From Loch Coruisk to Sligachan
June 11, 2008 by Bird
Filed under Blog, Fauna, Flora, Hikes And Walks, On My Travels, Summer
I’ll be honest with you… I wasn’t the one doing the navigating, so I’m not going to try and name all of the many lochs, rivers, mountains and glens we crossed – I would only get it wrong and make a fool of myself. What I do know is that for a relatively short hike without any challenging bits I’ve rarely come across a route so beautiful. Unfortunately, shortly after disembarking from the Bella Jane, I managed to fall flat on my face doing nothing more challenging than putting one foot in front of the other. Two things you should know about me and hiking – I am clumsy, and I am scared of heights. I know I’ll probably never manage the more glamorous ridge walks like Crib Goch or Striding Edge, but I don’t do too badly considering. Still, there I was, at sea level, sprawled flat on my face on a slab of “non-slip and beloved of mountaineers” gabbro rock. Apart from gaining some cracking day-glo bruises all I really hurt was my dignity (I fell so hard that the resounding comedy “thwack” turned heads quite a long way up the trail) but it certainly slowed me down. Enough of my foolishness; I know what you are here for – pictures! And pictures you shall have.
We climbed the slopes at the foot of Sgùrr na Stri, and as we looked back a chain of Lochs spread out below us, starting with the Sea Loch Scavaig in the distance, and followed by Loch Coruisk.
A series of shallow climbs and descents saw the lochs disappearing then reappearing again, each time more distant, cradled in the widening, ferocious landscape.
On one such descent, a greenshank began calling querulously. The further down the trail we got the more the bird whistled, wheeled and fussed. Its nest must have been close by – and as another bird joined in the commotion it is possible that there was more than one nest to be protected. The lonelieness of the place intensified – a path with birds nesting along it cannot be commonly used.
At the top of a wide, rounded ridge we stopped to take in the view and eat. This was the highest point on our walk, and although we were maybe only a thousand feet up or so, it felt like the top of the world as we gazed across at the crests of the brooding red hills, sailing among low cotton wool cloud.
From here was a slow, gentle descent back into Glen Sligachan from its south side. We didn’t make for the cloud obliterated top of Sgùrr na Stri, and it’s a good thing we didn’t try; I was so stiff from my bruises we wouldn’t have made it back before the midges descended. It’s a walk to be savoured another day.
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Bird,
Beautiful loch photos!!! Love the mystical mood you captured and the pink of the wildflower.
I’m afraid of heights too. I wonder if it’s an inner ear problem? Three steps up a ladder is scary enough for me.
What a beautiful hike you had. Sorry about the spill. You sound like me there too. Broke my arm one Christmas and the other one on a Memorial Day weekend. Just walking and slipping.
Hugs, JJ
Pictures! And spectacular pictures they are! Love the mist and you’ve captured the gradations of tone well! However, your writing is always a wonderful read
Even if it’s about falling on your face (ouch!) which isn’t so wonderful but makes the journey more real when I visit 
Ah godamnit! LOL I posted my response to this on the wrong post! I’m so used to ‘comments’ being in the footer of a post! Now I feel like hiding and never returning again to save my embarrasment
Ben
Hi JJ Loch, well guessed, I do have inner ear problems, which don’t help with either my clumsiness or having a head for heights. Really it’s a fear of falling!
Wow, you broke both arms? I really hope they healed well! I’ve never hurt myself that badly touch wood, just various sprains and bruising at one time or another. I’m like an eight year old, there are always plasters on my knees
Hello Anonybird – falling on my face made the trip real for me, too!
And thank you, I’m glad you enjoy the photos and writing, sometimes I wonder if I’m just waffling on. I really love your photos, there is real skill in them. I don’t know if I’ll ever get a good photo of any bird other than feral pigeons
Ben, Ben, come back! you made a FANTASTIC comment, to which I’ve made an enormous waffly reply, you can’t leave me now!
Gorgeous!
One thing that has really stuck in my mind is the difficulty of hiking the terrain on Skye- at least, we found it to be some of the toughest walking we’ve ever done! I don’t know if it was just us, but between scree on the hillsides, and peaty ground dense with heather, each step seemed to take 3 times the energy that it should. This was of course outweighed by the beauty and grandeur all around us, but it was hard not to lose our footing! I don’t think it takes inner ear problems to bite the dust out there.
Oh, and thanks again for the heads-up on my blog’s comment settings. I didn’t realize that not everyone could post; it should be fixed now.
