Corrieyairack Pass: Laggan to Blackburn bothy - 17 miles
I follow General Wade's military road into Corrie Yairack where I have to climb 732m across the Monadhliath mountains to arrive at Blackburn of Corrieyairack bothy where I stay for the night. On the way through I visit General Wade's office where I collect supplies for the journey. 17 miles, 732m ascent.
The Scottish National Trail - Kingussie to Laggan / 19 miles
I walk the next 14 miles of the trail to Laggan, with an extra 6 miles added on (between bothy and next camping spot). I pass through Glen Banchor where I stop for a late lunch at the bothy before descending to Laggan to find a place to camp.
The second half of the evening sees me following the River Spey to find an excellent camping spot by the Spey dam. It stays dry and I'm able to make a small campfire so I can have my Hot Chocolate.
The Skye Trail - a challenging unofficial route through the island aimed
at experienced hillwalkers - takes in some of the very best of the
island - and that means the UK's finest landscapes.
The route
follows much of the amazing Trotternish Ridge and later passes beneath
the very shadow of the Cuillin. Other sections follow remarkable but
little visited coastal cliffs, take in steep trails above high drops, or
pass through haunting deserted villages destroyed in the cruel
Clearances.
Date walked: 02/07/2016 Time taken: 7 days Distance: 128 km
I walked the Skye Trail for the second time, mainly for my friend, Jay's benefit as he didn't manage to attend in 2014.
Once again it was a backpacking hike following the official route described here on Walkhighlands except in reverse walking South to North (Broadford to Rubha Hunish). My plan was to break it up slightly once reaching Portree with a side trip to UIG. We would stay a night at Uig then take a bus north to the Museum of Island Life and walk to Duntulm then continue Skye Trail North to South, heading back to Portree. The reason for this was because I wanted to tackle the Trotternish Ridge from the North end because when I attempted it from the South end back in 2014 I couldn't work out the exact route to take.
The night before travelling to Skye we stayed overnight at Bught Park campsite in Inverness. The following day we travelled to Kyle of Lochalsh by train, jumping off at Plockton for about an hour en-route.
Once at Kyle we popped into the Co-op for supplies before walking over Skye Bridge to Kyleakin, where we caught a bus to the campsite located 3 miles from Broadford. We got pitched up at the campsite as the rain came down heavy, took shelter in an old Hen hut and enjoyed a few drinks and tunes before starting the big walk the following day.
It rained all week, we only got one dry night and that was at Uig, it was a pretty miserable trip this time due to the weather, the weather really does make all the difference. The heavy rain got too much for us and we gave up in the end after completing the first section of the Trotternnish ridge. We caught a bus from Staffin back to Portree and retreated to Torvaig campsite.
I did not make video footage of the trail but instead made some individual videos as below:
Walking over Skye bridge
Visiting Camasunary bothy
Visit to the Lookout bothy high above Rubha Hunish
