Marek Bidwell
@marekbidwell.bsky.socialLast year, I hiked across the dramatic Isle of Skye from coast to coast.
I published my first book #SkyeLine about my journey (5⭐s on Amazon!) as an indie author. Can you help me spread the word? 🙏🏼
For every LIKE, I'll post a photo from my trip in the thread, and I'll follow you if you REPOST. 🧵
1) Thanks for the likes. Marketing is much harder than writing!
I'll start with the route, so you know where we're headed. 82 miles from the ferry at Armadale in the south to the cliff-top bothie at Rubha Hunish in the north.
Route proposed by David Paterson in 'A Long Walk on the Isle of Skye'
2) To whet your appetite, I'll post a few highlights first, and then, depending on interest, revert to chronological order.
This was my first camp near Ord overlooking remote Loch Eishort with The Cuillins in the background. I saw an Otter fishing in the bay! Tent is Tarptent Notch Li (607g)
3) Sunrise on Day 3 near the village of Heaste. You can see Loch Eishort again (from the north side), as well as the ridge and furrow pattern on the fields.
This part of the #IsleofSkye (Sleat, which means 'garden') is remote, pathless and few walkers come this way. Lots of insects!
4) One of the first times I've encountered a waterfall cascading directly into the sea. Beautiful.
Just above the cliff is the ruined/abandoned village of Boreraig, and it's where my path met the official Skye Trail. I could follow a path for the first time since stepping off the ferry. Phew!
5) Boreraig: It always saddens me to see these abandoned villages in the Highlands and read about the ruthless, greedy landowners who evicted the residents during the clearances. In my book #SkyeLine, I refer to first-hand accounts of the clearances as witnessed by Scottish writer Alexander Smith.
6) A stunning view looking west down the mouth of Loch Eishort to the igneous Isle of Rùm on the horizon. You can see the tide lines on the beach and a low island called 'Eilean Gaineamhach Boreraig' or 'Sandy Island of Boreraig'. I purchased a Gaelic dictionary to help translate the map.
7) Turning the corner and heading north up Loch Slapin, I got my first view of the rose-tinded 'Red Cuillins'.
It was red hot by now, so I took a refreshing dip in the loch. I lay on my back, allowing the water, hills, and sky to envelop me.
8) One of my favourite photographs of the trip. Looking across the village of Suishnish to the dramatic jagged ridge of the #Cuillins behind.
The word Cuillin is thought to be derived from either the Gaelic for ‘holly’ or Old Norse for ‘keel of a boat’. Which do you think is more likely?
10) Campsite at the end of Day 3 at the ominously named Bealach na Bèiste.
A storm hit during the night. It felt like a Chinese dragon was uncoiling up the hill, cresting the ridge in a fury, and attacking my tent.
But fortunately, I lived to tell the tale (and write the book!)
11) You'll have to imagine the power of the storm, but let's just say I didn't get much sleep!
12) Rainbow in Glen Sligachan the following day (Day 4).
'Rainbows, stacked two high, leapt across the Glen, forming and unforming like technicolour slinky springs. I’d never seen so many in one place.'
13) More rainbows - they were really impressive and moving about all the time.
14) 'Light and dark' in #GlenSliganchan
15) Sliganchan Hotel and the statue of climbing veterans John Mackenzie and Norman Collie by artist Stephen Tinney.
16) As I arrived at the Sligachan Hotel I met my first crowds on the Isle of Skye: "Cameras snapped, tee shirts flapped, blouses gaped, and hair came undone. Black boots, white trainers, pink pumps, sparkly sandals.!
17) Head down Loch Silgachan I was passed by this group of hikers with multi-coloured backpack covers.
18) A bright red phone box at the end of Loch Sligachan (#Peinachorrain) that had been turned into a mini library. Maybe I'll return one day and gift the locals a few copies of #SkyeLine!
19) Approaching Portree at the end of a very long day
20) Day 5 "It was after lunch before I set off through dreich Portree and made my way to the harbour where the famous row of multi-coloured shops did their best to cheer up the day, their muted hues tessellating in the water below."
