‘Horrific’ blast visitors after car park ‘chaos’ at iconic Scottish tourist spot

A TOUR business taking visitors to a once-hidden gem location in Scotland says traffic is now “total chaos” – with four hour car park queues.

The Fairy Pools are a series of natural pools and waterfalls in Glen Brittle on the Isle of Skye.

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Once a relatively off-the-beaten-track destination, the vivid blue water is popular with tourists worldwide.

Gordon Pearson, who runs WOW Scotland, a tour company, said traffic on the island has increased over the last 10 years.

But said driving to the island’s Fairy Pools over the last few weeks has been “a horrific experience.”

Mr Pearson said he is concerned the lack of appropriate infrastructure to support the influx of visitors to the site is putting his customers at risk.

He said some 400 vehicles can get stuck in a traffic jam on this road at one time with up to a four hour wait.

Over 200,000 people visit the Fairy Pools each year.

But the single track road into and out of Glen Brittle is poorly-maintained and is causing dozens of flat tyres each week, leaving the route blocked for hours on end by stranded cars.

The traffic jams have been compounded by the wet weather this year, which has caused vehicles to get stuck on the road margins, with tow trucks unable to reach them because of the blockages.

Mr Pearson said: “The people who work in the Fairy Pools car park have said visitors say it’s like a warzone driving there.

“Some people can get stuck for about four hours just on that road. It’s absolutely horrendous, and I don’t think there’s enough attention how bad the road really is.”

The business owner said he has regularly had to jump out and run between passing places to guide the traffic.

“It’s getting to a point where it’s too dangerous,” he said.

“If one of my customers needed emergency help, there’s no way of getting help to them quickly.

“We’ve always done Skye, since 2012.

“It’s our unique selling point, and we always want people to get the most out of the place, but we can’t do that with the current situation.

“We might pull out of doing the Fairy Pools on our route, and maybe Skye altogether.”

Mr Pearson’s comments come as a charity which has worked to support the swell of visitors to the area by building a carpark has been told by the local council it is to blame for the influx and must help to pay for its disintegrating access road to be fixed.

The Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland (OATS), which runs a car park and lavatories at the Fairy Pools, stepped in six years ago to create the facilities to reduce the impact of vehicles parking alongside the single-track road, including blocking emergency vehicles as well as fouling and litter.

With the road now falling apart, local councillor John Finlayson has said the charity must put its own money towards the urgently needed repairs, accusing it of having created the problem while making cash out of the car park.

OATS, which has just been announced as a finalist in the Scottish Land & Estates 2024 Helping it Happen Awards for a “ground-breaking environmental restoration and protection project” to solve problems caused by the increase in visitor numbers at Skye tourist hotspots, said it cannot pay for the road by law.

A Highland Council spokesperson said: “Council officers are working on potential visitor management solutions and exploring funding streams to help alleviate some of these pressures which are currently being experienced in the Skye area.”

The spokesperson said surfacing works for the C1237 road between Merkadale and Glenbrittle are included in this year’s capital roads programme for the Isle of Skye area.