Heart of the Cuillins

The Black Cuillin Hills, seen through Skye's moist Atlantic air, appear blue and under romantic sunset light almost purple. This land is like nowhere else, even in Scotland, for crag, boulder and jagged horizon.

The glory of gabbro

The special quality of Skye is obvious to the eye, but even more so to the foot. The black rock grips the foot like velcro. This is gabbro, formed in the magma chamber of a volcano about the height of Mount Fuji that stood here 50 million years ago. Skye's screes are the steepest, its crags the craggiest, and its ridges look out across the Hebrides and the Atlantic.

As you approach Point 4 on the upward journey, you are looking towards the buttress of Sron na Ciche. High on the face is a smooth, diamondshaped slab and, at its right-hand corner, a famous rock-projection. It long went unnoticed, until a famous climber, Professor Norman Collie, spotted the shadow it casts across the slab in the afternoon. This is A' Chioch, 'the Breast'. Its flat top was the scene of a sword-fight in the film Highlander. The top is reached by a spectacular, but fairly straightforward climb.

Behind Lagan

In the upper corrie, more famous bits of rock come into view. At the back right corner is the long scree called the Great Stone Shoot. It is strenuous and frustrating but not technically difficult, and it brings climbers up to the ridge just to the right of Skye's highest peak, Sgurr Alasdair. The skyline to the left of the Stone Shoot is dominated by Sgurr Mhic Choinnich, with its near-vertical right profile. This step, 200ft (61m) high, can be avoided by the remarkable Collie's Ledge that crosses below the summit, to emerge on the mountain's gentler left-hand ridge.

To the left again, you can just see the rock-prow of the so-called Inaccessible Pinnacle. This forms the summit of Skye's second highest peak, Sgurr Dearg. Its easiest route is very scary, but only moderately difficult and not particularly inaccessible. It must be climbed by anyone wishing to complete the Munro summits, Scottish peaks over 3,000ft (914m).

From the parking area, the track leads on through Glenbrittle campsite to a gate with a kissing gate. Pass left of the toilet block and through a kissing gate. Turn left along a stony track just above, which runs gently downhill above the campsite, to rejoin the Glenbrittle road.

Keep ahead to cross a bridge with the white Memorial Hut just ahead. On the right are some stone buchts (sheep-handling enclosures) and at their corner a path heads uphill to reach a footbridge which crosses the Allt Coire na Banachdich.

Cross the footbridge and head up to the right of the stream's deep ravine, with a great view of the waterfall at its head. Its Gaelic name, Eas Mor, means simply 'Big Waterfall'. Above, the path bears right, to slant up the hillside. Below the spur of Sgurr Dearg, the path forks. Here keep right, aiming for the right-hand of the two corries above, which is Coire Lagan. The path passes above Loch an Fhir-bhallaich. At a short steepening, the rebuilding works end and the path becomes rough. It rounds a shoulder into the lower part of Coire Lagan and meets a much larger path at a big cairn.

Turn uphill on this path, until a belt of bare rock blocks the way into the upper corrie. This rock has been smoothed by a glacier into gently-rounded swells, known as 'boiler-plates'. A scree field runs up into the boiler-plate rocks. The best way keeps up the left edge, below a slab wall with a small waterslide, to the highest point of the scree. Head up left for 50ft (15m) on bare rock, then back right on ledges to an eroded scree above the boiler-plate obstruction. Look back down your upward route to note it for your return. The trodden way slants up to the right. With the main stream near by on the right, it goes up to the rim of the upper corrie.

The boiler-plate slabs at the lochan's outflow are excellent for picnics. Walking mainly on bare rock, it's easy to ake a circuit of the lochan. For the return journey, retrace your steps to Point 4. Ignoring the right fork of the route you came up by, keep straight downhill on the main path. It runs straight down to the toilets at Glenbrittle campsite. Turn left over a rustic footbridge to finish along the beach.