Sligachan Hotel — Hotel in Skye

My husband and I were traveling around Scotland doing the NC500, we decided to spend a day and a half of our trip on the Isle of Skye. After a long day of travel, we were excited to arrive at the hotel and had completed pre-checkout to let them know what time we were arriving.

Once we arrived the woman at the front desk gave us a key to a room on the main floor, we walked over to the room to find a key still in the door handle and as we pushed the door open it was still a mess from the guests before. We went back to the front desk to let her know, and she said that she’d try to find housekeeping to take care of it.

While waiting for them to take care of our room we decided to go hike the Storr and were gone for about 2-3 hours. Once we returned we checked back in with a different member of the staff, and were sent to a room upstairs instead. After going upstairs and checking out the room, it appeared to be smaller than the room we originally saw. We decided to go downstairs and double-check that we were placed in the right room, she said that they didn’t have time to clean the original room and assured us that we were in the same type of room. For context, we had booked a Superior Family and I’m pretty sure we ended up in a Deluxe King that had a sofa bed shoved into it.

The room looked nice at first, but we began to notice that the floor felt uneven, the tiles in the bathroom were cracked, and the window was left cracked open (we visited in October, so it wasn’t really the weather to leave a window open). It felt like an old hotel that had received a low-quality facelift to appear more modern than it actually was.

We decided to go down to the hotel restaurant for dinner, it had minimal options. I had the vegetable curry which was good, and my husband had a burger. The burger tasted a little off, but we couldn’t quite pinpoint why. It was tough, overcooked and chewy. For the price of the food we were expecting better quality.

After dinner we decided to walk down to Seumas’ Bar for a drink, on our way we ran into a couple in the lobby who was trying to track down a member of the staff because their room was unbearably hot. When we made it to the bar/restaurant, we came to realize that the hotel, brewery and bar were all connected, all had the same food coming from the same kitchen and the numerous members of staff were moving throughout the three.

The following morning we woke up to no running water, the entire hotel’s water was out and when we asked about it all they said was that they ‘were working on it’. We decided to head down for our included breakfast, both my husband and I ordered French toast with a side of sausage. The French toast was 1 piece of bread sliced in half (a thin piece of multigrain bread) and then 1 piece of sausage. Compared to many of the other included breakfasts we had experienced on our trip, this one was the worst. After our very quick breakfast, we ran back upstairs to leave, and just as we were rolling our suitcases out the door the water finally came back on.

Overall this is not worth the money, I’d recommend...

Upon checking in, we were greeted by two very different personalities: a kind and helpful lady, who deserves full credit for being the best part of our stay, and a particularly grumpy man who set the tone for the rest of our experience. Unfortunately, after that, things only went downhill.

Firstly, there was no Wi-Fi. Now, I get it—“we’ve had a hurricane,” as the man so kindly informed us. While understandable, this should have been communicated upfront or before booking, especially since it's still being advertised as an amenity. I’m willing to overlook it, because yes, natural disasters happen—but clarity matters.

Next, the hotel’s so-called "restaurant." It turns out that you actually have to leave the hotel, walk down to a neighboring bar, and prepare yourself for an experience that my wife described as, “I’ve had better service in dive bars.” The food was just okay, the menu was tiny, and the staff looked stressed and clearly underpaid. Honestly, the place felt less like a hotel restaurant and more like your neighbor’s son’s startup business that’s still struggling to find its feet.

Now, onto the room. It was clean, and I commend the cleaning staff for doing their best to maintain it. However, the window was broken, hanging off by a missing hinge, with a “please don’t open” sign taped on for good measure. Both the busted hinge and the tissue-papered sign had clearly been there for a while.

And then, the bed. What you won’t notice until you lie down is that the "large bed" is actually two twins pushed together. Worse, one of the “mattresses” wasn’t even a real mattress I don't think—it was a shadow box. Yes, a shadow box, like something you'd use to store tools. You could almost feel the indentations left by the previous 300 guests, as if the missing pieces of this uncomfortable puzzle were waiting to be slotted back into place.

The walls, while they seemed sturdy, did little to prevent the soft chorus of snores from the neighboring room, which we could hear clearly.

And come morning, I was awoken by a rather bizarre thud thud pause thud thud thud. This sound continued at such a steady pace for over an hour that I began to question whether it was made by...

In looking to book a few rooms for my wife and my wedding on The Isle of Skye, we found the Sligachan Hotel. Having never been to the Isle of Skye before, we didn’t really know what to expect. We just knew that we were signing up for an unforgettable adventure. From the moment we made our reservation, to our correspondence with the management, to our stay, and through check-out, our experience with the Sligachan Hotel was an absolute dream come true.

We could not have asked for a more welcoming, friendly, comfortable, and satisfying stay. The rooms were cozy, the drinks were sublime, the food was delicious, and the view is utterly spectacular.

The hotel is centrally located on the Isle, so it’s close enough to everything you’d want to see, and yet uniquely isolated so as to feel truly special. Walk outside the hotel and you’re surrounded by near 360 degrees of uninterrupted natural splendor. When you’re tired of marveling at the breathtaking views that Skye has to offer (lets be honest, you’ll never get tired of it) you can retreat to the warmth and comfort of the hotel or go next door to Seamas’ Bar for some great food, drinks, music, or just to hang with some of the locals.

John, who runs the hotel, with the help of his friendly staff went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that we were without want or need. In the months that have followed, my wife and I continue to pinch ourselves. Our entire experience on the Isle of Skye along with our stay at The Sligachan Hotel still feels like a dream. I know I’m repeating myself here, but it bears repeating. We couldn’t have been happier to have found the Sligachan Hotel. If we were to do it over again, we wouldn’t change a thing. Well, perhaps I would have given the entire staff another hug on the way out the door. We can’t wait to go back to Skye and stay at the Sligachan. That day can’t come...