Skye and Scalpay - back to the islands

[malky_c]

Sub 2k Marilyns: Bioda Buidhe.
Date: 21/04/2024.
Distance: 4.5 + 7km.
Ascent: 270 + 190m.
Time taken: 1 hour, 15 minutes + 2 hours.
Weather: Sunny turning grey in the afternoon.

While we had managed to sneak onto Harris in October 2020 when we hadn't expected to be able to visit, we had not been back to any of the Outer Hebrides since, so a visit was long overdue. Now we had a van we could go back to our old approach of going over at short notice, but with even less concern if there was to be a day or two of poor weather. In fact I found myself booking ferries only a couple of days before we left - I had to flip the trip around and book Harris first due to availability. This was no hardship though as we didn't have any firm plans - just 3 nights somewhere on Harris and 3 nights on the Uists .

We decided to leave after Jackie had finished up some work on Saturday, setting off after dinner. By twilight we were making good progress over Skye so we decided to stop near Loch Ainort for the night. The next day dawned still and sunny and the ferry wasn't until after lunch so we decided to go for a short walk on the Trotternish first.

Belig and Garbh Bheinn

Bioda Buidhe isn't the most imaginative summit (at least from the Quiraing carpark) but it packed a lot of impressive scenery into a short distance. After coughing up for the new carpark we started up the hill. Before long Jackie found that she wasn't going as well as she had hoped - this was our first walk with any ascent since being ill earlier in the month. Fortunately the ground and views compensated and it didn't take us long to reach the summit.

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East across Staffin

Quiraing

Cleat from Bioda Buidhe

Loch Cleat

Bioda Buidhe

Back to Cleat

Rona and north end of Raasay

Quiraing and Cleat

Jackie on Bioda Buidhe

The summit itself is the least interesting part of the hill as it is back from the cliff edge a bit on some soft ground. Great views across Raasay back to the mainland and also to Harris where we would soon be headed.

We had a burger from the van at the carpark and a quick dip in a stream on the road back to Uig - Skye doesn't really have a massive selection of good freshwater swimming spots so we went back to this one that we'd used last February. Then it was a sunny wait at the ferry terminal in Uig - I passed some of the time by loading up on beer from the Skye Brewery.

Leaving Uig Pier

Cuillin from the ferry

We had lunch part 2 on the ferry and were in Tarbert before 4pm. Plenty of daylight so where now?

Approaching Tarbert

We decided that after the exertion of the morning that we would pick a fairly short walk so the stroll out to Eilean Glas on Scalpay was a good choice. Only a short drive from the ferry and not somewhere I had been before (despite recommending it to Jackie on her first visit to the islands). The road down to the lighthouse gets very twisty once the main village on the island is passed - seems like almost everyone has their own little harbour down here.

We parked up in the tiny area at the end of the road and walked up the track which was the better of the two paths to the lighthouse. We added a small diversion on this to Beinn Sgorabhaig which is the highest point on the island - our route choice involved some seriously springy heather! As there is a waymarked trail over the summit, we were able to follow this back down to the lighthouse path again - while it is really just some posts on the moorland, the going was a little easier than our way up.

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Shiant Isles from Scalpay

Looking back across Loch Tarbert from Scalpay

South Harris

South Harris and North Uist

North end of Skye

The main path is really good here as it weaves between bumps and lochans. Eilean Glas itself is barely an island - perhaps it gets isolated from the rest of Scalpay during spring tides? A nice little spot with a bothy for shelter - there are some display boards in here. As we left the bothy we met the inhabitant of the house next to the lighthouse - he runs the café there and was apologetic that it wasn't open yet (it had suffered some water damage over the winter).

Todun and Caiteashal

Eilean Glas lighthouse

After a stroll around the perimeter of the lighthouse we returned by the south coast of the island. This way is much less obvious - back to following posts across the moorland again with the odd scraping of path. Some additional up and down around the outside of a new fence landed us back on the road end eventually. A lovely way to spend the late afternoon without expending too much energy.

Little Minch from Eilean Glas

Waternish and Duirinish on Skye

Back to Eilean Glas

Across Scalpay

We drove back off Scalpay and parked up at the Laxdale Lochs near the start of the postie path to Rheinigadale. Would that be tomorrow's walk?