A row of yellow, pink, blue and green houses along Portree's harbour wall, with small boats on calm water and hills behind

The Highlands & Islands, United Kingdom

Portree

The painted houses of the harbour front in Portree, on the Isle of Skye. (הגמל התימני / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0)

The main town of the Isle of Skye, a small harbour town on a sheltered bay facing the island of Raasay. It grew as a port for fishing boats, island traffic and emigrant ships, and today it is the island's shopping, school and service centre and the busiest base for visitors heading to the Storr, the Quiraing and the Cuillin.

Neighbourhoods

  • The harbour
    • First-time visitors
    • Best for food
    • Boat trips

    The quayside below the town, with its row of brightly painted houses, a shingle beach and a pier designed by Thomas Telford. Fish and chip shops, seafood restaurants and cafés line the quay, and wildlife and fishing boat trips leave from here.

    Open in Maps
  • Somerled Square and the town centre
    • Close to public transport
    • Pubs
    • Shops

    The square at the top of the town is the bus stand for Glasgow, Inverness and the rest of Skye, ringed by pubs, eating places and a bakery. Bank Street and Wentworth Street hold shops, eating places and a central Co-op, and almost everything is within a five-minute walk.

    Open in Maps
  • The edges of town
    • Quiet and residential
    • Campers
    • Views

    Beyond the centre, houses and bed and breakfasts spread along the roads out of town, with the large Co-op supermarket on Woodpark Road and a campsite at Torvaig, about a mile north, looking across the water to Raasay.

    Open in Maps

Things to do

In the town

  • Portree harbourattraction

    The town's working harbour of colourful houses and moored boats, sheltered by hills from the ocean gales, with Telford's pier and views across to Raasay.

    Open in Maps
  • The Lump and the Apothecary Towerviewpoint

    The headland just south of the harbour, where the Skye Highland Games are held, crowned by a folly of 1830 that was wrecked by a storm in 1978 and rebuilt; its inside steps lead to views over the bay.

    Open in Maps
  • Isle of Skye Candle Co. Visitor Centreattraction

    The former Aros Centre, now a visitor centre that celebrates the island's Gaelic heritage.

    Open in Maps

Short trips on Skye

  • The Storr and the Old Man of Storrtrail

    The 719-metre peak on the Trotternish ridge north of Portree, with a steep rocky face over the Sound of Raasay and the 50-metre pinnacle of the Old Man, reached by a path of about three miles there and back.

    Open in Maps
  • Quiraingtrail

    A landslip on the northern end of the Trotternish escarpment, a hollow ringed by rock with a flat plateau called the Table, a pinnacle called the Needle and the block known as the Prison.

    Open in Maps
  • Fairy Poolstrail

    A chain of clear blue pools and waterfalls in Glen Brittle at the foot of the Cuillin, about twenty minutes' walk from the Glen Brittle car park, and a walk whose popularity has surged since the 2000s.

    Open in Maps
  • Dunvegan Castlelandmark

    The seat of the chief of Clan MacLeod in the north-west of the island, first built in the 13th century and extended piece by piece over the centuries since.

    Open in Maps
  • Talisker distilleryattraction

    The single malt whisky distillery at Carbost on the Minginish peninsula, founded by Hugh and Kenneth MacAskill in 1830.

    Open in Maps
  • Raasayattraction

    The island across the sound from Portree, birthplace of the Gaelic poet Sorley MacLean, usually visited as a day trip by ferry from Sconser.

    Open in Maps

Seasonal events

  • Skye LiveMay

    A music festival held over several days on The Lump above the harbour.

  • Skye Highland GamesAugust

    The island's Highland games, held on The Lump, the headland beside the harbour.

  • Skye Agricultural Showfirst Saturday of August

    The island's farming show, held on the King George V playing fields on Park Road.

  • Pipe band paradessummer evenings

    The Isle of Skye Pipe Band marches around Somerled Square on summer evenings.

Eat and drink

Long-standing places and food districts in Portree. Hours, ratings and directions come from your maps app, always current.

Portree classics

  • Fish and chips on the quayneighborhood

    Takeaway fish and chip shops on the harbour front, where summer queues can be long.

