“It’s difficult to eat badly on Skye,” says Isabella Macdonald, owner of Kinloch Lodge (a foodie-focused hotel and previous Macdonald shooting lodge), “with sheds serving oysters straight from the loch, little coffee shops offering delicious soup, homemade bakes, and comfortable restaurants serving a relaxed fine-dining dinner.”
Having grown up in the soft, evocative Sleat Peninsula-enveloping Kinloch Lodge, Isabella learned the value of provenance long before it slipped on to trendy restaurant menus. Indeed, The Isle of Skye’s enviable array of land and sea bounty — hand-dived scallops, langoustine and freshwater oysters, venison from the hills, sheep grazing on sweet heather, marine plants and wild herbs — embodies the oft-overstretched terms locavorism and seasonality in their purest form.
Co-founder of 57Ë Skye earth and sea spirits, Séamus Ó Baoighill, also attributes the island’s culinary caché to its long-established tradition of responsible sourcing and distilling — tapping into ancient crafts and leaving local ingredients to steer flavours. The produce is so good that even the humble sandwich, served from tin shacks, can persuade newcomers to uproot and forage their supper or pluck shellfish from gin-clear waters for a peat-smoked, lochside lunch.
A raft of talented chefs have seized the opportunity to raid Skye’s rich and varied pantry, with The Three Chimneys overlooking a glassy Loch Dunvegan perhaps the most famous standard bearer on this wildly rugged isle. Curiously, many of the fine dining hotels and restaurants are taking their cue from the more casual, home-spun outfits. They’re turning their backs on molecular, moussey-frothy fine dining for elevated spins on simple, seasonal fare — showing off Skye’s treasures with measured restraint.
Skye’s cinematic landscape is pure hiker fantasy. From wind-battered fishing villages gazing into shifting coral skies, abruptly turning into a hazy outline of the Hebrides, to the moody castles strewn across heather-carpeted valleys with views of the mountains’ crooked spines.
Skye’s mercurial essence can be found in the whipping rain on the glens, the meteor showers on crisp nights, the mirror-like lochs that only fuel the Cuillin Mountains’ well-founded narcissism. It’s this vastness and shape-shifting weather that dominate, carving the locals’ hardy, no-nonsense character and dispensing visitors with an involuntary shot of humility (along with tinkling drams of Gaelic whiskies).
It can be worth braving the crowds at honeypot destinations — the fairy pools, Glen Brittle and the Old Man of Storr. But for a glimpse of Skye’s rugged soul, slip off-grid and explore the island under your own steam. Or, follow in-the-know ghillies (such as Kinloch Lodge’s Mitchell Partridge) on bracing, heather-stomps through lonely valleys policed by golden eagles and red deer, and steeped in old Norse lore.
Where to stay
West Coast Cabin
The owners of this remote, minimalist cabin were originally drawn to Skye for its winter: “the weather can be wild, the colours spectacular and the walks bracing. The storms roll in from the ocean and the weather changes constantly; one day can be wild, the next clear as a bell, we returned time and time again until we made our home here.” The six-person cabin on Skye’s rugged west coast, where wind-swept grassland meets steep, coarse-grained cliffs, taps into this elemental allure. Large windows pull in the surrounding browns, greens and endless blue. Creamy porridge breakfasts are best enjoyed on the terrace, gazing out from a dizzying height across an ever-changing Loch Pooltiel.
From £275 per night, book here.
Kinloch Lodge
Previously the shooting lodge of Scotland’s fabled MacDonald clan, Kinloch Lodge typifies the Highland white-washed and grey-roofed specs amid endless greens and glassy greys. The secluded landscape evinces ends of the earth — where even a large house feels vulnerable and beholden to the mist and the skies.
Despite the family portraits lining the walls and the chintz inside, the sitting rooms and bedrooms feel remarkably comfortable and unpretentious. Raised on a diet of hospitality by her two parents twisting their family home into a hotel, Isabella Macdonald has overseen some fresh reimaginings of the 18 bedrooms (all with loch view). Her and her mother Lady Claire Macdonald’s hyper-local approach to cooking placed Kinloch Lodge on Skye’s top restaurant lists well before the notion became sexy in top-drawer kitchens.
Transcending tasting menu banality, it’s all about creatively cooking whatever’s plucked from Kinloch’s kitchen garden, the loch, the Atlantic and the island’s craggy hills (with head chef Jordan Webb offering guests cook-what-you-forage experiences).
