Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
an impressive inlet surrounded by soaring peaks. On a calm day, you can clamber ashore
here to make the short walk to Loch Coruisk in the heart of the Cuillin Hills. You get 1½
hours ashore and visit a seal colony en route.
Aquaxplore
(
0800 731 3089;
www.aquaxplore.co.uk
; Apr-Oct)
Runs 1½-hour high-speed boat
trips from Elgol to an abandoned shark-hunting station on the island of
Soay
(adult/child
£25/20), once owned by
Ring of Bright Water
author Gavin Maxwell. There are longer
trips (adult/child £48/38, four hours) to Rum, Canna and Sanday to visit breeding colonies
of puffins, with the chance of seeing minke whales on the way.
BOAT TOUR
Misty Isle
(
01471-866288;
www.mistyisleboattrips.co.uk
; adult/child £18/7.50; Apr-Oct)
The
pretty, traditional wooden launch
Misty Isle
offers cruises to Loch Coruisk with 1½ hours
ashore (no Sunday service).
CRUISE
Cuillin Hills
The Cuillin Hills are Britain's most spectacular mountain range (the name comes from the
Old Norse
kjöllen,
meaning 'keel-shaped'). Though small in stature (
Sgurr Alasdair
, the
highest summit, is only 993m), the peaks are near-alpine in character, with knife-edge
ridges, jagged pinnacles, scree-filled gullies and hectares of naked rock. While they are a
paradise for experienced mountaineers, the higher reaches of the Cuillin are off limits to
the majority of walkers.
The good news is that there are also plenty of good low-level hikes within the ability of
most walkers. One of the best (on a fine day) is the steep climb from Glenbrittle campsite
to
Coire Lagan
(6 miles round trip; allow at least three hours). The impressive upper cor-
rie contains a lochan for bathing (for the hardy!), and the surrounding cliffs are a play-
ground for rock climbers - bring your binoculars.
Even more spectacular, but much harder to reach, is
Loch Coruisk
(from the Gaelic
Coir'Uisg, the Water Corrie), a remote loch ringed by the highest peaks of the Cuillin. Ac-
cessible by boat trip (
Click here
)
from Elgol, or via an arduous 5.5-mile hike from Kil-
marie, Coruisk was popularised by Sir Walter Scott in his 1815 poem
Lord of the Isles
.
Crowds of Victorian tourists and landscape artists followed in Scott's footsteps, including
JMW Turner, whose watercolours were used to illustrate Scott's works.
