The Fairy Glen – Green Cones and Castle Ewen above Uig
About 0.9 miles on foot.
The Fairy Glen is a hollow of small grassy cones, terraces and lochans in the hills above Uig, with a basalt crag called Castle Ewen standing over it.
The cones are what old landslips left behind, the same slow collapse that made the Quiraing along the ridge. A round of the glen is about 1.5 km and takes an hour or so.
- Time
- An hour or so: a round of about 1.5 km on grass paths. A stroll, with a short scramble if you go to the top of Castle Ewen.
- The path
- Grass paths, muddy and slippery when wet; a steep gravel scramble to the top of Castle Ewen.
- Where to start
- The Highland Council's Fairy Glen car park on Sheader Road, Uig, IV51 9YF: pay and display 8am to 8pm every day, £3 for up to four hours, four hours at most, 25 spaces.
- Set off
- From November to January, be walking by 2pm.
- When to go
- All year in daylight; the car park's four-hour limit is plenty. On a winter afternoon be walking by 2pm.
- Dogs
- On a lead: sheep and cattle graze the whole glen.
- Children
- The cones and lochans suit children; keep young ones off the top of Castle Ewen.
- Toilets
- None at the glen; the nearest are in Uig.
- Before you set out
- The car park's charge applies from 8am to 8pm, with a four-hour limit. Some ground is roped off to recover. The top of Castle Ewen is a gravel scramble with a sheer drop.
The walk
Park in the Highland Council's Fairy Glen car park on Sheader Road, above Uig. It's pay and display from 8am to 8pm every day: £3 buys up to four hours, which is also the longest you can stay, and there are 25 spaces. The road up from the A87 at Uig is single-track, so don't park on its verges or in the passing places. A round of about 1.5 km from the car park takes in most of the glen, on grass paths that are muddy and slippery after rain. Allow an hour, and longer if you like to wander.
It isn't a walk with a far end so much as a place to explore: green cones ridged by sheep tracks, a small lochan, and the crag of Castle Ewen above them. Castle Ewen was never a castle. It's a natural outcrop of basalt, and the last few metres to its top are a steep scramble on loose gravel with a sheer drop at the summit, so young children are better kept below. The fairies are folklore. What you see was made by landslips after the ice, like the Quiraing to the east.
Some patches are roped off to let the grass recover: keep out of them. Sheep and cattle graze the whole glen, so dogs stay on a lead. There are no toilets here: the nearest are down in Uig. In late December the sun sets at about 3.40pm, so on a winter afternoon be walking by 2pm.
If it rains
The grass paths turn slippery in rain and the top of Castle Ewen is best left alone when wet. The round is short enough for waterproofs and boots between showers.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is The Cowshed Boutique Bunkhouse. Sleeps 1.
Then Monkstadt 1745 in Linicro, 3 miles away.
For further reading, before you go.