No bus tour of Scotland would be complete without visiting one of Scotland’s most captivating islands, the Isle of Skye. Recently voted the ‘4th best island in the world’ by National Geographic, this is the largest and the most northerly island of Scotland’s Inner Hebrides. It is dominated by the austere beauty of the mountainous Cuillin ridge, from which the island’s pensinsulas spread, pushing fingers of white sands into the sea and creating a complex shoreline of sheltered inlets and secluded bays.
Skies are dark here – the Dark Sky Scotland project has recognised 9 Dark Sky Discovery Sites in the Skye and Lochalsh area alone.
Astronomers and amateur enthusiasts alike are drawn to the island to gaze at a starlit canopy entirely free of light pollution. Wildlife thrives, and visitors can watch sea eagles and otters from centres in Portree and Glenelg, as well as simply walking with binoculars for unforgettable sightings.
For its size, the island provides an incomparable record of Scottish history – from dinosaur fossils, to prehistoric tombs of the Bronze and Iron Age, to evidence of Norse settlements and the lingering signs of the later, brutal evictions of the Clearances which so shaped the Scottish landscape.