Hi Bird – 11am here in Oz probably about 2am in the UK – I just realised that there are two routes into Applecross and I of course took the high road over the mountains – but please be warned – it’s a dangerous route. Single track over some of the highest mnountains in the area. I took the car and it was in Novemeber when everything was snow covered. But if that route is taken, it rewards with quite simply the most beautiful scenery I have seen anywhere in the world (With the possible exception of the road to Durness in Scotland).
If I may be a little self indulgent? My fiance and I went on a mammoth one month tour of Britain and took our camera with us – although the first thirty seconds of this video is filmed in and around London, the rest is all Scotland including Applecross. If you like a tear jerker – put your speakers on too lol.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahn_nbjq1lY
Ben
Your images *are* just gorgeous, but then so’s your description of the hiking. Sorry to hear about the clumsyness, from a fellow klutz. At least we are reasonably assured that we will only hurt ourselves when others are nearby to bear sad witness.
I wanna go hiking now! The photos are gorgeous
I am awful at navigation and very very clumsy! I hold the record for most amount of falls ever.
I have not seriously hurt myself, but regularly have to walk through a village at the end of a hike looking like I have an accident of the toilet kind, but its just mud, honest
My sister was just “over there,” in Scotland, and brought back similarly beautiful pictures. I can’t get enough of how rugged and impressive it all is, and wish I could plan a trip to visit yesterday! Don’t stop sharing the stories and photos, they’re great!
Hello Kit, yes I have to agree that the scree does make for very tiring walking. I’ve a sore achilles tendon and it didn’t like the walking there one bit! I’ve known worse, but you usually just hit a patch of scree; on the red hills it seemed to be scree all the way
We were very lucky as to the bogginess of the land, it hadn’t rained properly for six weeks when we were there – very unusual – so the ground over the peat bogs in Sligachan was quite firm. Isn’t it beautiful though? I bet you want to go back – I do!
Aaah, Ben my heart has been duly melted! What a lovely film, and that’s Edinburgh over Crimbo at the end isn’t it? I was there this year
I would love to make that journey and visit Applecross, but will need to befriend a driver with the skills required if I’m to do it (or find a trail to walk at least some of it) but I’m cheered to see that there is a campsite!
Hello Greg, yes it’s true, I always fall on my face when there are plenty of witnesses! I just love to provide entertainment doncha know
Claire, we should go hiking together! We could be the soiled trouser hiking club. I regularly finish walks with mud in/on my fingernails, hair, knees, bum etc. I don’t know about you but I get that from flinging myself to the ground and hugging it tearfully when the path becomes too steep or windy. Oh, and from falling over, of course
Hello Amy, welcome and thank you! I do have lots more Skye pictures to share, but I’ll be spreading them out a bit now and writing about other things in between – so don’t stop visiting if you want more! Hopefully I’ll soon also have pictures of Llanberis in Wales, which is also a spectacular part of the world
Haha! Yes we should definitely have a hiking club like that
I regularly hug the ground, rock face, tree, whatever is at hand!
I am not sure when or where I will be going hiking again. Where is next for you?
A great post and the photographs are really well composed. It makes me think of when my ex-wife and I first were “courting” (how about that for an old term
We did hiking, mostly in the Yorkshire Dales and I also did a lot of pot-holing. Happy Days
I’d love you to read a story I put in my blog in February, about the time Liz and I met two guardian spirits on a mountain top.
all the best
henry
Funny you should ask Claire, I’m off to Llanberis this Thursday for midsummer – visiting a friend
Massively over indulgent and I can’t afford it at all, but hey ho! how about you?
Oh I love Llanberis, its not far from me at all.
No hiking for me for a while until I catch up on my coursework. One of my chums is going the three peaks at the end of this month so I may join in with the last leg at Snowdon.
What a beautiful place!
I just came across this older post from you. Actually the first article in a blog I really liked reading. Not too long and too much and with great pictures.
And…I just LOVE scotland.
And most of all: I recognized how you felt cause I fell flat on my face as well over there, just near the waterfront.
I was talking to my boyfriend and suddenly my foot got sucked into some mud. I tried to get my leg free and …well….I just thumbled over. There was this huge rock just in front of me and ofcourse there is where I landed.
Best still to come: what do you think my boyfriend said?
Is the camera still OK? aarccchhh….
My boot and sock was completely covered in mud. I had a nasty cut in my hand and he wonders about the camera.
So keep up your writing. I will definitely come back to your website.