Sunday 11 February: visitors to Skye flock to it in their thousands during the season, though I suspect most of them drive away thinking “what was that all about?”. Its situation may be dramatic, but it’s hardly Tantallon, Eilean Donan or Dunnottar – there’s very little left of Duntulm castle. The parking space beside the road provides me with a starting place for this short walk, and I’ll start with a look at the castle from the shore.

Five minutes later I’m heading past the former coastguard cottages to take the farm track around the back of Cnoc Roll, a small hill topped by a radio mast. The track goes all the way round, but at the half-way mark an old way leads to the opposite hillside, for great views and a slightly longer walk. There are no paths up here, but the way is pretty obvious, if steep and in places soggy…

View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map?X=141205&Y=874010&A=Y&Z=120

 

Thursday 11 January: my last day of wandering, and the weather’s beginning to change. It remains calm and dry, but there’s more cloud about. Tomorrow there are domestic duties to attend to, and on Saturday, I begin my journey home. Today I’m walking the first stretch of the Skye Trail, to the bothy high above Rubha Hunish, the most northerly point of the island. In better times, I’d be down the very steep path to the spit of land below, where lies that northern tip, but it could be icy, and if I did go down there, it would be dark before I got back to the start. I’ll content myself with wonderful sea views, and some beautiful light as the sun sinks on this exceptional week on Skye.

View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map?X=141525&Y=875598&A=Y&Z=120

Wednesday 10 January: The south side of Glen Uig is home to the Fairy Glen. It’s in deep shade – and blue with frost reflecting, yet again, a cloudless blue sky on another windless day. To the north side is Glen Conon, which seems to be the name of the settlement of scattered houses beside the road, which climbs from opposite Rankin’s shop by some remarkable zig-zags (the river in Glen Uig is the Conon). Beyond the bends, the very quiet road provides a panoramic view of the glen and, at its head, Beinn Edra, a summit on the Trotternish Ridge. It’s an ‘out-and-back’ walk, most enjoyable on this wonderful January day.

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Tuesday 9 January: a walk along part of the Skye Trail, with an unintended double back… I started down the road to Flodigarry, from where I followed the trail. The route was pretty clear on OpenStreetMap, but it’s not shown on the OS map… There was a way up a cleft in the low line of crags, but I thought I’d seen a better way up. I hadn’t – I ended up back at Flodigarry, where happily I found an easy scramble up onto the hilltop and eventually regained the route. Another fine, still, blue-sky frosty day – mud would have made things difficult, but it was mostly frozen hard. The views to Lewis and to the north-west Highlands are wonderful!

View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map?X=145720&Y=872765&A=Y&Z=120

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.

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Sunday 7 January: another quiet Skye day – some sunshine, no wind, maybe a spot or two of rain. Parking at the triangle, where the Kilmuir road begins its climb to the hairpin bend and beyond: I’ll walk as far as that bend (endless hours of fun when the tour coaches meet the local bus…) then take to the hill. A good path rises gently to Uig’s landmark headland Creagile. It’s no height – perhaps 300ft above the sea below – but a great viewpoint for the coast to the north and the distant isles. It’s also a great place to watch the 2.30 ferry set out across a calm sea to Lochmaddy, North Uist.

Those spots of rain have timed it nicely – I’m back to the start, it’s not long after 3pm, and it will soon be getting dark…

View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map?X=138585&Y=864063&A=Y&Z=120