Experience the peace and tranquility of the beautiful, remote Isle of Skye, the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides, and home to some of Scotland’s most iconic landscapes. Renowned for its strong community, friendly welcome, and a race run on closed roads, the Skye Half Marathon sells out every year. Skye, from the Norse meaning Misty Isle, will enchant you with its dramatic mountain ranges dominated by the rocky slopes of the Cuilin, miles of spectacular coastline from the Atlantic to the West and North Sea to the East, and its complex and captivating history featuring the Clans of MacDonald and MacLeod, its castles, churches and Brochs. Join us on Saturday 10th June for a race to remember.
The Skye Half Marathon is a chip timed loop with a course that climbs gradually away from Portree for the first 1.5 miles, before another steep climb at Drumuie leading to a fast downhill 2 miles to the Kensaleyre turn. The route then follows a single-track road through spectacular countryside at times beside Skye’s longest River, the River Snizort, famed for its salmon and sea trout and fished by fishermen from across the globe.
All Skye Half Marathon finishers will receive a unique commemorative medal as well as some extra race goodies. If you’ve chosen to sign up for our Fun Run, this will be chip timed, and finishers will also receive an original bespoke medal. There will be age group category prizes as well as spot prizes.
This year, we are again offering a Skye Half Marathon Virtual Run. We’d love runners from all over the UK and further afield to run at 10.30am on Saturday 10th June 2023. All joiners will receive a medal in the post, a virtual certificate, and results will be published by 12 noon on 17th June. Race time results must be submitted by midnight on Monday 12th June. We’d love to know where you’re from and be delighted for you to send us a selfie as you finish the 13.1miles for us to share with our running community.
For 2023, Skye Events for the first time are introducing a barnd new 10k under a Scottish Athletics Permit. As with the Skye Half Marathon, this will be a chip timed run starting from the 11k Half Marathon marker and following a single-track, closed road through brooding, dramatic but spectacular countryside. Runners will be bussed to the start-line and the run will commence on a gun start to coincide with the start of the Half Marathon.
There will be prize winners across categories. All 10k finishers will receive a unique commemorative medal as well as some race goodies. The run is open to all abilities but runners must be over 16 years old to take part.
We extend the warmest Highland welcomes and hope you'll join us on what is sure to be an excellent day.
The 2023 Skye Half Marathon continues to champion the environment and to reduce the damaging impact a 1000 ticket race can have on our native landscape. We hope you’ll support and embrace our initiatives which include:
T- Shirts – In our pledge to reduce waste we don’t automatically offer a t-shirt as part of the entry price. You can instead pre-order a t-shirt along with other items should you choose when you register. In this way we don’t over-order. Don’t worry. If you decide not to pre-order but love our t-shirts on the day, we do a limited run-on that can be purchased from our merchandise shop on race day. We find that by working in this way we control surplus.
Hydration – we ask that all of our runners be as self-sufficient as possible with hydration during the race and avoid any single use plastic. On race day, there will be plenty of water stations along the route as refill points for your chosen hydration method. We also provide water in compostable cups along the route for runners to use should they not wish to carry water.
Plant a Tree: We are proud to attract runners from all over the world to our small island, but are keenly aware of the impact travel has on the environment. We offer the opportunity for runners to offset their carbon footprint by planting a tree.In 2021 we launched our Isle of Skye Half Marathon Tree Grove. If you want to give back to the planet what you take out then you can buy a tree for just £6 to help rewild the Caledonian Forest.
These are not the only changes we’ve implemented and you can read more here about our Sustainability Initiatives.
Finally, Skye Events is a charity with the single aim of bringing people together by delivering sustainable events to promote physical activity and benefit the community. By signing up to run the Skye Half Marathon, you will be given the option to donate to our two main charitable partners [yet to be announced]. Not only that, a proportion of income from this headline race is donated to a further seven small local Skye charities. Recipients from 2022 included Skye Cancer Care, Skye Citizens Advice Bureau, Skye Brownies & Girl Guides, Skye Pipe Band, Skye Radio, Portree & Brae Community Trust and Edinbane Primary School. By joining us, you will not only have an amazing day, you will also be making a difference to our island community.
Photo credit for banner image: Fiona Rennie
registrations are not available
The event is closed.
