Broadford

Broadford, An t-Àth Leathann in Gaelic, is the second-largest settlement on Skye, a string of townships along 2.4km of the south side of Broadford Bay. Wikipedia traces the English name to the Old Norse for “wide bay” and records that it was a cattle market from the late 1700s. Marble was quarried at the foot of the hill behind it through the 1800s, and a railway built in 1904 carried it to the pier.

Why base here

Broadford is where the A851 and the B8083 leave the A87, which makes it the junction for south Skye. The A87 runs through it from Portree to the Skye Bridge, and Wikipedia describes the village as overlooked by the Red Cuillin, with Beinn na Caillich, 732m, the hill to the west. Its case over Portree is position: it has a Co-op supermarket and a filling station, and it is the nearest base on this site to Blà Bheinn, 8.5km from the village in a straight line, against the 27 miles from Portree to Torrin that the Blà Bheinn page quotes. The cost is distance from Trotternish, where the island’s best-known walks and viewpoints are.

On foot versus by car

Neither listed activity starts from the village. Blà Bheinn begins at a car park off the B8083 near Loch Slapin, beyond Torrin, and Wikipedia records that the B8083 leaves the A87 at the western end of Broadford and runs to Elgol. The round is 8km with 990m of ascent, graded hard, with a loose scree gully and a short scramble near the top, so it is a full day. Skye sea kayaking, 25.4km away in a straight line, is run by North Skye Outdoors around Portree and Uig, and the operator’s page names no launch from Broadford, so book it as a separate drive.

Practicalities

Skye has no railway. The nearest station is Kyle of Lochalsh, the terminus of the Kyle of Lochalsh Line, which Wikipedia says runs 63 miles from Dingwall, and the A87 crosses to the island by the Skye Bridge, which Wikipedia describes as a road bridge over Loch Alsh. Wikipedia names buses 55 and 155 in its entry on the village, so check the operator’s timetable before building a car-free week on either. The A851 runs from Broadford to Armadale.

Who this base does not suit

Broadford suits a walker who wants one Cuillin day and does not mind driving for the rest. It does not suit anyone whose list is the Old Man of Storr and the Quiraing, which start on the Trotternish peninsula, and the sea kayaking this site lists is in the north. For those, and for a town with more of everything, Portree is the better base, and a week here without a car would be a week in a single village.