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With its striking, jagged mountain vista, curving roads and unpredictable weather, the Isle of Skye has long appealed to lovers of the wild. During the past ten years, however, the biggest island in the Inner Hebrides has been pulling in visitors for additional factors – its vibrant food and drink scene. At the forefront are young Sgitheanach (people from Skye) with a global outlook but a commitment to homegrown, environmentally conscious ingredients. It’s also the result of an involved community determined to create good, permanent jobs that encourage young people on the island.

A Dedication to Local Produce

A Skye-born restaurateur is raised on Skye, and he’s deeply committed to featuring the island’s produce on his menus. “For those traveling to the island I want them to value the natural beauty, but also the quality of our ingredients,” he says. “The local seafood including mussels, lobster, scallops and crab are the best available.” Montgomery is mindful of the past: “It is profoundly important to me to use the same products as my ancestors. My grandfather was a lobster fisherman and we’re experiencing seafood from the exact same sea lochs, with the identical reverence for ingredients.”

His A Taste of Skye menu lists the mileage his produce has travelled. Visitors can sample succulent scallops dived by hand in a nearby sea loch (direct from the source), and trapped in creels lobster from the island's capital (12 miles) with greens, foraged herbs and edible flowers from the kitchen garden and coastline (zero miles). That connection to ingredients and growers is crucial. “A short while ago I took a young chef out with a scallop diver so he could understand what they do. We shucked scallops directly from the sea and ate them raw with a dash of citrus. ‘This is the finest scallop I’ve ever eaten,’ he said. It is this experience that we want to bring to the restaurant.”

Culinary Ambassadors

Traveling in a southerly direction, in the shadow of the imposing Cuillin mountains, another culinary ambassador for Skye, an innovative restaurateur, runs a popular café. This year she represented Scotland at a celebrated international culinary festival, offering seafood sandwiches with Scotch-flavored spread, and traditional Scottish fusion. She initially launched her café in a different city. Coming back to Skye during the pandemic, a series of pop-ups revealed there was a demand here too.

While enjoying a specialty drink and exquisite citrus-marinated fish, Coghill notes: “It was an achievement that I established elsewhere, but I couldn’t do what I can do here. Getting fresh ingredients was a major challenge, but here the scallops come straight from the sea to my door. My local fisherman only speaks to me in the traditional tongue.” Her affection for Skye’s produce, people and landscape is clear across her vibrant, imaginative dishes, all infused with homegrown elements, with a hint of Gaelic. “The link to the island's heritage and language is so important,” she says. Guests can use little lesson cards on the tables to learn a some phrases while they eat.

A lot of us had jobs off the island. We observed the produce be delivered miles from where it was harvested, and it’s nowhere near the same quality

Innovation and Tradition

Long-running dining establishments are constantly innovating. A luxury lodge operated by a prominent islander in her family’s ancestral home has long been a gastronomic attraction. The proprietor's parent publishes celebrated books on the nation's cuisine.

The kitchen regularly introduces new ideas, with a energetic young team under the guidance of an experienced head chef. When they’re not in the kitchen the chefs nurture herbs and spices in the hotel greenhouse, and gather for wild greens in the grounds and sea herbs like seaside vegetation and shoreline herbs from the water's edge of a local sea inlet. In the harvest season they follow animal paths to find wild mushrooms in the woodland.

Visitors can feast on Skye scallops, leafy vegetables and legumes in a delicious dashi; premium white fish with seasonal spears, and restaurant-cured shellfish. The hotel’s outdoor guide accompanies visitors for activities including wild food gathering and angling. “There is significant demand for hands-on opportunities from our guests,” says the manager. “Guests are eager to come and truly understand the island and the terrain.”

Beyond the Kitchen

The spirits production is also helping to retain young people on Skye, in jobs that continue outside the busy season. An production head at a regional spirits maker notes: “The fish farm was a big employer in the past, but now many roles are automated. Property costs have risen so much it’s challenging for young people to live here. The distilling business has become a crucial employer.”

“Distillers wanted, no experience necessary” was the announcement that a recently graduated Skye native saw in her regional publication, landing her a job at the distillery. “I took a chance,” she says, “I never thought I’d get a production job, but it was a personal goal.” The employee had an fascination with whisky, but no prior experience. “The chance to learn on the job and learn online was transformative.” Today she is a experienced production lead, guiding trainees, and has crafted her own whisky using a unique grain, which is developing in oak during the visit. In other distilleries, that’s an recognition usually given to retiring distillers. The tour facility and bistro employ many people from around the local peninsula. “We meld into the community because we brought the community here,” says a {tour guide manager|visitor experience lead|hospital