Fairy Pools on Skye an Honest Review
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- čas přidán 7. 04. 2019
- We visit the Fairy Pools on Skye to look at the damage caused when over tourism hits a delicate eco-system in the Scottish Highlands.
We anticipate that our views will be considered controversial by some, but at www.secret-scotland.com we have an ethos of giving our honest opinion about tourist attractions. Whilst we make a living from tourism in Scotland, we also feel a burden of responsibility to protect Scotland's natural environment.
To get some idea of the change to the river banks, you should watch this older video filmed at the pools and take note of the Rowan trees and heather growing along the edges of the stream. • Swimming the Isle of S...
#respectprotectenjoy
The area needs to be left alone for a few years in order for nature to take herself back and heal. Thank you for the video.
Thank you very much for this video; it’s absolutely heart breaking to see the Devastation on the land. The council should start fining people from straying from a specified path. Also, there should be huge signs forbidding people from making their own trails. “Steps Need To Be Taken!!! “
Thanks for your feedback. I've had some less pleasant comments for posting this and I maybe come across badly in the video, but I was genuinely upset to see the impact on the land and felt it important to show people this. People that care about the impact of their actions will hopefully understand what I was trying to say.
@@SecretscotlandTours the same thing has happened with Cumbria...
My wife and I didn't get to the pools back in 2018 when we visited, and I'm glad we didn't after seeing this video. However, 180,000 cars x 5 quid each = 900,000 quid. That would build a decent boardwalk for the visitors to keep to and help protect the area.
That’s tourism for you. They come in the hordes and ignore the rest of beautiful Scotland. Appreciate the honest review and I understand your concern.
Thanks, I've been getting some Flak for posting this, but there is so much more to be seen in Scotland. And, for me anyway, the magic of Scotland is best experienced when you find a lonely place where you can "listen" to the land.
Secret Scotland I agree. Do not let them get to you. End of the day you have the balls to say it as it is on camera and they don’t. Sometimes the truth hurts.
I'm retired from Natural Resources in Utah, USA. We have many National Parks and State Parks. We've had to limit the number of guests in some areas and ban vehicles in others. These places will have a small limit of people who can visit. Tickets in advance. Other Parks you must take the park shuttle to go in. It's getting very hard as tourism skyrockets to keep a close eye on the damage done by tourists. Some trails are closed, so that vegetation can recover. Barriers it footpaths must be used. Shortages of Park Rangers to keep the tourists in line and protect vulnerable areas, is a problem. The government loves promoting the Parks, but not funding them well enough. Hoping Scotland can get a handle on this as tourism is on the rise there.
It sounds like you are more advanced with your measures to counter these over-tourism issues. I think we need some of your expertise over here to help us manage this!
It has been a relatively recent issue in Scotland and some areas are really struggling with it (e.g.Devil's Pulpit for its Outlander appearance, Glenfinnan Viaduct with Harry Potter, Fairy Glen at Uig on Skye). It's a symptom of social media which leads to some places becoming "over heated".
The great pity is that there is so much more in Scotland to be discovered and we try to show people the alternatives in our travel guides. Unfortunately, some people get quite aggressive (as you can see in some of the other comments) when you try to suggest that they consider visiting an alternative.
@@SecretscotlandTours Scotland should send a group of Park and Land resource managers over here to see our system. It doesn't make everyone happy in large tourist areas, but it does minimize damage. Educate, manage, fee areas. A portion of the fees go into a fund that has to go straight back into Park area for improvements and reseeding etc.
@@JaimieJo In the particular case of the "Fairy Pools", I believe the Chief of Clan MacLeod would like to claim ownership of this land so it is technically privately owned and not part of any state-controlled National Park. I don't foresee the Chief taking such steps, but maybe other factors will force a move such as you suggest,
Totally agree with you. The first time I went to this site 22 years ago,someone from Portree took me there. I am saddened by how it has changed. I really like photography, when I share my photos i do not normally tagged them to protect the places, I only share these places with who respect the environment and as I do.
