Skye Eyrie

A wall of glass on the Trotternish coast

Skye Eyrie is the third house up a single track road at Grealin, above the east coast between the Storr and Staffin, and the point of it is the glazing: floor to ceiling windows and doors down the seaward side, so the living room is essentially a window with sofas in it. Sliding doors open onto a paved terrace with outdoor seating, which on Skye is a gamble that pays off about a third of the time and is glorious when it does.

It is built for two. One king bedroom, one large bathroom with a walk-in shower, and an open plan kitchen, dining and living space with a wood burning stove at the centre of it. The kitchen is properly equipped rather than gestured at, which matters this far up the A855, where the nearest supermarket is back in Portree.

The owners have kept it deliberately low impact, and they leave the things people actually use on a wet afternoon: satellite TV, books, binoculars for the sea, board games and a DVD player.

If it is booked, the same people let the Skyelight Apartment in Portree, which sleeps four.

Good to know

Features

Location

Where it puts you

This stretch of the A855 is the best road on Skye and the cottage is halfway along it. The Old Man of Storr is four miles south, Lealt Falls and the Kilt Rock viewpoint are just north, and the Quiraing is about twenty minutes further on at the top of the ridge. Staffin bay has the dinosaur footprints at An Corran when the tide is out.

Portree is half an hour south for restaurants, boat trips and the harbour. The Fairy Glen at Uig and, further west, Dunvegan and Coral Beach are both day trips rather than evening ones, which is the honest way to describe distances on this island.