The home-style bar is always fully stocked with local malts, the fires roaring, and cinnamon porridge breakfasts worth waking up for.
Doubles from £395, book here.
Milovaig House
A Scandi-Scot reimagining of a 19th-century crofter’s cottage, Milovaig House is perched atop the cliffs of a sea loch. The Northern Lights animate the sky in winter and whales, dolphin and seals are often spotted from the sheep-fleece-covered chairs.
Sitting on working croft land, Milovaig is 30-odd miles from the nearest supermarket and worlds away from light pollution. This makes its star-studded sky under a Swedish-style wood-burning hot tub all the more ethereal.
Loch Pooltiel’s shifting shades and moods can be observed throughout the day from every room in the house, while views from Skye’s tallest sea cliffs and a fuzzy outline of the outer Hebrides offer a theatrical backdrop for breakfasts. Sleeping four, with an extra sofa bed for two children or one adult on request, this design-forward bolthole takes Highland seclusion to new luxe levels.
From £205 per night, book here.
Bracken Hide
Bracken Hide may be new to the island but its low-impact, farm-to-table convictions are certainly not. Opening from March 31 this year, this self-described luxury wilderness resort hotel promises to anchor guests in their resplendent setting through food, interiors and workshops. This chimes with the island’s hyper-local-seasonal identity and keeps footprints through the moss and heather soft.
Just outside Portree, the island’s capital, the hotel comprises a series of rustic-modish-designed cabins with sea or mountain views, dotted around a central hub with its restaurant, whisky bar and a wild plunge pool fed by the hotel’s own stream (best braved after a stint in Estonian-style saunas).
From £240 per night, book here.
The Flodigarry Hotel
Skye’s grande dame, the Flodigarry, lies at the foot of a landscape formed by a large and ancient landslip, the Quiraing. The Flodigarry is a rather austere Victorian building, which for centuries has watched the mists collect in the hills, the waves whip up a tempestuous froth in the Atlantic just beyond the cliffs ahead, and the sunlight bestow the surrounding green slopes an ethereal glow.
This Trotternish peninsula-located hotel could feature in a children’s storybook, merely for its dramatic perch along soaring cliffs and just in front of surging, moss-strewn mountains. A drive here is a drive to the ends of the earth, the sort of Bonnie Prince Charlie epic that surely ends in a dead-of-night boat trip, disguised as ‘Betty’.
The mahogany four-poster beds and old bar only add to these fantasies, though contemporary flourishes (sleek modern bathtubs, concrete walls, wicker footstools) keep things current.
Outdoorsy types can wolf down Scottish breakfasts before beach walks and long hikes along the spines of mountains, with drams on the (sometimes) sunny terrace to look forward to, or supper in the Conservatory restaurant with an angry sunset burning the Atlantic horizon.
Doubles from £255 per night, book here.
Skeabost House Hotel
Just 10 minutes from Portree, yet smothered in ancient woodland, Skeabost is your archetypal Scottish laird. It has all the tweed, Viking lore and dark-hued Victorian trimmings American tourists long for.
Naturally, it excels at Highland pursuits — fly fishing along the river Snizort that snakes through its grounds, golf on its nine-hole course, and loch-side suppers with ingredients snatched from its bowels a few hours ago.
The hotel is in plum position for day trips, such as Waternish, Uig and The Old Man of Storr. There are daily sails available on the Skeabost’s own yacht to the Small Isles and the remote Knoydart Peninsula, though plenty of outdoorsy afternoons can be found in the grounds, with ghillie (a Gaelic term for a person who helps on a fishing expedition) Danny Docherty.
The grand old hunting lodge’s interiors are a joy to return to, with lantern-lit rooms, dark, brooding leather-and-tartan corners and loch views framed by four-poster beds.
Doubles from £145 per night, book here.
Where to eat
The Three Chimneys, Colbost
If life-shifting food indebted to its remote, unsullied location is what puts Skye on most foodie pilgrim lists, The Three Chimneys is usually at the very top of it. This pitch-perfect example of the island’s hyper-local, low-key but first-rate food can be found in Colbost, peering over Loch Dunvegan and turning its back on the dizzying pace of modern life.
Wide-eyed punters pull up here after scenic drives, swapping tweeds and North Face puffers for smart-casual garbs in the pared-down, Scandinavian-style restaurant. Here, they’re taken on a tasting tour of Skye, via Loch Dunvegan Grab with ginger, almond and yoghurt sauce; roasted double dived scallops with confit leg and pear tart; Vatten Croft beef with squash and Skye Ale Sauce, and the like.
Granny Smith woodruff with burnt cream and crowdie cake puddings are easily walked off along the loch, with Dunvegan Castle and Neist Point Lighthouse also not far away.
The Oyster Shed, Crabost
Yanked from the crystal-clear waters of Loch Harport, oysters don’t come much fresher than these, nor do the mussels, scallops and langoustines that also grow in the nearby lochs.
Owner and oyster farmer Paul McGlynn opened the rough-and-ready Oyster Shed in 2012 to sell his spanking fresh shellfish direct. A BYOB seafood kitchen soon followed in 2015. It has since consolidated itself on Skye’s foodie map, with a whisky bottle from nearby Tallisker Distillery a ritualised part of the experience. Come for lobster grilled in garlic butter and mussels steamed in white wine, and of course, the oysters.
Edinbane Lodge
From Wednesday to Saturday, this 16th-century hunting lodge in the village of Edinbane puts on a creative culinary show in a Skye-style cosy-casual room. This features original beams, dark wood panelling, and fishermen’s lamps illuminating old portraits.
Local delights such as oyster beignets with Edinbane Scurvygrass, barbecued Drumfearn Mussels with organic onions, and organic Clava Brie with heather honey take diners on a leisurely romp through Skye’s formidable landscapes. The presentation alone is enough to trek north for, and four freshly refurbished bedrooms make the wine pairing option all the more tempting.
Scorrybreac Restaurant
Set above the harbour in Portree, Scorrybreac hums the familiar Skye locavore tune with seasonal produce whipped up into modern Scottish cuisine with a wee dash of French fancy.
Shoreline sea vegetables, plants foraged from the woods, just-caught shellfish and local wild venison all feature on an impressive, ever-changing menu — expect Staffin mackerel with elderflower and sea arrow grass; Dunvegan roe deer with smoked cauliflower and blackberries; and lemon thyme cod with chanterelles, and the like.
While the puritanicals can stick to the local whiskies and gins, a wine list supplied by Edinburgh-based L’Art du Vin can be cleverly paired with the photogenic plates.
Stein Inn
As Skye’s oldest inn, Stein harks back to land-and-sea simplicity, with wholesome menus or glen-roaming venison, highland cattle and this-morning’s shellfish — not to mention Skye’s surrounding abundance of wild plants and herbs.
A whitewashed facade overlooking Loch Bay belies a cosy, tartan-carpeted interior, with old stone walls warmed by an amber glow and antlers suspended above a log burner. Visitors savour unfussy plates of peat-smoked Mallaig salmon, pickled herring in dill and Stein Inn’s haggis on baked potatoes. It’s hearty fare for lochside hikers.
Loch Bay restaurant
Despite its Michelin star and Instagrammable dish presentation, Loch Bay channels Skye’s unpretentious spirit, with husband-and-wife team Michael and Laurence Smith at the helm.
As head chef, Michael cooks up a seafood storm, with multiple-course menus showing off the nearby loch’s treasures as well as those from around the island. Expect twice-dived sconser scallops with fennel, citrus and seaweed, gratin of hake, clams and mussels and Bay lobster and monkfish with Highland chanterelles.
Unassuming interiors featuring a terracotta-tiled floor, a blackboard and paintings of Skye’s hilly landscapes keep things casual, and comfortingly, foodie-centred.
What to do
Travelling to Skye was once akin to a trek to the moon. However, with flights to Inverness, the Sleeper Train from London and the road bridge connecting the island to the mainland, it’s now a feasible option without days lost on the road.
Even if you fly, it’s necessary to hire a car to reach Skye but also to explore its various corners (and hold your jaw at the vast stretches of cinematic landscapes you’ll zoom through). Skye first-timers typically head to the Fairy Pools for a dip, clamber up the Old Man of Storr from Portree, explore Dunvegan’s 800-year history as a Highland fortress, or gaze into the sunset from Neist Point.
Locals advise a less “listy” approach, stumbling upon the island’s mist-strewn hills, shimmering lochs and unpretentious restaurants at a slower pace. Wilderness Scotland offers one of the best “off-grid” walking tours of the island. These feature boat trips into the heart of the Cuillin Mountains; hikes through some of the island’s most theatrical yet lesser-trodden landscapes; and hotel pit-stops in some of Skye’s most evocative, coastal or loch-side locations.
