The Highlands and the Isle of Skye
Skye is eighty kilometres end to end and mostly single-track, which makes sequencing the whole game. The Quiraing at eight in the morning is a private landscape; at eleven it is a car park with a view. Nothing else about the day changes.
We give the island three nights and the mainland four, because Glen Affric, Torridon and the Applecross road are as good and almost nobody routes them. Accommodation is the binding constraint up here, so rooms are held early.
Whisky is handled properly or not at all: two distilleries, both small, one of them not running public tours, with the stillman rather than a visitor-centre script.
A night in the New Town, with the closes of the Old Town walked after the day visitors have gone.
Over the Forth and up through the Cairngorms, ending at a small distillery for a tasting with the stillman.
West into the old Caledonian pine forest, a walk to Loch Affric, and a night at the head of the glen.
Across the bridge at Kyle, Dunvegan and its gardens in the afternoon, then Neist Point for the last light.
The Quiraing at eight and the Storr after, then the Fairy Glen and a long lunch in Portree.
The boat from Elgol into Loch Coruisk under the black ridge, and seals on the skerries on the way back.
Back to the mainland and over the Bealach na Bà pass, then the Torridon hills and a lochside night.
South by Loch Ness and Glencoe, or the sleeper from Inverness for clients going straight to London.
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