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Marsco and Glen Sligachan in foul mood (Walk 2.12)
Maps
1:50,000: All the walks in this book can be found on Ordnance Survey Landranger Sheets 23: North Skye; Sheet 32: South Skye; or Sheet 33: Loch Alsh, Glen Shiel and surrounding area.
1:25,000: Of greater use to walkers on Skye are Ordnance Survey Explorer maps, and for the whole of Skye you will need the following sheets 407, 408, 409, 410, 411, 412 and 413 (www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk).
Also at a scale of 1:25,000 are two maps in the Superwalker series produced by HARVEY Maps (www.harveymaps.co.uk), one of The Cuillin, which covers an area from Glen Brittle in the west to Broadford in the east, and the other of Storr and Trotternish, which covers almost the whole of Trotternish. These HARVEY maps are produced on waterproof material.
Paths
Not all the paths mentioned in the text appear on maps. And where they do, there is no guarantee that they still exist on the ground or remain continuous or well-defined.
A number of the walks go close to the top of dangerous cliffs, both coastal and inland. Here the greatest care is required, especially in windy conditions. Do not, for any reason, venture close to cliff tops. Some of the routes rely on sheep tracks, which make useful paths in otherwise trackless areas. Sheep, however, do not appear to suffer from vertigo, and don’t travel about with awkward, laden sacks on their backs. If a track goes towards a cliff, avoid it, and find a safer, more distant, alternative. Burns should be crossed at the most suitable (and safest) point; they can involve lengthy, and higher, detours in spate conditions. Do not allow the frustrations of such a detour to propel you into attempting a lower crossing against your better judgement.
If there are children in your party, keep them under close supervision and control at all times.
Crossing the river at Camasunary (Walk 3.21)
With only a small but growing number of exceptions, paths are not waymarked or signposted. Many of the mountain paths, however, are cairned. In a constantly developing environment like Skye, changes often occur to routes, especially through forests, or on coastal walks (as a result of landslip, for example). Be aware, however, that there is increasing investment in land management on Skye, and this is producing new fences and gates that may affect the route description. The author would welcome notification of any changes, or difficulties encountered, via the publisher.
Glen Brittle Bay (Walk 3.18)
Following publication of this book, readers should periodically consult the Cicerone website (www.cicerone.co.uk) to see whether any amendments have been recorded.
Language
It is one of the continuing delights of Skye that you can still hear people speaking their native tongue, Gaelic (pronounced with a hard ‘a’, not ‘ay’), and schools on the Island are giving bilingual classes in an endeavour to preserve the language.
While the non-Gaelic-speaking visitor will find their first encounters with pronunciation a confusing and tongue-twisting experience, understanding it is not difficult. The glossary of Gaelic words at the end of the book goes some way to helping with the translation. With only a little persistence, or a polite enquiry of a local, you can quickly gain sufficient mastery to render a good attempt at many of the more complex placenames.
To help with this understanding you will find a number of Gaelic dictionaries are available, along with books intended to assist you in coming to terms with this ancient language.
SECTION 1 SLEAT AND SOUTH-EAST SKYE
Kyle Rhea from the ferry slip (Walks 1.7–1.9)
INTRODUCTION
On the way to the Point of Sleat (Walk 1.2)
Sleat
Sleat (pronounced slate) is the southernmost area of Skye, and projects from the main road between Kyleakin and Broadford near the township of Skulamus. To the north and north-east of this, in that convoluted way Skye has of making a nonsense of contrived partitioning, lies south-east Skye, and the closest point to mainland Scotland. It is here, in a region neither Sleat nor Strath, that you will find the only mountains of note. None is especially distinguished, but all provide excellent escapism from the summer clutter of the Cuillin, with the added bonus of outstanding panoramic views.
The name Sleat, derived from sleibhte, means an extensive tract of moorland, and so it is – a thumb of rugged, rocky, lochan-laden moorland, creased into a thousand folds wherein man has fought with the elements to fashion a living. Sleat is also regarded as ‘The Garden of Skye’ – although not without dissent, as many see the gardens as the product of an time in the Island’s history when clan chieftains succumbed to the rule of London, and rode roughshod over the lives and necessities of their tenants.
The appellation comes, too, from Sleat’s more sheltered environment, protected from the worst of the Skye winds, that allows beech, sycamore and exotic conifers to flourish alongside the more natural birch, alder and bramble. Indeed, as Alastair Alpin MacGregor says: ‘It is at bramble-time that one should visit Russet Sleat of the beautiful women’, a place once governed to a large extent by prosperous tacksmen who personally supervised the cultivation of their own particular farms. MacGregor records: ‘Slait is occupiet for the maist pairt be gentlemen, thairfor it payis but the auld deuteis, that is, of victuall, buttir, cheis, wyne, aill, and aquavite, samekle as thair maister may be able to spend being ane nicht…on ilk merkland.There is twa strenthie castells in Slait, the ane callit Castell Chammes, the uther Dunskeith’.
The history of Sleat is essentially the history of the MacDonalds, in spite of legendary claims that it was the 2nd-century Irish folk hero Cuchullin who came to Dunscaith to learn the art of war from Queen Sqathaich, and the fact that there was a time when all of Skye, including Sleat, was MacLeod territory. By 1498, Dunscaith was in MacDonald possession, and continued to be lived in until the early part of the 17th century. For the walker there is in Sleat none of the rugged grandeur found further north on the Island; indeed much of the interior of Sleat will find greater favour with those more interested in natural and social history than walking. But if the walker comes in search of solitude or peaceful havens in which to reflect for a time, there can be no better place on Skye. Most walks, however, need little description, and little more effort than to park the car and wander about the moorland expanse, or seek out a sheltered nook along the coastline.
The main road, the A851, runs south as far as Armadale, beyond which a minor road makes a valiant, if vain, attempt to probe fully to the Point of Sleat. Many visitors come to Skye, as I did, via the ferry from Mallaig to Armadale, and so gain completely the wrong first impression of Skye. But if you come onto the Island (ideally) from Glenelg to Kylerhea, or Kyleakin via the new bridge, your first taste of Skye will be much more in keeping with the overall ambience of the Island.
With
