The Isle of Skye is a truly wonderful place, its mountains and coastline tremendously spectacular and if it were not for its somewhat notorious weather, it would surely be on of the UK's most visited islands.

The Cuillin have been described as the most challenging mountains in Scotland, with airy crests, great precipices and only a few walking routes to their tops. Climbing in these mountains can only be described as "very different" from a simple hill-walk. Most of the Cuillins need some scrambling to reach the tops and one - The Inaccessible Pinnacle - requires rock-climbng.

The Cuillin from Bla Bheinn (Blaven)

It must be said that much of the scrambling is pretty easy, but there are places where your nerves are on tenterhooks as the exposure on some of those rocky perches is not to be sneezed at. Surefootedness and a good head for heights is essential.

The wonderful thing about the Cuillins is the rock of which they are composed. It is Gabbro and has tremendous qualities of "stickiness", nevertheless, there is often a great deal of loose rock which means great care needs to be taken at all times.

The down-side of Cuillin rock is that it is often magnetic, which can result in various magnetic anomolies along the ridge and the compass is rendered unreliable.

My visits to the island have fortunately always been blessed with good weather, and going back to the days before the Skye Bridge, the short ferry crossing always added a sense of "differentness" to the island. One crossing in late afternoon was across a mirror calm sea with the sky an azure blue and the mountains of Skye and the Western Isles startlingly clear.

Climbing the Inaccessible Pinnacle is not the great challenge most people seem to fear, although its a long way down before you would bounce. One problen encountered by a small group on teh day we climbed it, was the abseil off the top. Unfortunately each of them would not lean back far enough with the painful consequence being that their bodies would slam forwards into the rock as their feet slipped off underneath them We eventually assisted in lowering them uncerimoniously like great sacks of potatoes, their faces bruised and bloodied by coming into contact wih the Pinnacle!

Bla Bheinn stands apart from the main Cuillin, and rising directly from sea level is quite a sight as you drive along the road from Broadford to Elgol.

A stop en-route to the Cuillin

But Skye isn't just about the Cuillin. There are wonderful coastal walks and strange rocky features such as the Old Man of Stoer (above) whose pinnacles of soft rock have been weirdly weathered into the most fantastic shapes.

Skye might be expensive to get to......goodness knows its expensive enought to get across the Bridge, but its well worth a visit.

 For pictures of my latest visit to Skye, click here or use the "Next" button below.