    Open in Maps
  • The Lower Deckrestaurant

    A small harbourside restaurant serving simple, fresh seafood dishes.

    Open in Maps
  • MacKenzie's Bakerycafe

    A bakery beside the bus stand selling locally made pies and cakes.

    Open in Maps

Cafés and bars

  • Café Arribacafe

    A brightly decorated harbourside café, with Mediterranean-style snacks and meals, coffee and vegetarian dishes.

    Open in Maps
  • Somerled Square pubs and eating placesneighborhood

    The town's main square holds several pubs and restaurants around the bus stand.

    Open in Maps

Experience Portree

History

Archaeologists digging ahead of a housing scheme in 2006–2007 found that people lived at Portree from the Early Bronze Age to the Middle Ages, leaving timber roundhouses, a ditched enclosure, small souterrains and Beaker pottery, and stone tools suggest people were here in the Neolithic. Before the 16th century the place was called Kiltaraglen, from the Gaelic for the church of St Talarican. Its present name, Port Rìgh, is usually translated "king's port" and linked to a visit by James V in 1540, though the older form seems to have meant "slope harbour".

The town's story is tied to the sea. In the 1700s it was a common point of departure for Scots sailing to America to escape poverty, and emigration surged again during the famine of the 1840s. Each time the town was kept going by boats travelling between the mainland and the Outer Hebrides, which rested at Portree's pier, and by a new trade in exporting fish. In 1746 an inn in the town was the last meeting place of Flora MacDonald and Bonnie Prince Charlie during his escape after Culloden.

Later the town gained a woollen mill, a grain mill and a sawmill; the Skye Woollen Mill, which made Skye tartan, closed in 2000. Portree kept the last manual telephone exchange in the UK until 1976. Its role today is as the island's main town and the centre for the visitors who arrive in growing numbers each summer.

Culture & Customs

Gaelic is part of everyday life. About 940 people in Portree can speak it, children can be taught in Gaelic at their own primary school, and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal broadcasts to Gaelic listeners alongside the community station Radio Skye. The former Aros Centre, now the Isle of Skye Candle Co. Visitor Centre, celebrates the island's Gaelic heritage, and the arts organisation ATLAS Arts provides further arts activity.

Sport means shinty. Skye Camanachd, the island's club, plays at Pàirc nan Laoch above the town on the road to Struan and competes in the Premier Division, the top tier of the game. The town also has its own amateur football clubs.

Summer brings the community together on The Lump, the headland beside the harbour, for the Skye Highland Games in August and the Skye Live music festival in May. The Isle of Skye Pipe Band parades round Somerled Square on summer evenings, and the island's agricultural show is held in early August. Ceilidhs and live music take place at venues around the town, and the Skye and Lochalsh Archive Centre helps the descendants of emigrants trace their families.

Daily Life

Portree had about 2,300 people in 2022, making it the largest town on Skye. It is the island's service centre, with banks, churches, supermarkets, petrol stations, a swimming pool, a library and six schools and colleges, including Portree High School, so people from across northern Skye come here for shopping, school and appointments.

Tourism drives the economy. Before the pandemic visitors were estimated to add £211 million a year to the island's economy, and more than 150,000 people called at the tourist information centre in Portree in 2016 alone. That success brings strain: the town is the busiest place on the island, and in peak season roads, car parks, rooms and restaurant tables fill up, while rising land prices have made it hard for young people on Skye to start their own crofts.

The year follows the seasons. Summer days are long and crowded, with buses, boat trips and shops working at full stretch; in winter the visitors thin out, some services reduce, and the town returns to the rhythm of school, shinty and the local radio.

Food

Seafood from the surrounding waters is the centre of eating in Portree. The harbour has fish and chip shops, where summer queues can stretch along the quay, and small restaurants serving fresh fish and shellfish, while cafés by the water offer lighter meals. Like much of Scotland, the town's chip shops keep the "chippy" tradition alive.

Scottish dishes appear on many menus. Haggis, the national dish, is a savoury pudding of sheep's heart, liver and lungs minced with onion, oatmeal, suet and seasoning, traditionally served with "neeps and tatties", boiled and mashed separately. Stornoway black pudding, made in the Western Isles from beef suet, oatmeal, onion and blood, comes from the islands to the west, and cranachan, a dessert of cream, raspberries, oats and whisky, began as a harvest celebration.

