Investing in Tourism

Fairy Pools

With over 200,000 visitors a year, the Fairy Pools is a hugely popular location in Skye with local residents and tourists. To improve the experience for visitors, and to protect and manage the land, the community took 12 hectares of land into local ownership in 2017.

To reduce the danger of damage to local verges from the cars parking on the single track Glen Brittle road, Minginish Community Hall Association (MCHA) created a 120 vehicle car park, which is run by the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland. This year, to support the safe return of visitors to the area, MCHA is investing in additional infrastructure.

An additional path, some remedial works, marked bays, and increased signage will all help improve safety for those at the site. The group is also introducing COVID measures and advice, including touch free flushing facilities for toilets, outdoor seating, an additional parking ticket machine and COVID safety equipment and guidance.

HIE’s capital tourism fund has provided £20,000 towards the investment.

Skye ferry

Carrying 35,000 passengers a year, and with over 9,000 Facebook followers and its own merchandise line, locals and visitors alike love the Skye Ferry. The ferry boat, the Glenachulish, is the last manually operated turntable ferry in Scotland. She takes 4-6 cars and passengers across the narrows between Glenelg and Kylerhea. As the closest point to Skye from the mainland, this has been an important access route for hundreds of years.

The uniqueness of the ferry, coupled with its location and wildlife, attracts significant numbers of passengers interested in watching local seals, dolphins, herons, otters and notably the resident sea eagles.

Just prior to lockdown, the Isle of Skye Community Interest Company opened a new visitor centre at the Glenelg slipway to house their ticket office, a cafe with teas and coffees, and a place to provide history and heritage information. To support confidence and as part of welcoming back visitors, they’re using a £9,600 capital tourism grant from HIE to invest in additional outdoor seating, signage and sanitisation equipment.

General manager Jo Crawford, said: "The outdoor seating and improved facilities funded by the HIE grant has greatly increased the number of visitors and locals being able to enjoy the café and views afforded at the Shore Station and is really having a positive effect on revenue." 

Glenfinnan

It’s an iconic Scottish image, from what is hailed as the world’s greatest railway journey. Whether you're onboard the Jacobite Express, or Hogwart’s Express as it is in the Harry Potter films, or watching as it steams over the 21 arched Glenfinnan Viaduct, it is an unforgettable experience.

And with visitor numbers at the National Trust for Scotland’s viewpoint hitting 2,000 people a day, half a million pounds has been invested to keep them, and the local environment, safe from harm. Funding has come from a wide range of partners, including through the Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund, to develop the car park, road infrastructure and a footbridge.

The local community leases and runs the car park. All income from the small parking fee goes into community projects. To maximise the benefits as lockdown restrictions lift, Glenfinnan Community Facilities SCIO has also accessed a capital grant from HIE towards a visitor information and COVID wellbeing unit, and two new automated ticket machines.