The Isle of Skye & The Cuillin: Why this place is special to me
In September 2019, a friend and I made an impromptu visit to The Isle of Skye. After naively reading about ‘The Cuillin Ridge Traverse’, we thought “how hard can it be?'“ and drove the 8 hours from The Lake District to attempt it in a day. We bought a coffee table style guidebook on the way up in Fort William and that night we bivvied below Sgùrr Alasdair and next to Loch Coir’ a’ Ghrunnda after a horrendous scree ascent to Gars-bheinn. The next morning, we were up on the ridge below Sgùrr Dubh an Da Bheinn. Route finding proved a nightmare and after multiple wrong turns, an hour deliberating if the ‘TD Gap’ was within our remit (and successfully climbed it) and many more hours later, we had only made it to the Inaccessible Pinnacle. In our naive young minds, we thought it didn’t look too bad and the weather was incredible. We soloed the Moderate climb, with myself going quieter and quieter as we rose higher, terrified of the exposure. Another group had done the same and also down climbed. We were not up for that and thankfully another couple had let us use their rope to abseil down. As we rested on the summit of Sgùrr Dearg, we called it a day. We could see the end point; Sgurr nan Gillean and knew it was way too far away to feasibly get there with our limited food and water supplies, zero knowledge of the rest of the route and heavy coffee table guidebook. When we read that less than 5% of first time traverses completed it, we now knew why, this place is a beast.
Since that incredible experience, I have now visited Skye, and in particular The Cuillin around 15 times in 3.5 years. I have taken friends and family there to show them the wonders of the ridge. Sometimes we have been lucky and had blue sky days, and others we have had horrendous wind and rain with zero visibility (Skye is commonly known as The Misty Isle). Each time is a different experience and always enjoyed, appreciated and respected. Through multiple visits and slowly linking each section of the ridge together, I finally completed a Cuillin Ridge Traverse over 2 days in May 2021.
The traverse happened through Bea’s (my partner) Dad asking me if we would like to do it together. He only had 13 Munro’s left (282 mountains across Scotland above 3000ft) and 11 of them were on The Cuillin Ridge. We travelled up after planning the dates months before, lucking out with the weather. After our bivvy at Gars-bheinn, we set off at 6:28am. I guided John across the ridge and lead all the climbing pitches including the ‘TD Gap’, ‘King’s Chimney’ and (now roped up) The Inaccessible Pinnacle. I remember being absolutely terrified at the exposure on the ‘In Pinn’, thinking back to how on earth I had managed to solo it less than two years earlier. However, we made it safely to our bivvy spot at Bealach na Glaic Mor 15 1/2 hours later, mentally and physically exhausted. Our second day was thankfully much shorter, tackling Bidein Druim nan Ramh, Bruach na Frithe, Am Bàsteir (via the Lota Corrie route) and finishing on Sgurr nan Gillean. Our final hurdle was making it back to the car in Glenbrittle, walking what seemed an age along deer tracks to the Fairy Pools car park and thumbing a lift back to the car.
That was the hardest two days I’ve had in the mountains and likely to remain up there throughout my life, but it had injected an obsession into me like no other. I continue to travel up to Skye on a regular basis, visiting other spots around the island now as well as continuing to spend multiple days on the ridge. I visited earlier this year for two weeks and spent quieter days around the coastal areas such as Rubha an Dùnain, Elgol, the Trotternish peninsula and Camasunary.
With a few more planned visits during 2024, and a few long distance scrambling and running routes in the pipeline, I don’t see myself stopping visiting anytime soon.
Everyone has their own special places, and this is mine. It doesn’t matter where it is in the world, but finding somewhere you can feel replenished and ‘full’ is something I strongly advise.
Find your Skye.