Carbost

Carbost (Gaelic: Càrrabost) is a small village straggling along the shore of Loch Harport in Skye, in the Scottish Hebrides. The main reason to come here is the Talisker Distillery. You also have to pass this way to reach the settlements of Fernilea, Portnalong, Fiscavaig, and the original Talisker on the other coast.

Not to be confused with Carbost, Portree.

Talisker Distillery in Carbost

Get in

By car or bike, at Sligachan turn off A87 onto A863 west, branching onto B8009 to follow the west shore of Loch Harport.

Stagecoach Highland Bus 154 runs twice M-F from Portree via Sligachan to Carbost (35 min), Portnalong and Fiscavaig. It's basically a school bus and doesn't run in the summer holidays.

Get around

Carbost Village

You need a car, at least to keep the midges at bay.

See

• 🌍 Talisker Distillery, Carbost IV47 8SR, ☎ [phone]. Nov-Feb M-Sa 10:00-16:30, Su 10:30-16:30; Mar-Oct M-Sa 09:30-17:00, Su 10:00-17:00. Founded 1830 but completely rebuilt after a fire in 1960, the distiilery (now part of Diageo) produces a hefty, aromatic and distinctly peaty malt whisky similar to those from Islay. Reservations recommended in summer. Standard tour (45 min) £10. (updated Apr 2019)

Do

• 🌍 Hike to Talisker. the former settlement 5 miles west of Carbost for which the distillery is named. Follow Carbost Hill Road to its end, then it's an easy enough walk but better at low tide when you can get onto the beach. There's also a longer hike from the lane at Fiscavaig. Talisker House here is private, you can't visit but Dr Johnson & Boswell did in 1773. Boswell moaned: "Talisker is the place beyond all that I have seen, from which the gay and the jovial seem utterly excluded; and where the hermit might expect to grow old in meditation, without possibility of disturbance or interruption. It is situated very near the sea, but upon a coast where no vessel lands but when it is driven by a tempest on the rocks." In the 19th C Hugh MacAskill took over the estate, cleared out the remaining residents, and founded the distillery on its present site in Carbost. (updated Apr 2019)
• See Glenbrittle for climbs in the Cuillin to the south.

Buy

• Talisker whisky is as vigorously marketed at airport "duty-free" stores as it is at the distillery, but the cheapest place to buy it is an English supermarket.

Eat

• The Old Inn (see "Sleep") is Carbost's only pub and restaurant; good pub grub and convivial atmosphere.
• Caora Dubh has coffee and light bites. Open daily 10:00-17:00.
• See also "Taigh Ailean" in Portnalong.

Drink

• The Old Inn (see "Sleep") is Carbost's only pub and restaurant, but note "Taigh Ailean" in Portnalong.

Sleep

• Carbost Caravan Park is east end of the village.
• Skyewalker Hostel is at Portnalong two miles north of Carbost. It's in the old school huts, dorm from £20 ppn, minimum age 18, no pets. Check-in 15:00-21:00, and you need to stay out 11:00-15:00.
• 🌍 Taigh Ailean Hotel, Portnalong IV47 8SL (two miles north of Carbost), ☎ [phone]. It's open year-round. The bar is open Easter-Sept daily and Oct-Mar F-Su 18:00-23:00, with food served to 21:00. Dog friendly. B&B double from £60. (updated Apr 2019)
• Phoenix House, Carbost (right in the village next to the shop). A very comfortable B and B very close to the pub in the village. Three double rooms and a cracking breakfast 
• 🌍 The Old Inn, Carbost, IV47 8SR, ☎ [phone]. Five multiple occupancy bunk rooms in this excellent hostel, recently built overlooking Loch Harport in the small town that is also home to the Talisker Distillery. Large kitchen / lounge upstairs with balcony and views up and down the loch. Adjacent to the Old Inn for food and drinks. £14 / £16 en suite. Bed & breakfast accommodation (£37 / £42) and self catering family chalet (£110 per night) also available. 

Connect

Go next

• Glenbrittle, for classic climbs and the Fairy Pools, is on a loop of road south.
• Dunvegan and Skye's north coast, by turning north at the A863 junction.
• Sligachan to reach anywhere else on Skye, or the island of Raasay.