Skye, Teangue

Explorer Tom Torabhaig looks old enough to have been making whisky for centuries, but the spirit first ran through its copper stills in 2017. That is because the building really is old: a farm steading on Skye was carefully rebuilt around a new distillery. I would have enjoyed the builders’ faces when told the walls were staying and two stills had to fit inside. The farm at Torabhaig appears in records from the eighteenth century. The distillery says the steading was built around 1820 from stone taken from nearby ruined Caisteal Chamuis. Planning permission for whisky production arrived in 2002, restoration began in 2014, and custom stills and Douglas fir washbacks went in during 2016. Torabhaig became only the second licensed single-malt distillery on the Isle of Skye. The first whisky followed after the required ageing; the distillery’s own single malt appeared in 2021. Here, a building’s former life is visible while an entirely different craft gets on with its day. The site is in Sleat, near Teangue, and its visitor route brings you into the converted steading. A café and shop add good reasons to linger, but the most interesting sight may be the meeting of old stone and new copper. Look closely at the walls and you are following a route from a ruined castle to a farm and finally to whisky. I cannot promise the castle approves of the career change. Book a tour ahead and check current opening days; the published visitor hours are weekdays. Children aged twelve and under cannot take the tour, and the distillery warns that working areas can be uneven or slippery. Wear shoes that can cope. It is worth seeing how a new whisky found a home inside an old Skye building without flattening its story.

Explorer Tom Knock Castle on Skye's Sleat coast looks out over Knock Bay and the Sound of Sleat, a ruined lookout with a view grand enough to make any would-be lord practise his entrance. I tried one; the wind gave the better performance. Beneath the medieval stones lies the site of an earlier Iron Age stronghold, so this headland has held more than one story. Historic Environment Scotland calls the ruin Caisteal Camus or Chamuis and places it above Dun Horavaig. A MacLeod castle stood here by 1402; the MacDonalds and Lords of the Isles later fought over the area. In 1596 a royal charter required that Caisteal Camus be available as a residence for the king. The last known reference to occupation is from 1632. Those dates belong to documents, not every surviving wall. The remains are uneven, with a tower at the southern corner and traces of later buildings. Stone removal and weathering helped leave the ruin as you see it. The possible Iron Age dun is largely hidden beneath later work, so resist the temptation to point at any mound and announce an ancient doorway. The headland, bay and opposite shore explain why this spot kept attracting builders. There is no maintained castle entrance or direct vehicle access. Local walking guides describe a short, sometimes faint route from near the A851 towards Knock Bay; the ruin can also be viewed from the roadside. Keep to responsible access, take care near the steep shore and unstable masonry, and do not enter a dangerous wall opening. The king never took up my offer of a tour, but the view is yours to discover.

Explorer Tom Armadale Castle is wonderfully honest about being a romantic ruin: the old house is fenced because its masonry is unstable, while forty acres of gardens invite you to wander around it. If you are arriving by ferry from Mallaig, the entrance is only a short walk from Armadale pier. I would start with the view across the Sound of Sleat and let the castle wait its turn. The estate was home to the Macdonald chiefs of Sleat. A mansion stood here from around the 1790s, and in 1815 James Gillespie Graham remodelled it into the showy castle whose remains you see today. It was a manor house dressed in baronial clothes, never a medieval fortress. A Gothic bridge followed in 1825. The garden’s Victorian arboretum was planted largely in the 1870s, and many of its trees are now well over a century old. Give those trees a little credit: they have held the place together for visitors while the roof and rooms went missing. The Museum of the Isles tells a much wider Highland story, from the early peoples and the Lords of the Isles to the Jacobites and crofting. Outside, paths wind through woodland, waterlily ponds and flower borders. The castle ruin is a striking centrepiece, but the garden is a living reason to make the trip. Do not cross the fence for a closer photograph; it marks a genuine safety limit. Admission is charged, with tickets available at the entrance rather than requiring advance booking. Opening days change with the season, so check before travelling. The museum and café are on one level and the main garden paths suit wheelchairs, though some ground is uneven and ponds are unfenced. Armadale rewards an unhurried walk, preferably with a little time left to catch the ferry home.