Thank you very much for sharing
Madness, passed that way several times before Fairy Pools were discovered.
It was beautiful 40 years ago, but there are LOTS of stunning places in Scotland just as fabulous which haven't been ruined by tourism.
Very true.
I've just returned from a tour of Scotland. We were staying in the Glen Brittle campsite for a few days, so we passed the Fairy Pools on the way there. The traffic to the pools was awful, there was hundreds of people traipsing over the path. It was like some sort of selfie religious devotional passage. We didn't bother visiting the pools. It just looked like hell. Instagram has a lot to answer for.
First time we visited in 2016 and it was magical. Last year I was so sad to see what happened to this place. Fairies have left, now they are just pools.
Hi Miroslav, it is sad to see how much it has been changed. It's not just the damage around the pools, but the massive car park cut into the hillside. And then there's all the traffic on the road from Carbost. I used to rate the journey to Glen Brittle bay as one of my favourite roads, now it is a conveyor belt of cars. And the crazy thing is, there is no local folklore about Fairies at these pools, it is just a name that somebody coined a few years ago.
Miroslav Štrajt you visiting in 2016 makes you one of the bad guys they are talking about or are you different in some odd way
I get what you mean. It was our very first visit and we came from London to see it.
Although I could not go in too far due to my mobility, it was still nice. However not only were there just too many people, dog owners did not clear their dog 🐕 poo 💩. It rather was very sickening!!
How much time we need to walk from parking to reach the fairy pools ?
We first visited Skye back 16 yrs ago and walked the circuit of which the fairy pool section is only a 3rd of the walk, it was a grey windy and bleak day but a beautiful area and not a soul to see. Then CZcams and the NC500 combined with enthusiastic amateur video producers to generate 100s of adverts for Scottish tourism. We drove passed the fairy pools on our way to Glen Brittle in feb 2020 and it was still busy then. There are some amazing pools elsewhere on Skye we’ve swam in but like yourself I’m not saying where, thank goodness most people still don’t attempt the Cuillins, I can’t imagine being in a queue up to the top of Sgur Nan Gillian but it could happen. We’re going again in 3weeks for some wild weather walking up the Red Cuillins maybe catch some snow on the tops and visit some beaches.
Thanks, you get where I'm coming from with this.
Heart breaking to see the damage, and I dare saying surprising to see the volume of visitors, out of season. I made a recent visit to the Highlands, staying inland but intending to visit Skye. I never made it, this time round at least. What I did see profoundly affected me, the beauty of the Highlands is in the truest sense, breath taking, but where natural beauty is, people inevitably follow. Building larger car parks for the folk who like to surround themselves with bulbous metal, means those paths, and the surrounding land are going to be trampled with the same carefree indifference. OK, I'll take your lead on this, or at least take the path in winter when the elements are the dominant partner. A little respect and sensitivity, go a long way
Your video put me off going there on a recent trip to Skye. I was shocked to see the footpath erosion on the old man of storr and the quiraing. Unfortunately, we destroy what we find beautiful.
Thanks for your feedback. It is certainly becoming a problem in the "hot spots" of Skye. Better designed footpaths could help, but people will always wander away from paths and the volume of visitors on Skye is difficult to cater for. But there are so many other great places of beauty in Scotland that people miss because so much attention is focused on Skye. Have a look at the videos we did about Glen Affric or Assynt.
@@SecretscotlandTours This is where having a Ranger or Naturalist conduct tours with only so many allowed would be good. They can also educate the public about erosion and overuse. As well as provide historical or interesting facts about sites such as this.
I just arrived in Skye today without firmm plans of what to see. I only know I don't want to visit the top tourist spots, but rather seek out ways to see nature and enjoy the out of the way places. Thank you for sharing an honest look at the fairy pools. I was debating that site and now will skip it so as not to add to the damage.
