Three sea stacks standing off the southern tip of Duirinish, the tallest more than seventy metres, at the end of a ten-mile walk from Orbost.
At the southern tip of Duirinish the cliffs run out into a headland, and off the end of it stand three columns of basalt in the water.
The tallest is called the Mother and the two beside her the Daughters; island tradition makes them the drowned wife and daughters of the fourth MacLeod chief, turned to stone in sight of Dunvegan. The Mother rises more than seventy metres from the sea.
Getting there is a day's work: seventeen kilometres there and back from the road end at Orbost, with the better part of six hundred metres of climb in the rise and fall of it, and five to six hours to do it in. The path is good for most of the way, boggy in places, and fades near the stacks, where you pick a line over open ground above a long drop. Partway along, a sign tells you that you are entering Rebel's Wood, planted in memory of Joe Strummer. Take the day's food: there is nothing out there at all.
The walk starts at Orbost, at the end of the minor road off the Glendale road, and runs out to the point and back: 17 km, about 589 metres of climb in the up and down of it, and five to six hours.
Walkhighlands calls it fairly strenuous, and it is. The path is good for most of the way and boggy in places, then fades near the Maidens themselves, where you are picking a line across open ground above a long drop.
There is nothing out there: no shelter, no water and no way off the headland but the way you came.
Take the day's food and a waterproof, start early enough to get back, and keep well in from the cliff edge, which is undercut in places. The map is Explorer 407.
The tallest of the three is the Mother and the two beside her the Daughters. Island tradition makes them the drowned wife and daughters of the fourth MacLeod chief, turned to stone within sight of Dunvegan.
The Mother stands higher than most church spires in Scotland, rising more than seventy metres from the sea, with the two Daughters off the cliffs beside her.
Duirinish is stepped country, hard basalt laid down flow on flow by old volcanoes, and the sea has been cutting along it for a very long time: headlands, inlets, arches and, here, three columns left on their own in the water.
Idrigill Point runs out into the water like a finger, and the drop from its tip is such that seabirds wheel level with you and under you. NatureScot describes this coast as one where the sea is stronger than the land.
Partway along, a sign tells you that you are entering Rebel's Wood. The birches beyond it were planted by Future Forests in memory of the Clash's singer, who helped set the project up.
New places, news and stories, as we find them.
What is on on SkyeAt the southern tip of the Duirinish peninsula, walked out to from Orbost, off the Glendale road west of Dunvegan.
Dunvegan CastleThe MacLeod seat, in sight of which the Maidens are said to stand.7 miles 12 min by road
Skio PotteryThrown and fired on the Waternish road.10 miles 13 min by road
Coral BeachCrushed coralline algae on the shore north of Dunvegan, white as sand.10 miles 17 min by road
Waternish FarmThe farm out along the next peninsula east.11 miles 16 min by road
Edinbane PotteryA wood-fired pottery on the road back towards Portree.12 miles 15 min by road
Neist PointThe lighthouse at the far west of Duirinish, and the cliffs to the north of it.15 miles 19 min by road
Arrives at 5am every day.
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Places to stay near the point, and when each is next free.
Harlosh Black h
Skyewalker Hostel
The Black Shed
The DunveganEvery photograph commissioned, every word written by somebody who went. Printed twice a year, made in Scotland.
For further reading, before you go.
