Living on the Isle of Skye is a bit like living in a fairytale. Gorgeous scenery all of the time, a tight-knit community and a real connection with nature. All of that, however, comes at a hefty price: convenience. Skye is normally pretty difficult to get around by car, but a brand new road called the Portree link will aim to fix that, because no one gets stuck in traffic in the fairytales.
Skye has one main town: its capital Portree. That’s where pretty much everything is – the shops, cafés, tourist centres and even schools. It can get pretty busy, given that all 10,000 of the island’s residents need to share it and its basic amenities with the whopping 650,000 annual visitors.
Clearly, that’s more people than the island was built to provide for, meaning Portree’s roads often get backed up with traffic. It’s been clear for some time now that something was going to have to change in order to make the town more pleasant to navigate. Enter: the Portree link road.
The proposed highway would connect two of Skye’s busiest A-roads (the A87 and A855) and would allow drivers to bypass the town centre which would, in turn, ease congestion. Highland council initially wanted it built in 2022, but three years later it’s finally becoming a reality.
Planning documents reveal that work could start in November, with the project expected to take just under six months – 26 weeks – to complete. It will cost around £1.6 million in total, with the Scottish government loaning the council the money which will be paid back through ‘developer contributions’ over time.
It could also open up space for new homes to be built in north Skye, which could be used by locals or as holiday homes for tourists.
Once construction is finished, it’s hoped that getting around some of Skye’s most popular areas will be faster and easier than ever before, which will improve life for the island’s residents and make it more straightforward for holidaymakers to traverse the gorgeous island.
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