Sailing “over the sea to Skye” as expressed in the historic Skye Boat Song, encapsulates the magic of arriving at this beautiful Island from the sea. Centuries later, a sea voyage is still the best way to soak in the incredible scenery and atmosphere of this very special island, however our guests enjoy luxury hospitality and a gourmet menu delivered by our four specialist crew.
Skye is a large island with many iconic places to visit and is very popular with visitors, which can sometimes lead to access problems and battling with crowds. However our vessels and guests, arriving from the sea, are often the only visitors on our anchorages and shore excursions, with stunning scenery, evocative history and rare wildlife all around.
Many of our cruises to St Kilda and the Outer Hebrides drop anchor at various points along the coast of Skye, but there is a new cruise for 2020 that focuses almost entirely on the island. Responding to requests from guests who wished to return for another cruise, owner and Skipper of Hebrides Cruises, Rob Barlow developed an exclusve 8-night itinerary, “Cruise around Skye: secret coastlines”, which circumnavigates the whole island, calling in at stunning coastlines, seldom-visited small islands and some of the iconic attractions of Skye. With an expert Wildlife Guide on board and accompanied shore excursions, guests will see the best the island can offer.
Another 6-night cruise itinerary, "Skye and the Small Isles: Hebridean Horizons" Island-hops the four islands of Eigg, Muck, Canna and Rum which make up the "Small Isles" before exploring the south coast of Skye. This cruise is popular because a lot of time is spend exploring the islands, which all have unique characters, rather than having longer spells at sea to reach remote destinations.
Finally, our third Skye cruise itinerary is the 8-night "Skye, the Small Isles and the Shiants" cruise which travels up the east coast of Skye via "Inner Sound" to reach the remarkable Shiant Isles, a hugely important nesting site for seabirds and often described as a mini St Kilda due to its stunning geology.
During any cruise around Skye, at least 60 seabird species are spotted, often many more. White-tailed eagles & puffins are usually seen, often multiple times, with golden eagles fairly frequent sightings. Porpoise, dolphins and minke whales are also spotted on almost every cruise as are red deer and otters, The very rare sightings include orca, sunfish and other types of whales such as humpback and fin whales. You have to be out in these waters to strike lucky! We do of course have many interesting discoveries on our accompanied shore trips too and our Wildife Guides identify many species of plants, fungi, lichen, butterflies, moths and insects native to Skye.
What a wonderful experience. Ever since we enjoyed a week on Lizzie G as a dive boat in 2014, we wanted to return and renew our acquaintance with her on a wildlife cruise. And what a week - it exceeded all our expectations. From the first welcome with Prosecco and amazing scones, to the last sad farewell, we had a fabulous time. Our fellow guests provided lovely company and the crew - whose love and enthusiasm for what they did shone through - looked after us royally. Hannah was an excellent wildlife guide, pointing out the wide range of wildlife we were lucky enough to see, Callum ‘glass of wine anyone’ a caring and attentive Bosun, Charlie provided us with superb Cordon Bleu meals throughout our stay and Alasdair as Skipper was not only superb at ensuring we had the best opportunities to see the wildlife, his company and story telling in the eve were great fun. The range of wildlife as noted every eve by Hannah was impressive, highlights had to be Sea Eagles just ‘posing’ for us as well as flying and passing food, Red Deer stag bellowing on the skyline, other sea birds too numerous to mention, and as for the dolphins….! A trip like this is always weather dependent, and although the elements were against us towards the end of the trip, the itinerary was adapted so we missed none of the highlights. In short - an outstanding week. Thanks to all who made it so.
Louisa & Martyn Nicholls: 9 September 2023Skye and the Small Isles: Hebridean horizons