Carbost
Carbost (Gaelic: Càrrabost) is a small village straggling along the shore of Loch Harport in Skye, in the Scottish Hebrides. The main reason to come here is the Talisker Distillery. You also have to pass this way to reach the settlements of Fernilea, Portnalong, Fiscavaig, and the original Talisker on the other coast.
Get in
By car or bike, at Sligachan turn off A87 onto A863 west, branching onto B8009 to follow the west shore of Loch Harport.
Stagecoach Highland Bus 154 runs twice M-F from Portree via Sligachan to Carbost (35 min), Portnalong and Fiscavaig. It's basically a school bus and doesn't run in the summer holidays.
Get around
See
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phone: +44 1478 614308address: Carbost IV47 8SRFounded 1830 but completely rebuilt after a fire in 1960, the distiilery (now part of Diageo) produces a hefty, aromatic and distinctly peaty malt whisky similar to those from Islay. Reservations recommended in summer.
Do
Hike to Taliskerthe former settlement 5 miles west of Carbost for which the distillery is named. Follow Carbost Hill Road to its end, then it's an easy enough walk but better at low tide when you can get onto the beach. There's also a longer hike from the lane at Fiscavaig. Talisker House here is private, you can't visit but Dr Johnson & Boswell did in 1773. Boswell moaned: "Talisker is the place beyond all that I have seen, from which the gay and the jovial seem utterly excluded; and where the hermit might expect to grow old in meditation, without possibility of disturbance or interruption. It is situated very near the sea, but upon a coast where no vessel lands but when it is driven by a tempest on the rocks." In the 19th C Hugh MacAskill took over the estate, cleared out the remaining residents, and founded the distillery on its present site in Carbost.
- See Glenbrittle for climbs in the Cuillin to the south.
Buy
- Talisker whisky is as vigorously marketed at airport "duty-free" stores as it is at the distillery, but the cheapest place to buy it is an English supermarket.
Eat
- The Old Inn (see "Sleep") is Carbost's only pub and restaurant; good pub grub and convivial atmosphere.
- Caora Dubh has coffee and light bites. Open daily 10:00-17:00.
- See also "Taigh Ailean" in Portnalong.
Drink
- The Old Inn (see "Sleep") is Carbost's only pub and restaurant, but note "Taigh Ailean" in Portnalong.
Sleep
- Carbost Caravan Park is east end of the village.
- Skyewalker Hostel is at Portnalong two miles north of Carbost. It's in the old school huts, dorm from £20 ppn, minimum age 18, no pets. Check-in 15:00-21:00, and you need to stay out 11:00-15:00.
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phone: +44 1478 640271address: Portnalong IV47 8SLIt's open year-round. The bar is open Easter-Sept daily and Oct-Mar F-Su 18:00-23:00, with food served to 21:00. Dog friendly.
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address: Carbostmore IV47 8STThree rooms en suite.
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phone: +44 1478 640205address: Carbost IV47 8SRFive bunk rooms in this excellent hostel overlooking Loch Harport. Large kitchen / lounge upstairs with balcony and views along the loch. Adjacent to the main inn for food and drinks.
Go next
- Glenbrittle, for classic climbs and the Fairy Pools, is on a loop of road south.
- Dunvegan and Skye's north coast, by turning north at the A863 junction.
- Sligachan to reach anywhere else on Skye, or the island of Raasay.