Loch Bay light
Stein
A compact white waterfront where local seafood, a historic inn and Waternish's open coast shape the day.
- Best for
- Local seafood, whisky and west-facing sunsets
- Give it
- A food-led afternoon on Waternish
- Don't miss
- The short white waterfront left by Telford's ambitious plan
The Fox verdict
A small waterfront with an unusually rich table
Stein brings together Skye's oldest inn, a six-table Michelin-starred restaurant and the remains of a planned fishing settlement on Loch Bay.
Come for seafood drawn from nearby waters, Scottish whisky and the whitewashed waterfront, then use Stein as a base for Waternish's tannery, farm visits, Trumpan Church and coastal walking.
Where to go
Places in Stein
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesLoch Bay Restaurant
Michael and Laurence Smith's six-table, Michelin-starred restaurant pairs Highland ingredients with classical French technique, including Skye Fruits de Mer and bouillabaisse.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 2 hours
- Locality
- Macleods Terrace
Waternish Farm
Robert and Lucy Montgomery host coffee and cake, illustrated conservation talks and optional guided farm walks for nature and conservation visitors.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 2 hours
- Locality
- near Stein
- Access
- Visits must be pre-booked.
Waternish Point
A 13.5 km out-and-back coastal walk to a remote headland with broad sea views and opportunities to watch for whales and dolphins.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 4 hours
- Locality
- Waternish Point
- Access
- The route is very boggy in places, with a pathless final approach; keep dogs on leads.
Food & drink
2 placesStein Inn
Skye's oldest inn dates to 1790, with a snug, log burners, more than 120 Scottish whiskies and a garden overlooking Loch Bay, the Outer Hebrides and the sunset.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Loch Bay
- Access
- Dogs and children are welcome.
Donnie's Tablet Shed
A small self-service shed selling homemade Scottish tablet in flavours including Isle of Skye sea salt, stem ginger, Drambuie, Talisker and white chocolate with cardamom.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 15 minutes
- Locality
- on the Waternish peninsula
- Access
- The shed operates on a self-service basis.
History & heritage
1 placeTrumpan Church / Cill Chonnain
A roofless medieval rubble church with a rough arched north doorway, a surviving east gable and a broken stone basin probably used as a font; the 1578 attack is remembered in the Battle of the Spoiling Dyke story.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Hallin
Things to do
1 placeSkyeskyns, Lochbay
Scotland's only remaining commercial sheepskin tannery offers traditional tanning demonstrations, a showroom and a seasonal cafe serving coffee, bakes and soup.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 75 minutes
- Locality
- 17 Lochbay
- Access
- Free drop-in family tours need no advance booking. The tannery entrance is level from its car park, the showroom is upstairs, and dogs are not allowed inside the tannery or showroom.
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Three ways to explore Stein
Signature outings
Whisky and west-facing light
Stein Inn pairs more than 120 Scottish whiskies and local seafood with a garden looking across Loch Bay towards the Outer Hebrides and the sunset.
Scotland's last commercial tannery
Skyeskyns runs free drop-in family tours that demonstrate traditional sheepskin tanning at Lochbay.
Trumpan's medieval remains
Trumpan Church preserves a rough arched doorway, an east gable and a broken stone basin within its roofless rubble shell.
The village story
Stein Village Guide
Loch Bay seafood, a planned fishing settlement and the open coast of Waternish.
The Stein Inn and Loch Bay Seafood
The Stein Inn keeps more than 120 Scottish whiskies behind a bar with a snug and two log burners, and it has been serving since 1790, which makes it the oldest inn on Skye. Its five bedrooms face the sea. Charlie owns it and works both front of house and in the kitchen, with her daughter Clémence helping through the holidays. Dogs and children are welcome, and the garden looks west across Loch Bay towards the Outer Hebrides and the sunset.
The kitchen leans on what comes out of the water. There is fish chowder, a platter of Skye-smoked salmon, herring, mackerel and mussels, haggis and Skye black-pudding bonbons, beer-battered haddock, a venison haunch steak, pan-fried monkfish and whole sea bass, with Loch Bay lobster, crab and langoustines when the weather lets the boats out. Nigella Lawson called the local seafood "incredibly fresh and beautiful local ingredients, cooked simply and perfectly." Three real ales usually feature, often from the Isle of Skye, Swannay and Cairngorm breweries, and the inn has been in the Good Beer Guide since 2000.
Six Tables, Tablet and Traditional Tanning
A few doors along Macleods Terrace, in a cottage of about the same age, is Loch Bay, a six-table restaurant with a Michelin star run by Michael and Laurence Smith. Michael's Skye Fruits de Mer is built from hand-dived scallops, creel-caught langoustines and rope-grown mussels, and the menu also runs to bouillabaisse: French technique on Highland ingredients. The supply chain is short, and lobster can arrive through the kitchen window from the jetty. Michelin's inspectors noted "a snug, intimate feel."
For something to carry away, Donnie's Tablet Shed sells homemade Scottish tablet on a self-service basis, in flavours that include Isle of Skye sea salt, stem ginger, Drambuie, Talisker and white chocolate with cardamom. Nearby at Lochbay, Skyeskyns is a working sheepskin tannery, the last commercial one in Scotland, with a showroom and, in season, a café serving coffee, bakes and soup. The drop-in tanning tours are free, though dogs stay outside the tannery and showroom.
Telford's Unfinished Village and Coastal Walks
The village itself is small: a skewed row of whitewashed, rubble-built houses strung along the loch, a beach, a jetty and open croft land rising behind. This is the remains of an ambitious plan. In the late 1700s the British Fisheries Society hired Thomas Telford to design planned fishing villages, Stein among them alongside Ullapool and Pulteneytown, to profit from the herring boom. Telford's 1790 survey recommended building the inn first. Twelve two-storey houses went up in 1796; the built settlement was much smaller than the plan. The grandest of the row, the Captain's House, had to be rebuilt after its gable collapsed in 1955.
The walking here is gentler than the Cuillin, with relatively flat walk ideas along the loch and out towards Trumpan, Gillen and the Sgorr cliffs. This is crofting land, so gates get closed and dogs go on leads. The longer outing follows the coast to Waternish Point, about eight and a half miles there and back from Trumpan Church, boggy in places and worth it for the sea watching; whales and dolphins are seen from the headland.
Trumpan Church, the Road In and Evening Light
Trumpan Church stands roofless above the coast, a rubble ruin with a rough arched doorway in its north wall and a broken stone basin inside that probably served as a font. In 1578 MacDonalds from Uist set fire to it while MacLeods were at worship, and the fight that followed is remembered as the Battle of the Spoiling Dyke.
The Portree–Glendale bus does not reach up to Stein, so arriving by car is the practical option, turning off the A850 onto the B886; the nearest railhead is Kyle of Lochalsh, then over the Skye Bridge. Dunvegan Castle and the pale coral beaches at Claigan lie nearby. By evening, though, the smaller thing stays with you: the light going gold over the Minch, the white fronts of the houses catching it, and Jack down at the loch skimming stones.
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A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- Stein Inn — thesteininn.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Loch Bay Restaurant — lochbay-restaurant.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Donnie's Tablet Shed — lochleventabletcompany.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Skyeskyns, Lochbay — visit-waternish.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Waternish Farm — waternishfarm.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Trumpan Church / Cill Chonnain — trove.scot other published source record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Waternish Point — visit-waternish.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation