Popular tourist spot is ‘total chaos’ with cars stuck in traffic for 4 hours already: ‘Horrible experience’

Think Burning Man has bad traffic? Scotland’s once secluded Fairy Pools have been blighted by apocalyptic overcrowding with tourists waiting in four-hour traffic jams to visit them, according to local tour companies.

“People who work at Fairy Pools car park have said visitors say it’s like a war zone driving there,” Gordon Pearson, who runs tour company WOW Scotland, told the South West News Service. “It’s absolutely terrible and I don’t think enough attention is paid to how bad the road really is.”

Located in Glen Brittle on the Isle of Skye, the attraction includes a series of picturesque pools and waterfalls that look like they’ve come straight out of a Lord of the Rings movie.

While the sapphire oasis was once a hidden gem, traffic has increased dramatically over the past decade, according to local sources, with overcrowding allegedly exacerbated by poor infrastructure.

In recent weeks, travel there has become “total chaos” with about 400 vehicles stuck on the road, according to Pearson. While only 200,000 tourists visit the locale each year, the one-lane road from Glen Brittle is poorly maintained, leading to flat tires and hours-long traffic jams like something out of a disaster thriller, SWNS reported.

“Some people can be stuck for about four hours on that road alone,” laments Pearson, who regularly has to jump out and help ease traffic.

Conditions in the already veritable tourist trap have been worsened by the recent wet weather.

This has caused vehicles to get stuck on shoulders where rescue vehicles cannot reach them due to jams.

“If one of my clients needed emergency help, there’s no way to get them help quickly,” Pearson said.

Conditions have become so “dangerous” that the guide is considering dropping the glamorous Mecca from his tour.

“We’ve always done Skye, since 2012,” he said. “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 back on doing Fairy Pools on our way, and maybe Skye altogether,” he added.

There is also a bureaucratic hurdle.

The charity Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland, which set up a car park six years ago to ease congestion along the route, has been blamed for the traffic by the local council.

OATS has also been told to raise money to repair the dangerous access road – something it cannot do by law, according to a representative of the organisation.

“Council officers are working on possible visitor management solutions and exploring funding streams to help alleviate some of these pressures currently being experienced in the Skye area,” said the Highland Council spokesman.