Photo: הגמל התימני (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio walk through Portree, the island capital of Skye. It starts on the pier, where cruise tenders land beside the row of painted harbour houses, in the port Sir James Macdonald began developing in 1771 and from which many emigrants left for North America. Up on the Lump are the Skye Gathering Hall of 1879, home of the Skye Ball, and the octagonal Apothecary's Tower of the 1830s; on Bank Street, the parish church of 1820 and the Royal Hotel, on the site of the inn where Flora MacDonald and Charles Edward Stuart parted in June 1746. Somerled Square holds the war memorial, the parish church of 1854, St Columba's, and the sheriff court of 1877, where crofters from Glendale were tried in the years of the land agitation. The walk ends beyond the town: Viewfield House, the Macdonald factor's house, the MacNicol cairn on the shore path at Scorrybreac, and the view across the Sound to Raasay, cleared in the nineteenth century and the subject of Sorley MacLean's Hallaig.
12 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 19 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 12 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Portree Pier, the harbour and the painted houses, The Skye Gathering Hall, The old parish church on Bank Street, The Meall and the Apothecary's Tower.
The Royal Hotel and the Prince's farewell, Somerled Square, Portree Parish Church, The sheriff court and the old jail, St Columba's Church.
Viewfield House, Scorrybreac and the MacNicol cairn, Raasay across the Sound.
The sheltered harbour developed from 1771, a departure point for emigrants, with its row of brightly painted houses.
An octagonal tower of the 1830s on the Lump, said to have told passing ships that a doctor could be had here.
The site of MacNab's Inn, where Flora MacDonald and Charles Edward Stuart parted in the last days of June 1746.
The courtroom of 1877, built just before the crofters' land struggle, where Glendale crofters were tried in 1885.
A cairn built of stones sent by MacNicols from across the world, on clan land bought back in 1987.
The island where Prince Charles hid in 1746, later cleared for sheep, and the Raasay Raiders of 1921.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 12 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 12 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Portree — the Harbour, the Lump and the Prince's Farewell, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
12 narration points, including Portree Pier, the harbour and the painted houses, The Skye Gathering Hall, The old parish church on Bank Street, The Meall and the Apothecary's Tower and The Royal Hotel and the Prince's farewell. That is about 19 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Yes, from Portree. There is no start time and no group to keep up with, so you can stop at any point and head back to the ship. Keep your own eye on the all-aboard time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 12 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.