Based at the Pier Garage in the island's capital Portree, this firm started in the 1920s - and after an initial period of competition before the advent of the Traffic Commissioner and road service licensing - developed a network of services on the island to compliment those of Skye Transport. For many years the Beaton's telephone number was simply Portree 2.
In their advertisement in the 1946 edition of Duncan Macpherson's Vest Pocket Guide to the Isle of Skye the firm listed their routes as:
Portree to Armadale
Portree to Dunvegan
Portree to Glendale
Portree to Waternish
Portree to Kilmuir
Portree to Portnalong
Neil Beaton, the founder, had died a few years before. In December 1952 the Clarion of Skye reported that the bus business had been bought by Andrew MacLaren and Peter Macleod, former employees of the company. Soon after that the decision was made to concentrate on the motor car side of their business from their garage in Dunvegan Road, Portree, perhaps partially because of the poor state of the island roads and the consequent daily punishment their buses received. The various bus routes were put up for sale.
The Portree - Sligachan - Struan - Dunvegan service was also withdrawn about this time, and the long Armadale - Struan - Dunvegan - Glendale route passed to Macphie of Shagarry. Ewen Macrae, the operator of the Glenbrittle to Portree route - 'one of the most difficult routes in Britain, and the most beautiful' said the Clarion - acquired the Fiscavaig / Portnalong to Portree route from Beaton's. There was always considerable duplication of mileage on those two routes.
This left the long but important Portree - Sligachan - Broadford - Armadale Pier route (with connections from Glendale and Dunvegan at Sligachan for Armadale on certain days). This connected with the ferry from Armadale to Mallaig, the terminus of the rail line to Fort William and Glasgow.
This went by default to Macbraynes after 1953, but the timetable was reduced and the connecting service from Dunvegan and Glendale was discontinued. After the Macbrayne takeover the service was operated from their Ardvasar garage and only ran through to Portree and back from Armadale Pier once a day. There was an additional summer only evening journey on which one had to change from a Macbrayne bus to a Skye Transport bus in Broadford to continue the journey onwards to Portree.
