Four nights on Skye for the two great viewpoints
The Storr and the Quiraing, with a spare day for the weather.
One base: Portree. You unpack once.
- Nights
- 4
- Best in
- Spring, Summer, Autumn
- First-time hill walkers
- Couples
Portree is Skye’s only town and the practical base for both of Trotternish’s famous viewpoints, though it’s worth being clear from the start that neither one is walkable from the town itself. Both the Storr and the Quiraing sit twenty to forty minutes up the A855, which narrows to single track in its northern half, so this trip needs a car in a way its Aviemore equivalent on the mainland does not.
Who this suits
First-time visitors to Skye who want its two best-known sights without a long build-up, and couples wanting a short island break with one easy adventure activity added in. Both the Storr and the Quiraing’s main viewpoints are within reach of anyone reasonably fit; the Storr’s 340 metres of ascent is the more demanding of the two, but neither approaches the scale of a mainland Munro.
The honest caveat
Four nights, not two, is deliberate. Skye’s weather turns quickly enough that a flying visit risks getting both viewpoints on a grey day, and the spare fourth day exists specifically to repeat whichever one drew the shorter straw. This is a sightseeing trip built around two short, busy walks, not a hillwalking holiday, and the Storr’s car park in particular is often full by mid-morning through summer. Anyone wanting solitude, or a longer day on foot, should extend beyond the Quiraing’s viewpoint into the fuller circuit beneath the cliffs, a rougher, longer walk than the version described here, or look further down this guide to the mainland bases instead.
Day by day
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Day 1
Onto the water from Portree harbour
Weekly taster sessions with a local sea kayaking operator launch directly from Portree harbour, a walk from the town centre, and need no previous experience, since instruction and equipment are both provided. It's a good use of an arrival day, since timing and location for the longer sessions elsewhere on the island depend on the wind and can change at short notice.
If it is coming down sideways: The Aros Centre in Portree runs exhibitions and a cinema under one roof.
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Day 2
The Old Man of Storr, early
The Old Man of Storr is the most photographed rock formation on Skye, a pinnacle standing apart from the Trotternish landslip's main cliffline, and the car park below it fills before mid-morning for most of the year. The path climbs through forestry before breaking onto open, increasingly eroded ground, five kilometres and 340 metres of ascent for a formation that looks nothing like any hill in Eryri or the Lake District.
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Day 3
The Quiraing
The road north from Portree narrows to single track well before it reaches the Quiraing, the northern end of the same landslip that produced the Storr, where landslides have carved out hidden plateaux and rock towers with their own names, the Table, the Needle, the Prison. The main viewpoint is only a few minutes from the car park; walkers wanting the fuller circuit beneath the cliffs should treat that as a separate, longer undertaking with rougher ground underfoot.
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Day 4
A slow day around the harbour
Four nights leaves a spare day, useful in practice for a return visit to whichever of the Storr or the Quiraing had the worse weather the first time, or simply for Portree itself, the harbour, the coloured houses above it, and lunch that doesn't involve a single-track road afterwards.
Where to stay for this trip
All within a short drive of Portree, so the day plans above still work.