Drink is local too. Isle of Skye Distillers make gin and vodka in Portree, and the island's best-known whisky comes from the Talisker distillery at Carbost on the Minginish peninsula, founded in 1830. A bakery on Somerled Square sells locally made pies and cakes.

Planning tools

Budget

Portree is the obvious base for exploring Skye, and in summer that shows in the prices: there are more than fifty bed and breakfasts in the town, and they routinely sell out, while restaurants fill up too. A hostel, the campsite and self-catering from the supermarkets keep costs down, and a hire car or island tours by taxi add the most to the bill.

Daily Budget Midrange
USD 200–370 (bed and breakfast, seafood dinners, a hire car and the odd boat trip)
Daily Budget Shoestring
USD 80–130 (hostel bunk or campsite, supermarket food and takeaway fish and chips, local buses)

Book rooms and dinner tables well ahead for summer, and fill the fuel tank in town before heading round the island.

Best Time to Visit

May is usually the sunniest month and early summer brings the longest days, and the town's festivals, Highland games and agricultural show fall between May and August, the busiest months. September and October are quieter. In winter the days are short and some bus services are reduced, but snow seldom lies at sea level.

Suggested Number of Days

The town itself needs only a few hours, but most visitors use it as a base for two or three days on Skye. Four or five days allow time for the whole island and its outlying sights. Rain and low cloud often close in on the hills, so a spare day helps.

First Visit
2–3 days
With Surroundings
4–5 days

Transportation

Almost everything in the town is within a five-minute walk. Local buses leave Somerled Square for Dunvegan, Armadale and a loop round the Trotternish peninsula, but services are thin, with fewer on Saturdays and Sundays outside summer. Taxi firms in the town also run island tours, bikes can be hired, and a car gives the most freedom on Skye's many single-track roads.

Use passing places on single-track roads to let traffic overtake, and allow for heavy summer traffic on the road to the Storr.

Airport & Station Connections

There is no ferry from Portree itself. By road the town is reached over the toll-free Skye Bridge on the A87. Long-distance coaches run from Glasgow, a journey of about eight hours via Glencoe and Fort William, and from Inverness, about 74 miles away, in about three and a half hours; Inverness also has an airport. Ferries from Mallaig land at Armadale, in the south of the island.

Walkability

The town centre is small and easy on foot, though the streets climb steeply between the harbour and Somerled Square. The supermarket on the edge of town and the campsite a mile north are a longer walk, and the roads out of town have few pavements once the houses end.

Safety

The UK is generally safe, with the main risks being pickpocketing and phone theft in crowded parts of London and other cities, occasional late-night antisocial behaviour, and drink-related trouble around nightlife. Portree itself is quiet. The real hazards are in the surrounding hills and roads: fast-changing weather and low cloud on the Storr and the Cuillin, cold seas and single-track roads crowded with summer traffic.

Take warm, waterproof layers on any hill walk, check the mountain forecast, and check for ticks after walks. Check current official travel advice before travelling.

Climate

An oceanic climate, mild, wet and windy. Rainfall on the west coast islands is high, and the Cuillin are wetter still. Snow seldom lies at sea level and frosts are less frequent than on the mainland.

Summer
cool — at Duntulm, in the north of the island, July averages about 15°C, with long days and frequent rain
Winter
mild for the latitude but wet and windy — January averages about 6.5°C at Duntulm, with short days

Local Customs

Portree is one of the places where Scottish Gaelic is still heard: about 940 people in the town can speak it, and it has a Gaelic primary school. Shinty, a stick-and-ball game, is the local sport, and the island's club plays in the top division.

Leave gates as found and keep dogs on a lead near sheep; ask before photographing people at their homes or crofts.

Common Payment Methods

The currency is the pound sterling. Cards and contactless payment are widely accepted, and the town has banks. Scottish banks issue their own sterling banknotes, which can be harder to change outside the UK, so leftover cash is best swapped for Bank of England notes before leaving.