Last time I went to Skye (September 2018) I made a point of avoiding this hell-hole. Instead I hiked up to the far more impressive falls below Sron a' Ghrobain, to the west of Sligachan. Places like the Fairy Pools, or rather what they've become, call to mind phrases like 'the lumpen proletariat'.
The 'Fairy Pools' thing is a tourist construct that came about accidentally - it didn't exist before social media, it's a river running out of a glen.....The one good thing is that Minginish community have monetised it for the benefit of the area.
Absolutely correct. No local folklore of Fairies here.
It's not just us that feel this way. Recent article from the Daily Record: www-dailyrecord-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/isle-skye-beauty-spot-slated-26054481.amp?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a8&usqp=mq331AQIKAGwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16433756923417&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailyrecord.co.uk%2Fscotland-now%2Fisle-skye-beauty-spot-slated-26054481
Your spot on..maybe an idea issue some sort of permit/day pass and limit the amount off permits issuew annually . You might say it will impact income from tourism . The charge for the permit should reflect the impact . This will reduce the amount of people visiting and give the the land time to heal
Watching this broke my heart. Currently studying Wildlife and Conservation managment at SRUC and I hated seeing the impacts that the amount of tourists have had on the fairy pools. I've never been to see them and think it would be a wonderful experience to see them first hand, but after this I won't go. I hope things have improved since this was filmed and some work has been done to restore/save what is left.
Hi Ashley, Thanks for you comment and for understanding what I was feeling and trying to explain to others. As you've seen in the video, I was getting very emotional about the impact on the environment. I've had some people getting indignant that I made this video, and accusing me of hypocrisy by going to the place to show others the damage caused by too many visitors. I understand why they might say that, but I felt I had to speak out when there is such a mass of other videos about the Fairy Pools that ignore the problem. I've been toying with doing a video about the Litter problem in Scotland which is now reaching crisis levels. I did a walk around Loch Bradan in the Galloway Forest Park and filled two heavy-duty sacks with plastic bottles and cans thrown away around the forest paths, and then filled another 4 sacks with rubbish left by "wild campers" who had set up their camp beside the dam. I'm a bit wary to do this because of the amount of vitriol I expect to get in response.
@@SecretscotlandTours I think videos such as this need to be made. People are being encouraged (certainly more so over the last couple of years), to go out and explore nature, but they need to be made aware of the impact that they are also having. I've had my eyes opened by the course that I am on and I always felt that I was responsible when I went out, but I never realised the unintentional impacts that I've probably had.
@@SecretscotlandTours Thanks for sharing info about the litter problem. I didn't realize this since I thought there was very little litter in the areas I visited near Kyle of Lochalsh recently. I did a hike to the Glomach Falls and didn't come across any litter and was very impressed by that.
@@andreasissons7766 Glomach Falls gets considerably fewer visitors than the Fairy Pools. Around 200,000 people go to the Fairy Pools per year now. The length of the hike to the Glomach Falls will deter most people. Back in 2003, I worked on the repair of some of the sections of the footpath that leads from Morvich to Glomach.
@@SecretscotlandTours Maybe that's the solution. Make the parking lot further away so it deters people. I really enjoyed Glomach although I was the only one on the trail and it was very strenuous. Took an extra half hour because I missed the gate to the bridge near the bottom. :)
Tourists? - maybe we need to remember what the term 'tourist' really means and stop blaming them for the erosion of the paths etc...Tourists - are people who value and appreciate the sites they are visiting and who also bring monetary value to the local economy.........The 2 charities who are responsible for the upkeep of the roads leading to the Fairy Pools and who charge the 'quite high' amount of £5 per car, are doing a fabulous job of reinvesting that money back into the local community and i'm sure the 'tourists' are happy to contribute to this. The Fairy Pools are nice in reality - they are breathtakingly stunning in photographs - but photographs aren't real.......and neither are the deep blue and purple waters of the fairy pools in the photographs....but it's nice to be there - it's a 'touristy' thing to do - so please stop going on as though the tourists are destroying a natural piece of wonder - the fairy pools will be there in a million years...the path, and the tourists may not be...lets just let people enjoy them for what they are and stop getting so serious about it all
You'll actually hear me saying in this video that the £5 charge for the car park is a good thing as it is being reinvested in conservation work and I have no complaints about that. But, with my past experience in conservation work, I am sorry to see the way they have constructed the path with inappropriate materials and without a real understanding of how to manage the impact of the volume of visitors on the landscape.
