Tarskavaig

Church, Bay and Ancient Geology

The old Free Church stands beside the shore at the southern end of Tarskavaig, roofless and rectangular with a wing attached to one side. It was already drawn in this shape when the first Ordnance Survey team mapped the township in 1876, and it stands derelict today, in poor repair. Walk out to Tarskavaig Point past it and the ground opens onto Canna, Rum, Eigg and Muck, with the Cuillin rising behind you across the water.

That view is the reason to come. Tarskavaig is a dispersed crofting community spread down a shallow valley to Tarskavaig Bay, on the wild western side of Sleat, and across Loch Eishort the horizon layers Tarskavaig Point, Strathaird, Soay, Bla Bheinn and the Black and Red Cuillin one behind the other. The coast here also holds the Bàgh Tharsgabhaig geology, a 516.9-hectare stretch of protected rock where the Tarskavaig Thrust separates the Tarskavaig and Kishorn nappes, laid down in a mountain-building event dated to about 430 million years ago. You do not need to know any of that to stand on the shore, but the ground you are standing on is genuinely unusual.

Crofts, Community and Essentials

The crofts you can see were laid out deliberately. Lord Macdonald's estate created thirty-one of them here in 1811, each made too small to feed a household without fishing to fall back on. The local name, Tarscabhaig, means Cod Bay. A postal service reached the wider area from Broadford in 1867, though Tarskavaig had to wait until 1898 for a post office of its own. At No. 30 lived Donald Robertson, a Gaelic bard whose grandson Alexander went on to found the Alexander Robertson & Sons yacht-building yard at Sandbank.

Tarskavaig currently has no pub and no permanent shop. The Communities Hall, set high with a broad view toward the Cuillin, hosts small concerts and occasionally serves tea, coffee and home baking across July and August. For anything else you drive: the nearest groceries, post office and petrol are at the Armadale Community Store, which also carries vegan and gluten-free options, and there is a community-built café and general store at An Crùbh near Duisdale Beag. The High Life Highland mobile library reaches Tarskavaig on a three-weekly Tuesday circuit; the timetable is subject to change.

Walks from Tarskavaig and Tokavaig

The walking is the point of a stay. Tarskavaig Point is a moorland route along the cliff tops, passing the derelict church, with the small isles laid out to the west. Longer and rougher is the path to Coille Dalavil, seven and three-quarter miles there and back through pine and beech woodland by Loch a' Ghlinne to the ruined blackhouses at Dalavil. A gentler outing runs from nearby Tokavaig to Dunscaith Castle, fifteen or twenty minutes along a farm track to a ruin perched on a shore rock above Loch Eishort; wear waterproof boots.

Food, Whisky and Armadale

For an evening out there is Bar Am Pràban at Hotel Eilean Iarmain on the far side of Sleat, a wood-panelled bar with a winter fire and a lawn by the old pier, serving West Coast scallops, venison hot pot and beer-battered haddock alongside the hotel's own Gaelic whiskies. Torabhaig Distillery near Teangue and Armadale Castle's gardens fill out a day.

Arriving by the Single-Track Road

The single-track road into the village has no streetlights, and about twenty minutes from the Armadale ferry the advice is simple: arrive in daylight, while you can still see the bay.