About Portree
The history, geography, and character of Portree.
Portree is Port Rìgh in Gaelic, and the main town on the Isle of Skye. Wikipedia gives a population of 2,310 in 2020. The town is built on the slopes above a harbour fringed by cliffs, on the east side of the Trotternish peninsula, looking out across the Sound of Raasay. It has Portree High School, a community hospital and the island's stop for the Inverness and Glasgow coaches, and for a visitor it is the base: the Trotternish buses for the Storr and Staffin leave from Somerled Square, and so do the coaches to Inverness and Glasgow. There is no railway on the island.
History & Heritage
The king's port, or the slope harbour
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college on Skye, sets out the two readings of Port Rìgh in its place-names series. Some take the second half from rìgh, king, after a visit by King James V in the sixteenth century; others take it from ruighe, slope. Wikipedia adds that the royal story has been contested, since James did not arrive in peaceful times, and gives the older name as Port Ruighe, slope harbour. Either way, the first half is just port. Gaelic is a live part of the town: the Gaelic-medium primary, Bun-sgoil Ghàidhlig Phort Rìgh, has its own stop on the local bus routes, and the council's licensing record calls the hill above the harbour Am Meall.
The harbour and Quay Street
The harbour has a pier designed by Thomas Telford, per Wikipedia, and the painted houses of Quay Street along the front are the town's best-known view. Above the south side of the harbour is the Lump, Am Meall, with the Apothecary's Tower on top. A Geograph contributor's caption gives the tower's history: Dr Alexander MacLeod, An Dotair Bàn, laid the hill out as a pleasure garden in 1829 and built the tower in 1835, and it told sailing ships of the medical services in town. The Skye Highland Games are held on the Lump every August.
MacNab's Inn and 1746
The Royal Hotel on Bank Street stands on the site of MacNab's Inn, which Wikipedia names as the last meeting place of Flora MacDonald and Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1746. The orders of play for the Games' piping competitions are still posted in the Royal Hotel the evening before, per the Games' entry form.
A base for the Storr and Trotternish
The Storr is about ten kilometres north of town in a straight line, and the West Highland Free Press put its visitors at around 200,000 a year in 2024, when Highland Council opened Ionad an Stòir, the Storr Centre, at the car park. The Stagecoach 57A and 57C go round Trotternish from Somerled Square, serving the Storr car park, Staffin and Uig. The Quiraing, further north, has no bus to the start, and the Fairy Pools in Glen Brittle, to the south, are hard to reach without a car: no bus reached the car park on the October 2026 timetable.
The old Aros Centre
Wikipedia describes the former Aros Centre on the southern edge of town as now the Isle of Skye Candle Co. Visitor Centre; the candle company says it took the building over in March 2022. It now holds a candle workshop, a shop, Gasta Pizzeria and Bar, and a small cinema and events space.
Wildlife & Nature
Marine Life
Seals
Advertised by Stardust Boat Trips, which runs wildlife trips from the harbour.
On boat trips from the harbour in the sailing season
Dolphins
Also advertised on Stardust's wildlife trips, and the reason for its longer Skye Whale Trail.
On boat trips in the sailing season
Birdlife
White-tailed eagle
Stardust Boat Trips calls it the UK's largest bird of prey and runs sea eagle trips from Portree; Walkhighlands says white-tailed eagles nest on Ben Tianavaig, across the bay from the Scorrybreac path.
Spring and summer, from the boat trips or the Scorrybreac shore path