The Best Ways To Get To Isle Of Skye From Edinburgh

The Isle of Skye is the largest of Scotland’s Inner Hebrides, running 50 miles from tip to tail. It’s also one of the most staggeringly beautiful natural landscapes that Scotland - and, indeed, the whole of the UK - has to offer, so if you’re intending to visit, we’re very much not surprised. Unlike some of the other Hebrides isles, you’ll find villages and fishing activities here, as well as plenty of other signs of life. However, it’s far from bustling, making it a great place to escape for some quiet contemplation.

If you’re planning to visit the Isle of Skye, then one of the best bases of operations from which to do so is the city of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland (not Glasgow, as, for some reason, many people persist in believing). However, getting to the island itself isn’t necessarily an easy process. There are several ways to reach it, and each of them may not be suitable for your purposes depending on your personal parameters. Here are the best ways to reach the Isle of Skye from Edinburgh.

Driving

It’s probably easiest to drive straight from Edinburgh to the Isle of Skye if you’re looking for the most direct route. You may choose either to use your own car or to hire one. If you’ve brought your own car with you, it makes sense to use that for the journey.

The trip from Edinburgh to Skye will take a fair amount of time. As the crow flies, you’ll be spending around 4-5 hours on the journey, assuming you don’t run into traffic or need to stop along the way.

Trust us when we say that there’s plenty to see as you drive from Edinburgh to Skye, so not wanting to stop at all is probably a slightly unrealistic expectation!

As pointed out by the good folks at Wow Scotland Tours, driving from Edinburgh to Skye starts out easy on dual carriageway roads. You’ll then shift to single carriageway roads for around an hour and a half. Following that, you’ll be contending with more difficult Scottish Highland roads, which can be treacherous and tricky, not to mention busy with other cars.