A curious fact about Scotland is that the further you get from civilization the closer you get to artist colonies. This mirrors my belief that much of art stems from a close connection to the natural world. It could be a happy coincidence, but the preponderance of artsy folk in and among the rural hills of Scotland at least raises the eyebrow. The Scottish people are quick to tie similar institutions together to form a collective – a rising tide lifts all the boats, as the saying goes – and just as they’ve done with their parks, trails, and distilleries, so have independent artists and craftspeople come together to form “craft trails.”

Skye is the perfect example. Art Skye have put together a trio of craft trails around the Isle of Skye and nearby Lochalsh that make it easy for visitors to browse the wares of local artists. Perhaps equally nice is that the craft trail provides a structure for taking in the island’s gorgeous scenery – you will find yourself driving to the reaches of distant peninsulas and down tiny roads hidden in the hills to find specific studios. Sarah and I spent a week on Skye last May and took the opportunity to cruise around the northern craft trail. Check out the map below.

The Northern Skye Craft Trail

When the sun is shining above Skye, you need to seize the moment. It rained for most of our week, but when the sun peeked out we hit the road with our trusty craft trail map replete with targeted studios circled. We started in the far west since our base was south of Dunvegan and visited the Red Roof Café Gallery. The Red Roof is a small white-washed croft with a bright red roof that’s been refurbished into a tidy café with art on the walls. What a find! It hadn’t been open very long when we visited, but they were already a favorite in the area serving excellent light lunches. We split a ploughman’s lunch and a chocolate fudge bun that was one of the best things I ate on the whole trip.

After the Red Roof, we headed east and stopped at Skye Silver, a local silversmith and jewelry-maker. Skye Silver isn’t on the official craft trail, but that’s not an indication of respectability or quality. There are plenty of shops hidden among the hills that aren’t on the “craft trail” and yet do business. I assume there’s some kind of fee or membership process required for placement on the trail. Nevertheless, the craft trail led us to many serendipitous finds like Skye Silver.

Skye Silver’s shop is lined with glass cases loaded with beautiful silver necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and pendants. As a jewelry-maker herself, Sarah was in heaven poring over the designs. We wound up getting a birthday gift for my sister before hitting the road.

Tooling Around Skye's Craft Trail

The weather held up its end of the bargain and we were gifted with glittering lochs and gauzy views of distant hills. On the way to our next stop I spotted The Stein Inn, an ancient pub from 1790 down by the water in the minuscule town of Stein (pronounced STEEN). I took a detour to investigate and found a cozy pub with a maritime feel and excellent real ale and whisky. An open peat fire was smoldering in the grate, filling the old pub with a pleasantly earthy smell.

Tooling Around Skye's Craft Trail

Suitably fortified, we drove up the road from Stein to Skye Skyns, a traditional tannery. The A-frame building has a showroom upstairs where all manner of sheepskin rugs and products are on display. Every so often they offer quick tours of their production area. I’m always fascinated by processes like tanning that we modern consumers take for granted, and the amount of work and care that goes into making just one rug is worthy of respect and admiration. We left with a white sheepskin throw (from one of the old sheep, they assured Sarah), and our collection of goods continued to grow.

Tooling Around Skye's Craft Trail

The day was wearing thin so we trucked to our final stop at the very tip of the Trotternish Peninsula north of Portree – the Trotternish Artist & Studio Gallery. The gallery is just a simple house on a wide and windy plain. We walked in to find an octogenarian behind a drawing desk working on one of his landscape pencil sketches. His artwork was impeccable. Imagine taking a photo and transforming it into a pencil drawing in a program like Photoshop – that’s what his drawings looked like. He won us over with his charm and zest for doing work that he loves. His artwork spoke for itself, and we took home a romantic sketch of an old croft with a thatched roof.

Tooling Around Skye's Craft Trail

We managed to visit a few other shops from the craft trail during our week on Skye, places like Skye’s Little Gems and the Skye Shilasdair Shop. Many of these artists and craftspeople are keeping alive traditions that have all but died out in the rest of Scotland.

The trail is a great success. It’s unlikely that we would have heard about any of these shops – much less found them – without the aid of the brochure, and the journey provided cultural enrichment, incredible scenery, serendipitous finds, and souvenirs. Lots of souvenirs.

Article Comments

  1. Andi April 17, 2012 at 5:44 pm

    Absolutely breathtaking!

  2. Vacation Scotland April 17, 2012 at 11:08 pm

    It’s true what you say about the craft trails Keith. It gave me a chuckle though, as it reminded me of the time I took a well to do gentleman and his family around Islay and one of his ‘must gets’ was a ship in a bottle, and we must have trawled every possible arts and crafts place on the island. Then he discovered an advert on one of the maps they give to visitors – duly pointed out the place and off we went. Being used to single track roads with blind hairpins I was fine as we headed to what can only be described as the back of beyond. About 15 minutes in, my guest had doubts as to whether human habitation lay ahead at all – I assured him, as long as the road had tarmac someone lived at the end of it, but not to have too many expecations. Finally got there, and ‘craft shop’ was a loose term. It was a farm with a lean-to and all they had was old and broken farm implements. Still, undaugnted – my client asked, more in hope than expectation for a ship in a bottle – the lady, rubbed her chin looked around all the bits of damaged plough and tattie-riddles, went into her house and returned with one (clearly from her mantlepiece) and sold it for £10. Wha’s like us!

    1. Keith Savage April 18, 2012 at 9:06 am

      Great and hilarious story! The only “souvenirs” I’m generally dead-set on picking up are bottles of whisky. Ship in a bottle? Interesting obsession. I’m still laughing.

  3. Jeremy Branham April 24, 2012 at 1:29 pm

    Absolutely gorgeous! Love the landscape of Skye. I think I could spend a few days hiking and exploring in this area.

    1. Keith Savage April 24, 2012 at 2:36 pm

      Scotland is a paradise for hikers. You could spend your entire life hiking here and never tackle the same hill twice.

  4. Ailsa May 11, 2016 at 7:00 am

    I love your website and posts, and they’ve been very helpful in planning our visit to Skye this summer. Having a hard time, though, finding anything on the craft trails you mention. The SLACA website has hardly anything on it, and I’d really like to find that brochure with the trails, as you’ve attached above. Can you point me in a better direction? Thanks so much!

    1. Keith Savage May 11, 2016 at 7:39 am

      Hi Alisa,

      Happy to help. You can find the brochure on the Skye & Lochalsh Arts & Crafts Association’s website here.

      Cheers,
      Keith

      1. Ailsa May 11, 2016 at 7:45 am

        Wonderful! I couldn’t find it earlier – thanks, Keith!

  5. Dave November 21, 2018 at 2:15 pm

    I think this is the current website for arts & crafts on Skye;

    http://www.art-skye.co.uk/index.html

    1. Keith Savage November 21, 2018 at 4:27 pm

      Thanks Dave. I’ve updated the link.

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