Most of what you come to Skye for is free, outdoors and open at any hour: rock pinnacles, a landslip, sea cliffs and a string of pools under the Cuillin. What differs from one tour to the next is how long you get at each. Here is what each sight is, where it sits, and how many minutes the Isle of Skye tours give you there.
Trotternish is the northern peninsula above Portree, and it holds most of the famous views. Its spine is the Trotternish Ridge, a 19-mile escarpment of hard volcanic rock laid over weaker Jurassic sediments. The rock slips away from that ridge, and the slipping made both the Old Man of Storr and the Quiraing.
The pinnacle stands about 7 miles north of Portree, above the road to Staffin. From the car park the path climbs to its foot. The Storr's own site tells you to allow at least two hours up and down; fit walkers take about an hour and a half.
Sea cliffs of basalt columns further north, with a waterfall dropping off the edge into the sea. You see it from a railed viewpoint beside the car park, so a fifteen-minute stop is enough.
A landslip of green ridges, pinnacles and hollows near the top of the peninsula. The road over it has a viewpoint, and paths lead out along the cliffs if you have time to walk.
A gorge and waterfall between the Storr and Kilt Rock. Tours that pull in here stop for ten minutes to an hour.
If you want to walk to the Old Man of Storr, choose your tour for it. A stop of ten minutes, as the shared days from Inverness make, gives you the view from the road and nothing more.
West of the Cuillin mountains, the Fairy Pools are a chain of clear pools and small waterfalls in Glen Brittle. You walk to them from a car park on a rough path, and the tours that stop here give you between an hour and a quarter and two hours. That is enough to reach the main falls and come back without hurrying.
Sligachan sits at the head of a sea loch where the roads north and west meet. The old stone bridge there frames the peaks of the Cuillin, and almost every tour stops for a photograph. Allow ten to thirty minutes: it is a view, not a walk.
Neist Point is the most westerly headland on Skye, a long ridge of cliff with a lighthouse at its tip. A path runs out to it from the car park; the tour that goes there gives it an hour and a half. It is a long drive west of Portree, which is why the shared tours leave it out.
Only the 4-day private tour from Edinburgh or Glasgow names it in its itinerary, with an hour and a half there. If Neist Point is on your list, book a private tour and ask for it, or drive yourself.
The Fairy Glen is a small valley of grassy cone-shaped hills and rock outcrops, on a side road above the village of Uig. It is small enough to walk round in half an hour. The Highland Discovery private day from Inverness stops here, and so do some 3-day tours on their day on the island.
Plan it with the Quiraing: both are in the north of Trotternish, and a tour that stops at one often stops at the other. Wear shoes with grip, because the slopes are steep grass.
Some sights show up on a tour as a view through the window. Read the itinerary before you book so you know which ones you will stand at.
This table reads the day tours' own itineraries. A dash means the tour does not name the place. On a day from Inverness, the whole of Skye gets somewhere between one and four hours, so each tour chooses. Some give the Fairy Pools an hour and a half; others give you an hour in Portree and short stops in the north.
| Sight | Shared days from Inverness | Shared day from Portree | Private days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Man of Storr | Highland Explorer: 10 min; Timberbush: 10 min; WOW Scotland: 10 min | Tartan Trailblazer: 10 min | Highland Discovery: from the road; Aye Tours: 1 h 55; Top Private Tours, Portree: 1 h 30; Explore Skye: 2 h |
| Quiraing | Highland Explorer: 30 min | Tartan Trailblazer: 20 min | Highland Discovery: 15 min; Top Private Tours, Portree: 40 min; Explore Skye: 1 h |
| Kilt Rock | Highland Explorer: 15 min; Timberbush: 10 min; WOW Scotland: 15 min | Tartan Trailblazer: 20 min | Highland Discovery: 15 min; Explore Skye: 15 min |
| Lealt Falls | — | Tartan Trailblazer: 10 min | Explore Skye: 45 min |
| Fairy Pools | Highland Experience: 1 h 30; WOW Scotland: 1 h 15; Highland Explorer, Dunvegan day: 1 h 15 | Tartan Trailblazer: 1 h 30 | Aye Tours: 1 h 55 |
| Sligachan | Highland Explorer: 30 min; Highland Experience: 30 min; Highland Explorer, Dunvegan day: 15 min | Tartan Trailblazer: 10 min | Highland Discovery: 15 min; Aye Tours: 1 h; Explore Skye: 30 min |
| Fairy Glen | — | — | Highland Discovery: 30 min |
The day from Portree covers the most ground, because it spends no time driving to the island. It walks the Fairy Pools for an hour and a half, then stops at Lealt Falls, Kilt Rock, An Corran beach, the Quiraing and the Storr.
Pick the tour that gives it the most time: the Fairy Pools walkers from Inverness, the whole day on the island from Portree, or a private day that stops where you ask.
The sights are free, but the car parks are not all free. The Storr car park charges every motor vehicle, and pays for the toilets and the path.
Other car parks on the island set their own charges, and we have not verified them, so carry coins and a card. On a tour you pay none of this: the fare covers the driving and the parking.
The walk time, the distance from Portree, the ridge and the parking charges are from The Storr's own pages; every stop length is from the listing that sells the tour, captured 20 September 2026 and checked 21 September 2026.
Twelve hours from Inverness with pickup for a private party of four to seven, with half an hour in the glen of small green hills and short stops at the ridge and the sea cliff on the north coast. Refundable up to 24 hours ahead.
From $486 per person
Check Availability
A private day you shape on the island: two hours on the pinnacle path, an hour on the ridge north of it, then the waterfall and the fossil museum at Staffin. Non-refundable once booked.
From $398 per person
Check Availability
Four private days from Edinburgh or Glasgow with an hour and a half each at the western sea cliff, the pools and the loch under the Cuillin, and three hours at the castle in the north-west. You book the rooms; six days' notice to cancel.
From $2,180 per person
Check AvailabilityNext: see what the castles charge on the attractions page, find each sight on the map, or compare every tour on Isle of Skye Day Tours.