Fortunately, funding has been received to improve the path and install suitable viewpoints as the environmental impact is now being acknowledged: thirdforcenews.org.uk/tfn-news/funding-boost-to-protect-environment-around-fairy-pools
If you do much hillwalking in areas managed by trusts like John Muir, you will notice that the footpaths are top surfaced using gravel that is locally sourced so it blends in with its environment. At the "Fairy Pools" it appears to be hardcore from Jewsons.
The car park is a necessary evil, but it is a large and highly visible cutting into the hillside and I hope that measures will be taken to blend it in with the landscape by some appropriate tree planting.
You say above that the attraction of the Fairy Pools has been artificially enhanced in photographs and that is why I made this video without any use of photoshop. I simply filmed what I found. The churned up river banks saddened me and I thought it important that people with a concern about environmentalism should be aware of this before they visit.
The point I was trying to make in this video is that there are so many other equally beautiful places in Scotland that tourists could be visiting so they don't need to feel that the so called "Fairy Pools" are a must see.
If you watch some of our other videos you can see some of the many other beautiful places in Scotland you can explore where you will find very few if any other visitors.
Don't dispute a word of your statement but the environment is being destroyed at the same time
I can see your point about the devastating erosion, but a a tourist attraction the the people responsible for the management of the area should, as you rightly point out, be more sympathetic to the landscape !! All of those parking fees and the pathway is an eyesore, mile after mile of the Lake district has thousands upon thousands of visitors every year and the paths laid by fix the fells and the National trust are far superior and the area as a whole better managed. I don't think your video will deter people from visiting as the whole of Skye is now a major tourist attraction.
Korkey, thanks for your comment, you have understood the point that I was trying to make about the need for tourism to be balanced with environmental protection. There are some good examples in Scotland of organisations getting it right with respect to protecting fragile beauty spots with carefully and intelligently built footpaths (see our video about Glen Affric for example).
I will check out your other videos.
Well i have now been to the fairy pools and seen the erosion for myself !!! i do feel however that with more careful management the issue could be vastly improved !! It is clear that there are main areas where people wish to see/photograph the falls more closely, and i feel that this could be an easy fix !! ie with regards to landscaping these areas, that would not severely impact the beauty of the place !! It is not just the falls that are stunning but also the backdrop and people should not be deterred from visiting such stunning places.
@@korkey001 it is part of the issue with social media and viral trends. The visitor numbers to the Fairy Pools (a made up name by the way as there is no local folklore to inspire the name) went exponential after some beautiful images went viral and (I think) Lonely Planet or the likes placed it in one of there top 10 lists.
I know of other places I Scotland to rival the Fairy Pools for scenery and atmosphere, but I would not wish them to suffer the same fate.
Visited this place in 2007 with friends, there was no car park and we had the place to ourselves! - days before you tube videos and walking programs came along. Came back in 2018 and was horrified. They had cut down a lot of the forest area to build a car park, then to charge a fiver. When i saw the people, scrawling like ants down the path it was clear this had turned into a tourist trap, nothing more. It just needed an ice cream van to top it off, and hey there was one of those too. There are better and wilder places on the island to visit, perhaps more physical effort required but worth it. I would AVOID this place at all costs, ruined for all the wrong reasons.