21) Just past Portree, I encountered my first Highland Cows of the trip peering up at me through the bracken.
22) And then I spotted what I thought might be a #WhiteTailedEagle. I'm not a hundred percent sure, so I'll let you be the judge.
23) This is the view from the hills north of Portree looking back south to a prominent hill called 'Ben Tianavaig'.
24) Here I met my first hiking buddy of the trip: ‘Logan from South Dakota’. He was walking The Skye Trail from South to North – ‘Why end in a pub in Broadford when you can finish on a cliff top overlooking the Outer Hebrides?’ – a sentiment I shared.
25) Camp on the morning of Day 6, on the ridge north of Portree.
If you are just joining me, this is a photo thread about my walk across the #IsleofSkye in September 2023. For the full story, read my book #SkyeLine, available on Amazon.
To be contained...
27) Day 6: "It rained heavily during the night, but by the time I was ready to set off, the clouds had started to disperse, giving good views north over a loch towards The Storr, but the Old Man himself was still hidden beneath a giant fluffy caterpillar of cloud crawling out to sea." #SkyeLine
28) Heading north towards the Old Man of Storr... always north!
29) My first glimpse of the Old Man of Storr, approaching from the south. I prayed that the clouds would lift...
30) Crossing the Dam of Loch Leathan towards the Old Man of Storr. The water pipes power a hydroelectric plant on the coast.
31) Map update: If you are just joining this thread, it is about my walk across the Isle of Skye in September 2023. So far I walked from Armadale on the south coast nearly to the Old Man of Storr (about three-quarters of the way) (green cross), but the best is yet to come!! #SkyeLine
32) A very wet carpark below the Old Man of Storr.
"A few hardy souls, some in shorts, tortoised to the pay station, necks withdrawn into jackets. As I walked past the steamed-up vehicles – all kitted up with my tent on my back – I felt sorry for those inside" #SkyeLine
33) The coffee shop was closed! 😱
34) An information sign telling visitors about the Old Man of Storr. 'A Stor is a Norse name meaning 'big' or 'prominent'.
The escarpment above is composed of heavy volcanic rock sitting on softer sedimentary rock, the cause of the many landslips.
35) Climbing the hill, the rain intensified, and the clouds thickened.
"Ahead of me, lances of driving rain swept like skimmed stones over a small tarn." #SkyeLine
36) And then the miraculous happened...
"As I plodded around the next few bends, the weather gods relented and the Old Man and his companions loomed above me, standing sentinel on the horizon: stricken ramparts guarding a giant’s cauldron of boiling vapours." #SkyeLine
37) "Walking amongst these monumental formations, I felt humbled: rocky fingers pointing skywards as if in accusation or connection. Earth and sky. Gaia and Uranus. Geology and mythology." #SkyeLine
38) Okay, I now have a target of 70 'likes' on this photo thread of the #IsleofSkye! So let's get walking north.
As you can see, it was still very wet as I passed the Old Man of Storr, but at least the clouds had risen.
