Information for fly Eilean Donan Castle, Fairy pools, Portree, Neist point

Hello everyone :slight_smile:

I’m planning to fly tomorrow at the following locations:

• Eilean Donan Castle
• Fairy Pools
• Portree
• Neist Point

I had previously checked to make sure flying in these areas was allowed, but today I wanted to double-check that it’s still safe to fly. I looked up the information on Drone Scene, and it shows restricted areas—however, it seems this depends on scheduled flight activities, which may vary. I also checked here:

From what I can tell, there shouldn’t be any issues flying in these areas. Still, I’d really appreciate it if anyone has additional information I should be aware of, just to be on the safe side.

Thank you very much in advance, and happy flying!

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Use Drone Scene for the FRZ, the ranges you have posted are not the only FRZ - there are also Military timetable for Low Flying is here, which includes Eilean Donan - Military low flying: RAF operational low flying training timetable - GOV.UK

EGR610 which covers Eilean Donan is not active on a weekend, so it should be fine to fly, but if in doubt ring the RAF Low Fly helpline and check on 01489443100

The rest on Sky are not under any FRZ, however there are SSSI, so you need to check and make a decision as to whether it is advisable to fly - nesting season is upon us, so think about the nesting birds.

Personally I had no issue in Portree, Neist Point or the Fairy Pools, however I have been told that there are signs in place at several sites on Skye about drone flying at certain times - Old Man of Storr and Mealt Falls have had signage prohibiting TOAL on the land.

Eilean Donan used to have an out of hours policy that allowed drone flying, but that seems to have changed, even the high level viewpoint now ha no drone signage, as does the area over the bridge, so worth doing soe research…

I flew Eilean Donan and a number of other Skye sites, including the Fairy Pools, Quirang, Old Man of Storr and Portree in October 2023, and Neist Point and other sites in June 2024, check out my YT channel for the videos…

And the showreel from 2023…

Hope this helps and gives some inspiration - all these are on the Drone Scene map along with markers for Parking and TOAL spots that were used…

Oh and enjoy your trip, Skye is stupendously beautiful…

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Thank you very much for all the detailed information! I also appreciate the reminder to consider nesting season and respect local wildlife. The videos you recorded are absolutely beautiful and really help to capture the essence of the area. I’ll definitely look into everything more thoroughly before planning any flights. Thanks again!

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