📌 Portree, Isle of Skye
★★★
The expansive Aros Centre outside Portree is an important island hub, with functions as diverse as community centre, visitor centre, restaurant and even a small cinema. It’s a convenient place to stock up on tourist tat local souvenirs, but we’re here to talk about one of several walking routes plunging into the trees south of the car park. Some of these trails have a faintly neglected feel – an optimistic past attempt to redistribute Skye’s tourist crowds away from the “A-list sites”, perhaps – but this circuit in particular is a worthwhile way of getting familiar with a part of the island that many visitors only experience from inside a car or coach. The outward leg starts with a tiring climb through dark forest, but the reward is a stint on a high level track – with excellent views over Glen Varragill and north across the bay to Trotternish – before a very scenic (though soggy, particularly just following high tides) return along the shore of tidal Loch Portree. Unfortunately the route grew on us in another way too: the very last few hundred metres back to the car park was nearly blocked by high bracken on our midsummer visit. Possibly one for winter or springtime?
📷 Chronological photo guide
View across Loch Portree from the start 
Steep initial climb 
Possible eagle above Beinn na Greine 
Contouring the slopes of Beinn na Greine 
Descent into Glen Varragill – Cuillin Hills in the distance 
Looking back over Loch Portree 
Zoom of The Storr 
Sheep being herded across the Varragill River 
Varragill River 
Track alongside the Varragill River 
Sunshine over Portree & The Storr 
Varragill River 
Soggy path along Loch Portree 
Loch Portree &Ben Tianavaig 
Loch Portree 
The last few hundred metres were overgrown with ferns on our visit
🌍 Location
📌 Start / finish at Aros Centre, A87 1 mi south of Portree, Skye
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NG 477423
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 57.401315,-6.201218
🚌 Bus stops at Aros Centre
🚗Car park (locked overnight)
📝 Key info
▶ 5 km / 3 mi | ▲ 120 m | ⌛ 2 hr
Features: 💧Loch Portree; 📷 forest viewpoints
⬤ Moderate | Steep, clear path (high vegetation in summer) then good track for outward leg. Spongy, soggy return on marshland which is briefly submerged at high tide, becoming increasingly rough. Last 200 metres to car park is difficult to locate and overgrown in high summer!
Download file for GPS➡️ Anticlockwise circuit: start – path and track through forest above road to south – join A87 at 🧭 NG 475406 – leave B883 to follow west bank of Varragill River – west side of Loch Portree – start
🥾 On our last visit
Wildlife: Pair of eagles over Beinn na Greine. Sheep being herded across the bridge over the Varragill River.
Weather: Mostly overcast at first, sunny breaks developing. Dry with light winds.
August 2019