39) "Before the path threaded behind the mountain, I stopped on a promontory and looked back along with about twenty other people, all vying for the perfect photo. One girl stood with her hands held aloft in a ‘V’ shape for the perfect Instagram image. She looked genuinely inspired." #SkyeLine
40) "My onward path crossed a small stile and then did a dog-leg contouring around the mountain's north side. The transformation was total: crowds to isolation, hubbub to silence." #SkyeLine
41) "Ahead, the highest section of the #Trotternish escarpment unfurled like a vertical ribbon of rock wafting backwards and forwards to the horizon." #IsleofSkye #SkyeLine
42) "The walking was easy, freeing me to admire the light playing on the undulating shelves of land below, cascading into the sea. Occasionally, a breathtaking scene gave me pause. An untamed river meandering from the foothills to the coast – a lesson in hydrology and perspective." #SkyeLine
43) "A close-up view of the escarpment's edge: dark columnar rocks reminiscent of Northumberland’s Whin Sill on which stand Hadrian’s Wall and Bamburgh Castle." #IsleofSkye #SkyeLine #TrotternishRidge
44) "It was perfect walking weather; the rain had cleared and it was cooler than before. I savoured each moment, gathering them up like stones: lucky I am to be here now, putting one foot in front of another, traversing the top of the world." #IsleofSkye #SkyeLine
45) "Great airships of cloud drifted west, skimming the top of the escarpment before suddenly finding themselves a thousand feet up & continuing their journey, imperious, gracing the coastal plain with mackerel shadow pictures, or 𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑚𝑎𝑜𝑖𝑚 (ref 𝐿𝐴𝑁𝐷𝑀𝐴𝑅𝐾𝑆 @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social)" #SkyeLine
46) "And as my legs ate the distance, the sun arced west, and the escarpment cast elongated tentacles over the plain; by six-thirty, they touched the sea." #SkyeLine
47) "Once past the summit trig point of #BeinnEdra, I scouted for somewhere to camp. The only patches of short grass were perilously close to the cliff, while further inland, the vegetation soon turned into a soggy bog. I pitched my tent just off the path but couldn’t settle. " #SkyeLine
48) A stiff wind blew directly toward the cliff, and I had visions of sleepwalking over the edge. So, I decamped and continued northwards down the ridge. It turned out to be a good decision because, after about 20 minutes, I found the perfect spot at a shallow col called Bealach Uige. #SkyeLine
49) "As the sun illuminated the western horizon with a golden glow – the final act of a dazzling day’s opera – I pitched my tent for the second time inside the welcoming stone circle." #SkyeLine
To be continued...
50) Morning of my final day backpacking 82 miles across the #IsleofSkye. Just a few more miles to go to the north coast and the Northern Lights! #SkyeLine
51) "I watched the sun rise above a layer of sea-hugging cloud whilst I ate breakfast. To the north, the sun’s rays lapped the edge of the escarpment, brushing a hundred hillocks in hues of amber and bronze with such finesse that they appeared to flow like liquified earth towards the sea." #SkyeLine
52) What a view!
53) My camp spot on the Trotternish Ridge on the morning of Day 7. The super-light Dyneema fabric looks almost ethereal, with the sun rising behind. #IsleofSkye #SkyeLine
55) The way north. Wow! #TrotternishRidge #IsleofSkye
"One landslip, more massive than the rest, rose from the plains like the plated back of a sleeping Stegosaurus. Aligning my map to the landscape, I saw that the elongated ring of contours was named Cleat." #SkyeLine
56) Although the Isle of Skye has a reputation for being overcrowded with tourists, I hardly saw a soul on my seven-day hike, except for three or four honeypot sites. Here is one of the few other tents I saw on the trail.
57) And looking back down at the same tent to see how tiny it looked pitched on the dramatic #TrotternishRidge #IsleofSkye #SkyeLine - Backpacking the original Skye Trail.
59) There are 83 likes so far, so only another 25 pics of my #IsleofSky hike to go!
Arrival at the #Quiraing car park. The weather had improved dramatically since passing the Old Man of Storr yesterday.
60) An information sign explaining the geology of the Trotternish Ridge and the #Quiraing. In short, hard rock on top of soft rock = landslips.
62) Looking back south over the #Quiraing car park and down the Trotternish ridge. The isolated lumpy hill beyond the loch is called 'Cleat' - see map. #IsleofSkye #SkyeLine
63) This is a close as I dared get to the edge looking down on the #Quiraing rocks (The Prison and The Needle) with the crofting village Digg behind where each house was set in a neat rectangular strip of land like a green spreadsheet. #IsleofSkye #SkyeLine
64) Looking down the path that leads to #LeacnanFionn, or Fingal’s tomb. An enormous slab of land that tilts up towards the coast like a launch pad for an aircraft carrier. #IsleofSkye #SkyeLine
65) Still heading north until the land runs out! #SkyeLine
66) And this is how I looked on the seventh day of my hike with the Outer Hebrides behind me on the horizon. #IsleofSkye #SkyeLine
67) The final high point of my trip (Sgurr Mor) before descending to the lowlands and the northern peninsular. #IsleofSkye #SkyeLine
69) The final descent...
