This is an exciting time for Staffin Harbour which can provide a crucial economic spark and support new job and business opportunities for our community.
We have several small businesses poised to lease our new work sheds including boat trips, bike hire, scallop diving, welding, and Gaelic youth sports activities. We can also offer a range of practical services for boat owners across Skye and further afield.
Staffin Community Trust (SCT) has a major responsibility to manage the harbour efficiently and prudently so it serves this generation - and the ones coming after us.
All the revenue received from the harbour use is used to meet the management and maintenance costs, with any surplus invested in other community projects.
Be assured that every single penny counts.
SERVICES
Boat lifting: SCT can take vessels which are up to 14-metres long in and out of the water using our Roodberg hydraulic trailer.
Business premises: SCT has recently built 7 steel-framed work sheds which are available for rent. Several have already been allocated but there are 3 x 40m2 units still left. The specification and further information available upon request.
Vessel storage: Boats and trailers can be stored at our new onshore hardstanding area for repair work or regular maintenance.
For further information on all of the above please contact the Harbour Manager by phone or e-mail staffinharbourmanager@gmail.com
TARIFF
Payment can be made via the safe and secure Square System.
Alternatively, you can pay Staffin Community Trust directly, details below.
Account Name: Harbour
Account No: 00650835
Sort Code: 83-26-19
Royal Bank of Scotland, Portree, Isle of Skye IV51 9BX
If you would like to make a donation to the community-run harbour you can do so via a silver box at the harbour itself. We are grateful for whatever support you can give.
Description | Cost incl VAT |
Unassisted slipway use, single day rate | £9.00  |
Harbour user car and trailer parking, per day | £9.00  |
Kayak use of slipway single day rate | £3.60  |
Car parking | £2.40 per two hours  |
Boat under 6m annual slipway use | £90.00  |
Boat and trailer under 6m summer storage | £180.00  |
Small dinghy parking annual fee | £36.00  |
COMMUNITY
Our harbour is used for a range of uses from fishing, aquaculture, boat tours, outdoor sporting events, such as the recent Staffin Triathlon, to transporting livestock to Stenscholl Island and even 999 coastguard rescues.
SCT purchasing the harbour from Highland Council and the Scottish Ministers in 2024 was the culmination of years of work, led by unpaid volunteers.
At every public consultation event held in the last 20 years the pressing need for investment in our harbour was repeatedly pinpointed as the number one priority by our community. SCT’s project steering group began making real progress from 2020 onwards.
SCT has since secured full onshore and marine planning permission, extensively upgraded the access road, provided electricity to the harbour for the first time with a 1.2km supply route and constructed a new water supply. SCT has also built a new onshore hardstanding yard and seven new business units and invested in a telehandler and boat lifting trailer.
FUTURE CONSTRUCTION WORKS
We’re working hard to deliver further infrastructure improvements which will be phased in the next few years including the construction of a new slipway, breakwater, pontoons and further onshore facilities.
This will help support the existing livelihoods which depend on the harbour and create new jobs and businesses and support our community’s future sustainability.
Later in 2025 work will start on the construction of a new Harbour Facilities Building, and we have plans to complete the onshore area.
This is a transitional period and there may be construction works in operation. Please ensure you comply with all safety notices.
HISTORY
The original Staffin slipway and a store was built in the early 1900s and came out of the hardship faced by our people. Before the slipway local people had to carry foodstuffs like potatoes up to 14 miles home as there was no supply route into the community.
The lifeline harbour came after major fishing and agriculture improvements were made in rural communities like Staffin, which were at the heart of the crofter uprisings against oppressive landlords in the 1880s with communities distressed by high rents, their lack of rights to land, or facing eviction to make way for large-scale farming operations.
Local men working for the Congested Districts Board built the slipway which allow boats that sailed between Glasgow and island communities to deliver food and supplies.
The harbour has supported local businesses and local livelihoods ever since. It has allowed families to source seafood and transport livestock, while becoming an informal meeting place for local people and a recreational asset for both residents and visitors.
In the late 1990s SCT managed to raise £350,000, with the final £10,000 raised in only four weeks by the community fundraising, in order to extend the original slipway and build a breakwater to provided further shelter for boats. It was opened by HRH The Princess Royal.
CONTACT
Lachie Gillies, Staffin Harbour Manager
Phone: Tbc
Email: staffinharbourmanager@gmail.com
Address: Staffin Harbour Office, Staffin, Isle of Skye IV51 9JS
NET ZERO
SCT takes its environmental responsibilities seriously. Like the rest of the world climate change is having an impact on Staffin and placing future operations at our harbour at serious risk. An alarming report from SCT's marine engineers Wallace Stone has recently warned that rising sea levels will leave the current slipway submerged by water. It is therefore crucial that SCT can deliver a new slipway and breakwater as soon as possible.
Our construction works to date have been designed with minimising our impact on the environment and unique Trotternish landscape.
- Our upgraded harbour will provide a safe haven for work boats. It means boats will not have to steam all the way from Portree or Uig to access their work in and around Staffin, be that creel fishing, tour boats, fish farm vessels etc. Therefore, far less fuel will be burnt, which will significantly cut carbon emissions.
- SCT opened up the disused Lealt quarry, seven miles south of the harbour, and HGVs hauled 20,000 tonnes of rock for the new onshore area over several weeks. If we hadn’t utilised the quarry each HGV would have faced a two-hour return journey on an already congested road network to Skye’s main quarry in Sconser. Carbon emissions were again significantly reduced.
- We have restored an old well close to the harbour, instead of digging in 1.5km of new pipework across the Trotternish National Scenic Area, which blankets Staffin.
- 7 KWp of solar PV panels will be mounted on south-facing roof of our new Harbour Facilities Building providing renewable electric to the harbour.
- The water for the showers and WCs in the building will be heated by ASHP with heat recovery ventilation
- Two EV car charging points will be provided in our harbour parking area
HARBOUR RULES
TO COME