The serrated ridge of the Black Cuillin mountains seen across the water of Loch Scavaig on the Isle of Skye

Regional library

Isle of Skye Library

Explore Skye’s published walking routes, bothies, waterfall and film stories, with guides to the Skye Trail, volcanic landscapes, eagles and Scottish hill lists.

28guides currently selected9library sections

Hiking Route Guides

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Route Guide1 GPX download

Dùn Caan from No. 1 Mine: Raasay Route Guide

Cross Raasay’s boggy interior from No. 1 Mine to climb Dùn Caan’s distinctive summit cone and panoramic plateau.

18 Aug 2026Read Guide
Route Guide1 GPX download

Skye Trail: Rubha Hunish to Broadford

A complete 129.4 km GPX route from Rubha Hunish to Broadford, crossing the Trotternish Ridge and the wild ground beneath the Cuillin with 2,855 m of ascent.

18 Aug 2026Read Guide
Route Guide1 GPX download

Marsco via Sligachan

A demanding out-and-back from Sligachan through the glen to Marsco's steep, exposed summit ridge.

16 Aug 2026Read Guide
Route Guide1 GPX download

Sgùrr Alasdair via Glen Brittle and the Great Stone Chute

A severe mountaineering out-and-back from Glen Brittle via Coire Lagan, the Great Stone Chute and Grade 2 scrambling.

10 Aug 2026Read Guide
Route Guide1 GPX download

The Storr via Storr Car Park and Coire Scamadal

A serious out-and-back from Storr Car Park past the Old Man sanctuary and Coire Scamadal to The Storr summit.

10 Aug 2026Read Guide
Route Guide1 GPX download

Sgùrr nan Gillean via the Southeast Ridge

Follow the GPX-backed 12.7 km out-and-back from Sligachan to Sgùrr nan Gillean via the exposed Southeast Ridge. This serious Grade 3 scramble gains 937 m and demands dry, calm conditions, confident route-finding and careful downclimbing.

07 Aug 2026Read Guide
Route Guide1 GPX download

Sgùrr na Strì from Sligachan

A remote 23.8 km out-and-back through Glen Sligachan to Sgùrr na Strì's celebrated Cuillin viewpoint, with rough pathless route-finding at the end.

06 Aug 2026Read Guide
Route Guide1 GPX download

Blà Bheinn via Coire Uaigneich from Loch Slapin

A strenuous 10.5 km out-and-back to Blà Bheinn from Loch Slapin, climbing 915 m through Coire Uaigneich, loose scree and a short easy scramble.

06 Aug 2026Read Guide

Hill Lists and People

Guide

The Dodds: When Three Regional Lists Became One Metric Classification

Between 500 and 600 metres sits a collection of hills that used to be split across Deweys, Donald Deweys and Highland Fives—until the idea emerged in 2014 to unify them under a single name that works across Britain.

02 Nov 2026Read
Guide

Simms: the hill category that tidied up the lists

If you've ever wondered why British hill lists seem unnecessarily complicated, Simms offer a rare moment of clarity. Introduced by Alan Dawson in 2010, a Simm is any summit over 600 metres with at least 30 metres of drop all round – a definition that consolidated several older, overlapping lists like Murdos, Corbett Tops, Graham Tops and Hewitts into something more coherent.

28 Sept 2026Read
Guide

Marilyns: Why a 150-Metre Drop is the Real Test of a Hill

Think altitude is everything? See why a 150-metre drop identifies Britain’s 1,550 Marilyns, and how the list changed in 2025.

24 Aug 2026Read
Guide

The HuMPs: The Geography of Independence

Forget the highest peaks and look at the hills that stand on their own—this is the fascinating, mathematical world of the HuMPs.

24 Aug 2026Read
Guide

The Corbetts: Scotland’s 500-Foot Hill Climbing Obsession

While the Munros get the headlines, the 222 Corbetts offer a quieter route into the Scottish hills, each meeting a clear height and 500ft drop rule.

24 Aug 2026Read
Guide

The Munros: Scotland’s 3,000ft Standard

Everything you need to know about the 282 Munros—Scotland’s iconic list of 3,000ft peaks defined by strict height requirements and a century of hill-walking tradition.

20 Jul 2026Read
Guide

Sir Hugh Munro

The story of Sir Hugh Munro and the mountain list that shaped Scottish hillwalking.

