Monday 8 January: almost certainly, this road is thought of by thousands of summer visitors as the Quiraing road. But it’s early January, so the road is quiet – and we’re not heading for the Quiraing. Instead, we’re enjoying the bright sunshine under a clear blue sky. It may be frosty, but there’s not a breath of wind, and apart from one or two cars which pass, it’s completely silent.

About a mile and a half up the road, a clearly-defined path rises to our left – let’s see how far we can get. There’s an interesting little rocky outcrop, and we can now see beyond the crest of the ridge to Loch Snizort and the outer isles. We could perhaps get a little closer to the edge and look down on Kilmuir? Perhaps not – after a couple of false starts, we realise we’re going to get wet feet, and the sun is getting lower. We’ll head back to the car, parked in the space high above Uig Bay.

View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map?X=139090&Y=865098&A=Y&Z=120