Part of Skye's economy is tourism, but let us remember that it wasn't the tourists who made the path what it is today. Tourist money may have helped to pay for the material used, which I would agree is not really appropriate for the place, so better environmental management is required. I intend visiting Skye next April as I have never been to Scotland and an opportunity has arisen where I am able to do so and do some photography of this amazing island. I won't be taking your adjuration to stay away. You've been twice, so thanks for the heads up.
Thanks for your comment. We posted this video so that people could see what is happening to the land around this river and could then make a decision about whether or not they wished to go there. As you can see from other replies here, the people who have visited this waterfall recently have also been dismayed at the impact of over-tourism. As I said in the video, there are so many beautiful places to visit in Scotland and we would humbly request that you look at some of our other videos to get ideas about some of the equally beautiful places you could visit. We live in Scotland and tour it all the time to do research for our travel guides. We can give you lots of advice on where to find special places that aren't suffering from over-tourism. We hope you'll enjoy your trip to Scotland next year.
Everyone writing here feel they should be the only ones visiting.
Allt eas Coire a Mhadaidh. Dunno when it's name changed to Fairy Pools but we used to go there 25/30 years ago as teenagers and there would be no tourists, just boisterous local kids having a swim and a laugh.
Yep... there's no Fairy folklore associated with this waterfall that I'm aware of. Not sure where the fox / Mhadaidh connection comes from in the name either. Can you shed light on that?
@@SecretscotlandTours My Granny is 95 and grew up 6 miles from there. She says the Mhadaidh could just as easily mean a wolf or a hound. Some tour guides make mention of a fairy or a selkie swimming in the pools but Granny says that's news to her. What's more interesting is the story of Coire na Creic that the whole place sits in.
Your Granny sounds like a great source of information. I'm sure she could teach me a lot and I'd love to hear her stories. Make sure you take notes. I lost my parents last year and really regret that I didn't take time to write down the details of their stories.
Just so you all know , here in America my friends and I admire the fairy pools .
I'm sure, in a country as big as America, that you have several places with similar appeal.
Nope . Nothing like that .
What about the Tamolitch Falls on the McKenzie River in Oregon. It looks amazing and much less spoilt.
Been there ten years ago... I've never been back since then and I guess I won't come back the next few years. It's so tragical.... There are so many other beautiful places in Scotland. So much to see. This year we'll visit the Isle of Mull. I hate that kind of mass tourism. They destroy everything..... Oh bonnie, bonnie Scotland. I feel with you...
Glad you saw it when it was unspoilt. Mull has a lot to offer. Special places that we'd suggest you seek out are Langamull Beach, Am Birlinn Restaurant, the Isle of Ulva, Eas Fors waterfall, the hike up Ben More and the ridge walk off it, Lochbuie for the stone circle and the ruins of Moy Castle (which you'll recognise if you've seen the classic Black & White movie "I know where I'm going".
@@SecretscotlandTours Thank you very, very much for your recommendations. I'm a very enthusiastic hobby photographer so I appreciate them. 😊😊 I'm in love with Scotland over 30 years now... As a little girl I've read a book about two guys who were hunted by a ghost in a cottage near Loch Ness... The (fictitious) cottage and ghost of Ian O'Gilvy 😅 So this was when my "Love Story" begun. But hand to heart: I'm sure, Ian exists like Nessie does 😉 Lovely greetings from Austria!
If you are looking for more detailed info about exploring Mull you might like to look at our Island Explorer Tour Plan www.secret-scotland.com/standardtour/island-explorer and our blog.... www.secret-scotland.com/blog/scotland-travel-blog-august-2016
You are "they" idiot
In Canada’s busy parks we build elevated boardwalks above the ground. People are contained, not allowing them to wander around.
That would certainly help. Are these boardwalks used in particular environments?
Cannot help but feel that the Skye Bridge has made its contribution to this devastation.
I think it's far more to do with (anti-) social media. It's poisoned almost every aspect of human existence.
😢
Dude .... you produced children, grandchildren and great grandchildren .... .Now they all want to enjoy .. Crowd already created .....100 yrs ago it was different , 10 yrs ago you left your footprint and now the "Crowd created" leaving footprints like you did...
