Talisker

Atlantic Sand and the Road End

The sand at Talisker Bay comes in two colours. Black and pale grains gather in patterns around the burns that cross the beach, which is best seen at low tide, when the water pulls back to reveal the stone-and-sand floor. Cliffs enclose it on both sides, a waterfall drops in at the north end, and a sea stack stands to the south. It opens straight onto the Atlantic.

To reach it you follow a track a little over two miles, out and back, past Talisker House. It is an easy hour on foot with a slight rise. Behind the house rises Preshal Mòr, a dome of rock ringed by cliffs, and the village sits on a west-facing shelf under high ground on the east side of the Sleadale valley. A single-track road brings you here and then stops. There is nowhere to go by car beyond the end of it, so park with care, keep clear of the turning space and the passing places, and walk back to find room if you have to. The nearest railhead is at Kyle of Lochalsh on the mainland, and although MacDonald's Coaches run between Portree and Carbost on weekdays, no bus comes near the bay.

Whisky and Waterside Fires

The whisky that carries the name is made nearby. Talisker Distillery stands on Loch Harport at Carbost, founded by the MacAskill brothers in 1830 and still Skye's oldest working distillery, with tours and tastings by the water. The township that gave it the name is this road-end of house, farm and ruined cottages, worth keeping straight in your head before you set off, since the two are easy to confuse.

Carbost is also where you eat. The Old Inn sits on the shore of Loch Harport with open fires inside and seating out over the water, live music some nights, and three changing cask ales usually from the Cuillin and Isle of Skye breweries. The kitchen leans on oysters from a neighbouring farm, locally caught fish, langoustines and mackerel. Well-behaved dogs are welcome in the bar.

Carbost at the Table

There is more to choose from close by. Café Cùil, run by the Skye-born chef Clare Coghill, does Highland shakshuka with veggie haggis, Lochalsh beef-brisket rarebit, smoked mackerel on sourdough with seaweed sauerkraut and crowdie, and Scotch pancakes with rhubarb, gingernut and gorse-flower mascarpone. The Three Chimneys at Talisker, beside the distillery, changes its menu with the daily catch: langoustines, oysters, mussels, a seafood platter, cured meats and cheeses. The Oyster Shed is a farm shop and seafood shack with covered, heated seating outside, selling oysters, crab, lobster, mussels and smoked fish. For ordinary provisions there is the community-run shop, which the village has been working to keep open.

Township Ruins and the Broch

The ruins along the shelf reward a slow look. About twenty-five buildings survive with their yards and enclosures, among run-rig and lazy-bed cultivation; Martin Martin noted a village here around 1695. South of it, Dun Sleadale is an Iron Age broch whose outer wall still stands to eight feet, later reused for shieling huts.

Visitors in 1773

Samuel Johnson and James Boswell came to Talisker House in 1773. Boswell thought it "a better place than one commonly finds in Sky," and Johnson, finding a library in his room, remarked on how many books there were. Boswell had one complaint: he did not care for the beach-stone paving laid by the front door.