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Glencoe to the Isle of Skye

Scotland, UK · 27 stories · 1–2 days

From the haunted glen of the 1692 massacre to the Glenfinnan Viaduct, over the sea to Skye and round the Trotternish ridge to the castle that guards the Fairy Flag.

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Stories along the way

  1. 1. The Betrayal at GlencoeImagine inviting soldiers into your home on a freezing winter night. For nearly two weeks, you feed them, share your hearth, and live side by side. Then, at five in the morning,…
  2. 2. The Appin MurderOn a mild May afternoon in 1752, a single musket shot echoed through the woods of Lettermore. A man slouched forward in his saddle, crying out to his companions, "Oh, I am dead!…
  3. 3. The Collapse of Ben NevisAs you travel through the high, wet country of Lochaber, you are moving beneath a giant that is not quite what it seems. What looks like a massive wall of gray rock is actually…
  4. 4. Neptune's StaircaseImagine pushing a heavy wooden pole round and round in the Scottish rain—seven full circles just to budge a single canal gate, repeated over a hundred times, taking half a day…
  5. 5. The Shores of Loch EilThe sea loch stretching out around here is Loch Eil, though if you look into the regional history, you will notice a subtle shift in spelling. The body of water itself is written…
  6. 6. The Glenfinnan MonumentAs you travel through Glenfinnan, you are following a route opened by civil engineer Thomas Telford in 1812. Just two years after his new road connected Fort William to Arisaig, a…
  7. 7. The Arches of GlenfinnanAs you travel into the rugged stretches of Lochaber at the head of Loch Shiel, twenty-one majestic concrete arches sweep across the valley floor, elevated a hundred feet above the…
  8. 8. Steam on the West Highland LineYou are travelling through a landscape shaped by water, mountain, and iron. The railway line cutting through here, running forty-one miles between Fort William and Mallaig, was…
  9. 9. The Sound of ArisaigYou are traveling along a stretch of Scottish coast where land and sea tangle into deep, sheltered inlets. This is the Sound of Arisaig, a protected marine sanctuary separating…
  10. 10. Arisaig and the Safe BayAs you come into this wild stretch of the Scottish west coast known as the Rough Bounds, the Gaelic name Arisaig translates simply as safe bay. But over the centuries, safety was…
  11. 11. Filming Local Hero in ScotlandIf you are driving along the sweeping coasts of Scotland—whether past the sharp sea cliffs of Pennan in Aberdeenshire or the white sands near Camusdarach on the west coast—you are…
  12. 12. The Rough Bounds of MorarYou are coming into the Rough Bounds of Scotland, a landscape carved by dramatic water. Just nearby lies Loch Morar, the deepest body of fresh water in the British Isles,…
  13. 13. From Seventeen Plots to Europe's PortAs you approach the far edge of Morar, where the road meets the saltwater facing Skye across the Sound of Sleat, you are coming into Mallaig. It looks like an ancient Atlantic…
  14. 14. The Ruined Theatre of ArmadaleAs you travel through Armadale on the Isle of Skye, looking out over the waters of the Sound of Sleat, you are passing the former heartland of the MacDonalds. Standing among the…
  15. 15. The Great Barn of SkyeAs you travel through the Sleat peninsula in the south of the Isle of Skye, you are coming into the site of a quietly radical experiment. Its name is Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, which…
  16. 16. Secrets of Broadford BayYou are coming into a long, sweeping village that curves around the water, sitting right in the shadow of the Red Cuillin mountains. The Vikings called this place Breiðafjorðr,…
  17. 17. The Barefoot Runner of GlamaigAs you travel around here, keep an eye out for a mountain that looks almost unreal: a steep, near-perfect cone of loose gravel rising straight up beside Sligachan. This is…
  18. 18. The Crossroads of SligachanAs you pass through Sligachan, you are arriving at one of the great crossroads of Skye, right where the roads from Portree, Dunvegan, and Broadford meet beneath the dark heights…
  19. 19. The Story of PortreeYou are coming into Portree, a sheltered harbour town ringed by steep cliffs on the Isle of Skye. The name in Scottish Gaelic is Port Rìgh, which translates to King’s Port. Local…
  20. 20. The Pinnacles of The StorrAround here on the Trotternish peninsula of Skye, the earth once quite literally slid away. You are passing through the Trotternish landslip, the longest geological collapse in…
  21. 21. Where Loch Mealt Meets the SeaAs you travel along the eastern edge of Skye’s Trotternish peninsula, you come upon a body of water that seems to be trying to leap straight into the ocean. This is Loch Mealt, a…
  22. 22. The QuiraingA nightmare of nature. That is how the Victorian poet Alexander Smith described the dramatic, shattered landscape of the Quiraing. You are travelling through the northern reaches…
  23. 23. The Falling Walls of DuntulmOut on the northern tip of the Trotternish peninsula, high on a dark basalt promontory carved by the sea, stand the shattered remains of Duntulm Castle. It looks almost impossible…
  24. 24. The Real Flora MacDonaldImagine a prince on the run, a stormy Hebridean sea, and a young Highland woman smuggling him to safety—disguised, of all things, as an Irish maid named Betty Burke. It is the…
  25. 25. The Bay of UigYou are coming into Uig, a village stretched along the hillside surrounding the deep amphitheatre of its bay. The name itself goes straight back to the Old Norse word vík, which…
  26. 26. The Fortune of EdinbaneAs you travel past the foot of the Waternish Peninsula, you are passing through Edinbane. The Gaelic name here is An t-Aodann Bàn, meaning the fair hill-face. Local tradition says…
  27. 27. The Stronghold of Clan MacLeodYou are coming along the eastern shore of Loch Dunvegan, where the sea loch carves deep into the Isle of Skye. Perched right on the summit of a sheer rock, fifty feet above the…