"Thankfully, I made it down without incident, where a bonny mountain stream, Abhainn Scamadal, danced between boulders in a channel fringed with banks of purple heather; in Gaelic, it might be a gairneag, a ‘noisy little stream’." #SkyeLine
70) Continuing with the final day of my long walk on the #IsleofSkye
I made it down without incident, where a bonny mountain stream, Abhainn Scamadal, danced between boulders in a channel fringed with banks of purple heather. In Gaelic, it might be a gairneag, a ‘noisy little stream’
71) Four miles to go to 'Journey's End' and my path was blocked by the this deep, slow-moving stream. It was too wide to jump and too deep to wade, so I made a long detour...
72) "After about ten minutes, I reached a confluence where two channels joined. There, I hopped across the smaller channel and then hurled my backpack over the second before following it with a standing-start long jump. There was no splosh, no cold feet, no impromptu swim. I’d made it." #SkyeLine
73) Back en route, I slowed down, perhaps because I didn’t want my walk to end. I admired the panorama of colourful foliage. Rusty orange spikes of bog asphodel thrust up amongst the cotton grass; sage-green thickets of bog myrtle and heather with a million purple bells. #SkyeLine #IsleofSkye
74) "Eventually, I reached the outer rim of the bog, where I sat on a grassy ledge to eat lunch. To the right of the knoll was a collection of white farm buildings around which swirled late-season swallows and house martins that seemed in no rush to migrate south." #SkyeLine #IsleofSkye
75) "An old red tractor was abandoned on the verge, partly shrouded by bracken. It could have been the prize exhibit of a tractor museum with its tall metal chimney, antique black registration plate, and a pair of beady headlamps." #SkyeLine #IsleofSkye
76) "I turned the bend and joined a road into #Duntulm where I was hoping to get a coffee. A weatherbeaten sign read ‘Duntulm Castle Hotel’ at the top of a drive to leading to a dilapidated ruin of a building. No coffee in Duntulm!" #SkyeLine #IsleofSkye
77) "Pushing the caffeine cravings to the back of my mind, I was lured on by my cliff-top destination at Rubna Hunish and the sight of #DuntulmCastle – a ruin on the headland." #SkyeLine #IsleofSkye
78) On arrival at #DuntulmCastle, I was surprised to see a newly married couple having their wedding photos taken. They arranged themselves gaily on the grassy roof of the ruin, with the royal-blue waters of Duntulm Bay in the background. #SkyeLine #IsleofSkye
79) "Down in the bay, the water was crystal and clear. I knelt on the rocks and watched it lap over a liminal garden: ruby-red anemones with outstretched tentacles; emerald-green seaweed good enough to eat; bone-white limpets holding fast; diamond bubbles glistening on the swell." #SkyeLine
80) Here, in Duntulm Bay I went for my final swim of the trip in the refreshingly cool waters. #SkyeLine #IsleofSkye
81) "The sun sank to about 15 degrees above the horizon, throwing a blinding arc of light across the water. I was grateful for my sunglasses that were back on my head for the first time since Torrin." #SkyeLine #IsleofSkye
82) "I turned around and looked back over the white-washed houses of Duntulm; the grassy knoll topped by the telecommunications tower; the deeply incised gash of Glen Scamadal hiding its secret waterfall; the undulating escarpment rolling south towards the Quiraing." #SkyeLine #IsleofSkye
83) And I made it! 83 miles backpacking across the #IsleofSkye on the original route devised by photographer, David Patterson, in his photobook 'A Long Walk on the Isle of Skye'. And it felt amazing with that view north to the Outer Hebrides. It had been a canny walk! #SkyeLine #IsleofSkye
85) I'd thought that would be the end of my adventure, but the #IsleofSkye had one last surprise for me. I woke at 2am to answer the call of nature and this was the view! #NorthernLights #Aurora.
If you enjoyed this thread, you'll love my book #SkyeLine. Click here: www.amazon.co.uk