The Fairy Pools- Isle of Skye

A simple walk to the Fairy pools on the Isle of Skye

On Location: 17th April 2024

Parking: A good sized pay and display car park is now provided for the Fairy Pools in Glen Brittle. Grid reference: NG 42410 25839 (What Three Words: ///swift.underway.lifeguard) with toilets.

Refreshments: A café can be found further down the glen at the Glen Brittle campsite. (Check their website for opening times).

It had been many years (20+) since we had visited these famous waterfalls and pools in Glen Brittle on the Isle of Skye. Since that time the whole area has become extremely popular and the infrastructure has been upgraded to cope with the number of visitors. We were fortunate to visit this time on a beautiful evening in April. It was a time of day when most visitors had left and at this time of year there were no midges- a bane of high summer. This route is a simple “there and back” route on well made paths. It is a little steep at the start/finish but nothing too bad for a reasonably fit person.

This is mainly a post with a selection of my images from the route which is fairly self-explanatory.

Route map: click on the arrow to play the route. Route files in various formats are available to download by clicking in the Plotaroute.com link at the bottom right.

By the time we got to the car park it was fairly empty (but we still had to pay of course).

Over to our right the evening light was warming the slopes of the Cullin Hills as we left the car park.

After crossing the road it was simply a case of following the well made footpaths.

Over the first….

…and second of the bridges.

Down to our right the burn, Allt Coir’ a’ Mhadaidh (the burn of the wolf) tumbled over several falls and into what is known as the Fairy Pools. All made good photo or painting subjects in their own right.

Possible traces of iron ore stained the far bank of the river.

Some of the falls were more difficult to access.

The brilliant evening light had all but gone as we moved upstream. The river forked and we kept to the footpath alongside the Allt Coir’ a’ Tairneilear.

It wasn’t long before we came to perhaps the most photographed of all the pools. This shot, with Sgurr an Fheadain and Waterpipe Gully as a backdrop makes a great subject, even in this fading light. From here, we simply turned round and re-traced our steps back to the car park.

Stopping on the way back only to capture a few more of the falls along the route. By this time we were the only ones on the trail and the car park was practically deserted on our return.

The light had really beaten us on this visit but hopefully you will have got a taste of why this location is so popular. We made a short film of our visit which you can see below (available in HD on YouTube- just click on the link) .

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