Strathaird: Elgol and the boat to Loch Coruisk
A day by car, from Broadford and back.
The route
Strathaird is the smallest of Skye's main peninsulas, a wedge of crofts and hill between Loch Slapin and Loch Scavaig, and one single-track road runs down it from Broadford to Elgol.
This day is built round an early boat from Elgol's jetty to Loch Coruisk, which lies in a bowl of bare rock under the Black Cuillin with no road to it. The afternoon comes back up the same road. There's Elgol itself, for the view straight into the Cuillin, then the Iron Age fort of Dun Ringill on the shore at Kilmarie. Torrin, a crofting village across Loch Slapin from Blà Bheinn (Blaven), and the roofless church of Cill Chriosd (Kilchrist) come last. The John Muir Trust has owned Strathaird since 1994.
Before you go
The one booking of the day: a Standard return, about three hours with 90 minutes ashore.
The day
Strathaird
A day built round the boat from Elgol into Loch Coruisk. Back ashore come the view from Elgol, an Iron Age fort on Loch Slapin, and Torrin under Blà Bheinn on the way home. About an hour at the wheel, down the single-track road from Broadford and back.
1 hr at the wheelAbout 30 miles
Loch Coruisk
An attraction
It's 30 minutes' drive from Broadford to Elgol's jetty; allow 45. For Misty Isle's 9.30 Standard, leave by 8.15 and check in at its white office on the pier 15 minutes before. Bella Jane's early Standard Return boards at 9 or 9.15 from its blue office at the top of the jetty, so leave by 7.45. Either is three hours, 90 minutes ashore. The loch is ten minutes' walk over gabbro, a volcano's cooled heart, polished by ice. Turner came in 1831 to paint it.
45 min by boat
Elgol
An attraction
It's a 45-minute crossing back to the jetty. Walk a few minutes north along the shore, where the sandstone is worn into honeycomb, then 5 minutes up to the viewpoint by the toilets: only from Elgol do you look straight into the Cuillin's horseshoe, across Loch Scavaig. Bonnie Prince Charlie reached Elgol early on 4 July 1746, and that night the Mackinnons rowed him to Mallaig. Staying on? Coruisk House serves one set dinner at 7pm, not on Mondays, booked at least a day ahead.
6 min by car
Dun Ringill
Drive 6 minutes back up the road, past the turning for Drinan, to the car park at Kilmarie where the Camasunary track starts; the two spaces by the gate are not for visitors. The walk goes 1 km down the road, then over the Kilmarie River and through a wood to the shore of Loch Slapin. Dun Ringill is a tumbled Iron Age fort, by tradition the Mackinnons' seat before they moved to Kyleakin. It's 4.5 km in all; wear boots, as the wood is muddy.
10 min by car
Torrin
It's 10 minutes' drive past Kirkibost and round the head of Loch Slapin, where the Blà Bheinn car park has a toilet, to the pull-in by the bridge at the Elgol end of Torrin. Across the water rises Blà Bheinn, whose name is thought to mean the blue mountain. Torrin stands on limestone and marble, and over a dozen kinds of orchid grow round it. Amy's Place, the tea room along the road, bakes its own cakes. It opens Tuesday to Friday and closes at 4.30, or at 3 on a Friday, so on a Friday it's shut when you pass.
About 7 min by car
Cill Chriosd
Seven minutes on through Strath Suardal is the layby by Cill Chriosd, Christ's Church, roofless on its ridge. It was Strath's parish church, first recorded in 1505 and used until a new one was built in Broadford in 1840. The Mackinnons' burial enclosure stands against its east gable, and the story goes that St Maelrubha said mass on the knoll nearby in the 7th century. The walk to Boreraig and Suisnish, cleared in 1853, starts from the layby, along the road towards Broadford: 16.5 km, for another day.
If it rains
Rain on its own seldom keeps the Elgol boats in; wind does, sometimes decided the evening before and sometimes on the morning, so ring before you set off: Misty Isle on 01471 866288, Bella Jane from 7.30am on 0800 731 3089. Take waterproofs, a warm hat and boots either way, as there's no shelter at Coruisk, and after heavy rain the river crossings by the loch can be impassable: go no further than is plainly safe. After a wet spell the wood on the way to Dun Ringill is deep in mud; the fort can still be reached by the shore alone, or leave it for a drier day. The one roof on the way home is Amy's Place at Torrin, Tuesday to Thursday until 4.30; on a Friday it has shut by the time you pass.
Worth a detour
- Spar Cave
Only at low tide: the cave can be reached for about an hour either side of low water, so it can take Dun Ringill's place only on a day when low water falls in the early afternoon. Read the tide table for Mallaig (the Admiralty's EasyTide) first. It's 4 minutes' drive from the village hall at Elgol towards Glasnakille, parking before the cattle grid, then 1.3 km there and back, about two hours: a steep path to the shore, slippery weed-covered boulders, a rock ledge, and a steep climb up the flowstone inside. Bring two torches; anyone caught by the tide is trapped until the next low water. Walter Scott came here in 1814 and put it in The Lord of the Isles.
Make it a weekend
More days out on the Isle of Skye.
Photographs by Scott Whitehead and Urszula Rehman via Google