[Closed] Isle of Skye

The Slig might let you park in their car park if you're buying food/beer, give them a buzz. They'll also be able to give you an idea of road conditions - however because Skye is all coastal, it's generally OK in winter.

If you head down to Glenbrittle on the singletrack, there's a wee car park at the Fairy Pools which has a lovely view. Alternatively, there's some parking spots just outside the Glenbrittle site, by the sea. The people who run the site aren't in their caravan in winter AFAIK.

Double check that Glenbrittle singletrack road isn't icy before you head down it. You'd have absolutely no chance of getting back up some sections.

Campsites- See if Dunvegan is open. Handy for the village anyway, with fuel, pub and shop.
There must be something near Portree but I've no knowledge.
There's an SYHA hostel at Brittle but no other facilities.
At Slig, the hotel may be shut (it was when we were there) so no facilities at all but check.

Riding- Sligachan probably will be fine, if the rain stops long enough to actually get out. I've ridden it in winter conditions at the end of the wettest recent year, 2012 and it was excellent. Route is at low altitude on an island, so snow at trail level is unlikely. Do it as an out and back though, not a circuit as it's loads of fun and no traffic at all. Views at Camasunary and round the corner into Coruisk are amazing.

Doh, just realised the Slig is closed until 1 March. Thought it was earlier opening than that.

If you like technical riding with little flow and no real elevation or descents then do the Sligachan route. Personally, I hated it. The views were amazing but it was the only time I've been on a bike ride where I wished I was on foot, and that was on a gorgeous summer day. I'm sure there's plenty of amazing riding to be had on Skye though.

[b]qtip[/b], I'll have a look at some other stuff as well. That's the ride that keeps cropping up. I'll be walking most of the time because my Mrs isn't in to anything too rocky.

Good tips, I'll take a look at those sites. Cheers.

If that's the MBR route then my advice would be don't do it!

I did it in Summer and had miserable time. For a start off there is a long road section and a really long bog section where the track completely disappears (if I hadn't had GPS I would have been screwed). But the really annoying thing was the outward section at the beginning which should have been the best bit was a huge disappointment. Its almost completely flat yet with fantastic views of huge mountains.....I wanted to be on the mountains not looking at them!

Although the track is flat its incredibly rocky, very challenging to ride it all but not in a particularly fun way; more in a tediously slow and exhausting way (I was on a hard tail which made things worse). Due to the slow process (and stupidly choosing to ride cross country to the start) I was out for way longer than I expected. I got really cold, wet and hungry (it was a really naff "Summer" day) and more than anything I got really lonely. I didn't see a single person the whole ride and felt really isolated. I know a lot of people like this sort of isolation, I do sometimes but because it was such a hard slog and because I was so cold and wet and the riding so dull and tedious, I have never been more happy to get back in my life.

Whats really annoying is that Skye is full of great riding which I discovered on foot with my girlfriend during our weeks holiday. But the only other ride I got to do was push up the old man of Storr and ride back down (This is well worth doing!)

Campsite just north of Portree is nice and you can walk into town to get P******d