15 Jul 2026Read

Film Locations

1 guide

Guide

Transformers on the Isle of Skye

The mountains, roads and coast of Skye provided a suitably dramatic backdrop for *Transformers: The Last Knight*. Discover how one of Scotland’s wildest islands found itself sharing the screen with giant alien robots.

13 Oct 2026Read

Waterfalls

1 guide

Guide

Kilt Rock Waterfall: Where the Geology Is More Famous Than the Drop

Mealt Falls on Skye's Trotternish coast drops ninety metres directly into the sea below Kilt Rock's columnar basalt. The viewpoint has a car park and safety fence, and the waterfall's flow depends entirely on recent rainfall.

18 Sept 2026Read

Bothies and Overnight Shelters

2 guides

Guide

The Lookout Bothy: When a Coastguard Station Became a Room with One Remarkable View

Perched near Rubha Hunish at the northern tip of Skye, the Lookout began life as a coastguard watch station rather than an RAF radar base. Its enormous windows once helped coastguards watch the surrounding seas; now they give walkers views across the Minch towards the Western Isles.

20 Sept 2026Read
Guide

Camasunary Bothy: When You Can Walk or Sail But Not Drive

Sitting at the head of Loch Scavaig with the Cuillin behind it, Camasunary is roughly a five-kilometre walk from Kilmarie or accessible by boat. The yacht crowd arrives by dinghy, the walkers arrive muddy, and everyone shares the insulated shelter and sleeping platform.

04 Aug 2026Read

Long-Distance Walking

1 guide

Guide

Skye Trail

This unofficial 80-mile route from Rubha Hunish to Broadford traverses the length of Skye, taking in the Trotternish Ridge and a line beneath the Cuillin through dramatic terrain. We cover what scrambling skills you'll actually need, how the weather affects feasibility, and if Skye's scenery compensates for the route-finding headaches.

18 Aug 2026Read

Landscape and Place Names

Guide

Why Scotland's Mountains Are Full of Mòrs and Beags

Once you know that "mòr" means big and "beag" means small in Scottish Gaelic, you'll spot this wonderfully pragmatic naming system all over Highland maps—because when you've got two similar lumps of rock next to each other, calling one the big version and one the wee version does the job without requiring ancient warrior legends or any particular imagination.

24 Oct 2026Read
Guide

Why Scottish mountains are called sgòr, sgùrr and stob

Ever wondered why Scottish mountains are called sgòr, sgùrr and stob? They're not random—they're Gaelic descriptions of what the peak actually looks like from below.

07 Oct 2026Read
Guide

What Volcanoes Left Behind in Britain

Extinct volcanoes left lava flows, ash deposits, intrusions and collapsed calderas across parts of Britain. Their resistant volcanic rocks now form familiar crags, ridges and mountain landscapes.

08 Sept 2026Read
Guide

The Language of Water

A guide to the Norse and regional water terms found across the British uplands—and what they can, and cannot, tell you about the terrain.

16 Jul 2026Read
Guide

Is it a hill, is it a fell, is it a mountain?

The UK’s names for high places—hills, fells, mountains and tors—reflect language and local custom, while the familiar 2,000-foot line is a hill-list convention rather than an official OS rule.

15 Jul 2026Read

Wildlife and Working Landscapes

2 guides

Guide

How to Tell If That Large Bird Is Actually an Eagle

The silhouette overhead is wrong somehow. Here's what you're actually looking at, where to find golden eagles in Britain, and why it's worth getting the identification right.

28 Oct 2026Read
Guide

When midges attack: the case for repellent and a head net

If you've ever been swarmed by midges in the Scottish Highlands and wondered whether insect repellent or a head net might actually be worth the bother, here's a practical look at what works, what doesn't, and why sometimes looking slightly ridiculous is preferable to being eaten alive.

15 Oct 2026Read

Access and Mountain Safety

1 guide

Guide

The Wild Camping Grey Area: Where You Can, Where You Can't, and Why Scotland's Different

Britain's wild camping laws are a proper muddle: you generally need permission in England and Wales, Dartmoor's commons offer a genuine legal right to pitch, and Scotland grants access across most land under its own statute. The confusion comes from assuming that permission to walk somewhere includes permission to sleep there, which it usually doesn't, and the legal ground shifts beneath your boots without so much as a signpost to warn you.

16 Aug 2026Read

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