Road to Skye's Fairy Pools should be closed 'at times of chaos'

The road to the Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye should be closed ‘at times of chaos’ to help manage rising visitor numbers and their impact on the community , it has been claimed.

Log-jammed traffic and damaged vehicles have blighted the route to the beauty spot in Glenbrittle in recent weeks.

Four-hour waits have been reported with up to 400 vehicles stuck on the road, according to accounts.

Pressure from visitor numbers to the waterfalls, which last year attracted almost 214,000 people, comes as the road falls into disrepair.

READ MORE: Isle of Skye tour boss looks to scrap trips over ‘horrific four hour wait’ to Fairy Pools

More potholes and shrinking verges and passing places due to erosion have led to more punctures, burst tyres and delays.

The Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland, which runs the carpark at the Glenbrittle site, said Highland Council had neglected road maintenance creating problems for visitors.

Meanwhile, Councillor John Finlayson, Highland Independent member for Skye, said that the car park, which opened in 2021, had led to more visitors heading to the beauty spot.

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He said there should now be an option to close the road to more vehicles ‘at times of chaos’ - such as flooding or overcrowding.

The turquoise Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye | Getty Images

Councillor Finlayson said: “We need to make sure that while the Fairy Pools and the improvements that have taken place there by the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland are commendable, the needs of our local community are also important, not just the needs of our tourists.

“Over the last couple of weeks when the rain had been torrential, and obviously the sides of the roads are becoming eroded by campervans and volume of traffic, there was chaos over there.”

He suggested the road could be shut for short spells, such as an hour, to manage traffic and stop more vehicles arriving.

“What I am saying is that at times of chaos, and times of massive overcrowding, then that option should be considered because then you wouldn’t have four hour queues, you wouldn’t have people stuck, you wouldn’t have school children unable to get home.

“At the end of the day, if you have a flood in your house, you turn off your tap.”

That option of being able to shut the road “needs to be absolutely considered,” he added.

Councillor Finlayson said a “holistic approach” was needed to solve the issues with input from all partners, including OATS and the landowner, MacLeod Estates, required.

He said Highland Council “accepted” it had a statutory responsibility for the “upkeep” of the road.

He added: “We don’t shirk that, and the statutory responsibility that we have got, says that it is up to us to maintain the road as is.

“The road that is currently in place to the Fairy Pools was never designed for the volume of traffic that is on it, so that any improvement would be additional to maintaining the state of the road.”

Ali Campbell is the manager for the Fairy Pools car park and facilities.

She said: “The Highland Council c class road has had no maintenance done on it regardless of the volume of traffic - and the council is well aware of the volume of traffic.”

Around 10 inches of water gathered one day on the road last month due, in part, to failed drainage and collapsed verges, she added.

“Maintenance is absolutely essential to keep things moving and keep things safe. It is a problem all over Skye but in Glenbrittle it is an absolute disgrace,” Ms Campbell said.

She added that police were sometimes called to close one end of the road at peak times with people asked not to leave the car park if the road had become blocked.

Highland Council said it was looking at funding streams to tackle visitor managements in Skye. Surfacing works between Merkadale and Glenbrittle were planned this year, a spokeswoman added.