There is now less than five weeks until I leave for Skye to walk the Skye Trail. Or rather, one of the Skye Trails. For a while it has bothered me that there are two different trails on the island, with slightly different northern points and hugely different southern sections. I decided early on that I was going to walk the McNeish & Else version of the trail, which starts in the north at Rubha Hunish and ends at Broadford, towards the southern end of the island.
The other route is the older of the two, originally described by David Paterson and starts at Armadale in the southern most tip of the island and works its way north to Duntulm, just short of the northern tip. By choosing the McNeish & Else route I was shortening the route slightly and avoiding a potentially horrendous boggy section of walking in the southern end. The shorter version appealed to me as I only have a chauffeur for 6 days and I thought it would be impossible to do any more days, while still based in the rented cottage.
A closer inspection of the island and in particular the bus services that run around the between the villages has presented the opportunity to add an extra two days on to the end of the walk and complete the Paterson section in the south. By using buses that run out of Broadford I can arrange two day walks; one from Broadford to Drumfearn and then from Drumfearn to Armadale.
I am quite excited, disproportionately so if I’m honest with myself, about the addition of these two days – not least because I now hope to be able to cross paths with Rambling Pete, who will be starting out from Armadale, heading north at about the time I plan to walk these two days. We haven’t planned this – so what are the odds of meeting someone you know, quite literally in the middle of nowhere, while both walking the same path, but in opposite directions.
Another random photo from a previous trip to Skye follows:
