Isle of Skye: A lighthouse and beach

Depending on where you visit on Skye, there are different things to offer. In this blog I'll take you through some of the places of interest on the west coast of Skye - Neist Point Lighthouse and Coral Beach.

Neist Point Lighthouse

The lighthouse is located on the most westerly point of Skye, with the return trip to the lighthouse being about 2.2km. The path is a concrete/gravel one, meaning that walking shoes are not required, but always help if the path gets wet. At times it was quite steep, so extra care (and effort!) is needed.

There are plenty of cows and sheep grazing in the nearby area, so be careful when walking around and watch out for the cow and sheep dung! As we walked to the lighthouse, you are able to appreciate the dramatic cliff faces of the west coast of Scotland. We saw some climbers along our way making use of these rock formations. The lighthouse itself is no longer manned, but you could see that in the past it was, with a full array of buildings (presumably living quarters) around it.

On returning back from the lighthouse there's a path that takes you up to a set of cliffs at a higher level, giving excellent photo opportunities and pictures of Neist Point. Would recommend that you take this short detour and check it out if you can.

Walk details:

Coral Beach

The same day in the afternoon we drove to another location on the west coast, the Coral Beach, north of Dunvegan. The beach has white sand made from coral (hence the name!). On a clear day, the water is crystal clear making it good for a swim. Unfortunately, when we went it was fairly overcast meaning we couldn't fully appreciate this effect.

The Coral Beach walk is a very easy one, along a gravel path from the car park. Despite the car park being in a remote location, I was surprised as to how many visitors the place got! When you arrive at the beach there's a small hill which you can climb to get more of an aerial view of the surroundings. During low tide the coral causeway to a small island called 'Lampay' is exposed, so you could also go exploring there. Just make sure to be back before high tide otherwise you may have to swim back!

Walk details:

For the short while that I had been in Scotland, I also noticed a lot of campervans/RVs being used by travellers to get round the west coast. That got me thinking that it would be cool someday to hire one of those campervans and go on a road trip somewhere, essentially carrying your home on four wheels like a tortoise! It gives you the freedom to go where you want, when you want. If anyone happens to read this and has done anything like this, do get in touch. I'm interested to learn more about it!

That's all for this Skye blog. Thanks for reading and feel free to get in touch here :)

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