?
I really dont see your point....so, some grass has been eroded and the path is muddy...life goes on and the local wildlife won't complain at a bit of mud. Jeez.
Have you been to the pools and experienced it first hand? The path is made from the sort of hardcore material that you buy at Jewsons. Professional footpath makers dig a pit away in a hidden area and use locally sourced gravel to surface the path so its looks "organic" and natural. The banks of this river used to have small Rowan, alder & willow trees, but these are trampled now and the river bank is barren. The issue with the mud is that every rainfall, and Skye gets a lot of rain, washes away more soil so the erosion accelerates.
Wrong part od the year grasz not green
You're so right, grass cannot possibly be green in the Spring. Presumably due to a lack of rainfall in Scotland?
Irony complaining about tourists whilst being a tourist there yourself. It's every individual persons small footprint that causes erosion on a larger scale, and your justification about going to complain and prove a point only proves you think your worthy cause is better than someone else reason for being there.
If you cared that much then talk about it rather than going and contributing and looking a hypocrite and showing off saying you know better places but won't say.
But would you have watched a video of me sitting in my office telling you how bad it has become? I suspect not.
Why are you there then Tube
I'm there because I write travel guides and we did this report so that people can see exactly for themselves what the reality of the Fairy Pools is.
good rebuttal
lmao
Toilets, coffee shop, larger car park. goodbye to nature. Your arguments are very admirable but I'm afraid you are wasting your breath and now with your fine video that is sure to add to the increasing visitors, sorry. Glad that you are keeping the other falls secret though.
I really didn't think my video was glamorizing the falls.
You sound miserable as sin, I hope Mother Nature does create more people to see the wonderful job she’s done 💕
Hi Sarah, I think you have missed the point I was trying to make. I don't know anything about you, so maybe you have visited these pools before they became such a highly publicised and popular tourist destination. If that was the case, then you will know just how beautiful it was before they built that incongruous hard core surfaced path up the hillside. You'll maybe remember that the path was barely visible from the road and that the view west from the pools wasn't spoilt by the large car park excavated from the hillside. All of these things are necessary to cater for the large number of visitors to the pools, but there is a sensitive way of making tourism sustainable and this isn't it. I have no issue with people wanting to visit the pools, but people also need to be aware of what they are going to see when they get there. Scotland is a land full of beauty and I could reel off a list of places that rival these pools for beauty. All I would ask is that people consider the environmental impact on these beautiful places and, when they see that a place is becoming damaged like this, they maybe consider visiting somewhere else in order to ease the strain on "Mother Nature" and to preserve it for all those people you hope she'll create.
Secret Scotland hiya sorry I must have sounded so rude, I have never been this Scotland but I would love too! I came across some photos in my loft of fairy pools Scotland and not sure who they belonged too so wanted to look on CZcams to plan a trip as the photos in my loft are beautiful 💕
My issue with humanity, a lot of people have lost respect for the earths own good! I practise lots of Wiccan/pagan rituals and things so I wanted to go where there was elements of all. So to see what I saw in my loft was a sign 😂👏🏻 I sound crazy I know! So I get where you’re coming from 💕
@@sarahhewitt7765 Hi Sarah, there isn't any local folklore associating these Pools with Fairies or Pagan rituals. The name "Fairy Pools" was just something that got coined about 10 years ago. If Pagan sites are something that you are interested in, I 'd suggest you visit Dunino Den which is just south of St Andrews. It is a Clootie Well in a wooded hollow that you descend down steps carved in stone to get to. The site has a very strong "Vibe" about it (I get spooked going there on my own) and there is a church nearby so it is clearly recognised as a place of worship for many centuries.
Secret Scotland Thankyou so much! I just loved the look of the water and wanted to capture some 💕
Secret Scotland I’ve just looked at dunino den and it looks absolutely beautiful 😍😍