Portree / Skye

Skye's landscape is the eroded remains of a Palaeogene volcano — the Cuillin ridge, the Quiraing landslip and the Old Man of Storr are all products of it — and the island's place names are Norse and Gaelic in layers. Portree's harbour houses were painted in the 1990s, which is recent, and the island now receives visitor numbers its single-track roads were never built for.