into three groups which are, in order of quality, those taken with an Olympus C860L digital camera, prints scanned in using a flatbed scanner, and 35mm slides scanned in using a cheap film scanner. Eventually I hope to make all the images on the site high quality digital ones.
We hope you will find the site useful as a reference source, or perhaps for planning your own holiday.
Be warned however that Skye is for the self reliant. If you are the sort of person who needs to be entertained, who feels the need to be in a crowd, or who likes the funfair, nightclubs, candy floss doughnuts and donkey dung, Skye is not for you.
To get about on Skye you will require good maps. Maps are essential if you are thinking of walking or climbing. Skye is not called "the misty isle" for no reason. The weather can change quickly, making the landscape disorientating.
The best maps are made by the Ordnance Survey and are readily available in book shops, climbers' shops and sometimes at post offices. The Ordnance survey has its own website.
I was hoping to use their maps to illustrate this site, but that will not be possible. When I approached them for permission they wanted an arm and a leg in royalties, and I am damned if I am going to pay them vast amounts of money for the privilege of giving them a free plug on my site.
When I am walking on Skye, I navigate by common sense, the mark 1 eyeball, map, compass and GPS in that order. It is as well to remember that certain parts of Skye contain magnetic rock, making the compass unreliable, mainly in parts of the Black Cuillin. Good maps are essential, and the Ordnance Survey, in spite of their greed and stupidity, do make good maps.
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Here are a few non geographical links which the visitor to Skye may find useful:
The holiday
was great. Should I go and live there?
If you are concerned about the extent to which British motorists are being persecuted in the New Labour Government's age of rule by diktat, visit the following site:
An absolutely excellent Skye site, and much more professionally done than this rather cranky and eccentric affair is www.blaven.com
I commend it to you, but dont forget to return here!
For other magical and mystical stuff about Scotland look at:
Right, back to maps. The way to get about the site is to click on the map below. Please remember that the map is only a diagram and is not suitable for navigation. Do be patient and wait for the map to load, it is the only large graphic on the site and you will need it to get around.
Hint: If your pointer turns into a hand, you have found something worth clicking on!
Copyright © Gareth Boote 2006
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