A pinnacle about 50 metres high above Loch Leathan, two hours there and back on foot, seven miles north of Portree.
The Old Man of Storr is the lonely rock pinnacle you will have seen on a hundred pictures of Skye, and standing beneath it is better than any of them.
It rises about 50 metres from a crowd of smaller spires under the cliffs of the Storr, seven miles north of Portree. The Trotternish ridge slid away here some 6,500 years ago and left them all standing on the slope.
The path starts at the car park on the A855 and climbs 325 metres in 1.7 kilometres, on gravel for most of the way and rougher near the top. Allow two hours there and back, longer if you stop to look down over Loch Leathan to the sea. The Storr can be very busy, so an early start is the calm way to do it. Pack a waterproof and an extra layer: the weather here changes fast, and the Old Man often disappears into the cloud.
About 50 metres of rock, left standing when the Trotternish ridge slipped. It was first climbed in 1955, by Don Whillans. In Gaelic it is Bodach an Stòir.
Dammed in 1952 for the Storr Lochs hydro scheme, which at first supplied the whole of Skye. The turbine house sits on the shore at Bearreraig Bay, below a 110-metre cliff.
1.7 kilometres and 325 metres up from the car park, on gravel for most of the way. Allow at least two hours there and back.
The cliffs behind the pinnacles, about 245 metres high. The ridge they belong to runs on north for 19 miles, the length of Trotternish.
A steep, exposed path from the road to the foot of the pinnacles.
The car park is run by the Highland Council, and its money goes back into the path and the site.
That was 2024, up 43 per cent on 2022. In its first twelve months the new car park made £450,296, and £282,000 of it went to roads across the ward, among them the roads to the Fairy Pools, Neist Point and Coral Beach.
It is the Sanctuary: the hollow below the Storr where the Old Man stands among the other pinnacles. Beside it is Needle Rock, also called the Cathedral, with a window right through it near the top.
The pinnacles are blocks of lava left standing when the ridge slid over the soft Jurassic rock beneath it. Dating of the rock gives the great slide at the Storr between 7,000 and 6,000 years ago.
Ridley Scott's Alien prequel of 2012 opens here. Two archaeologists find a star map in a cave at the Old Man, and Skye plays itself.
Some say the pinnacle is the thumb of a giant buried under the hill. Others say you can see an old man's face in the rock.
In 1851 the chemist Thomas Anderson described gyrolite, a mineral new to science, from the rock of the Storr. He named it from the Greek for round, for the round clusters it grows in.
In August and September 2005 the arts company NVA lit the Storr with forty light and sound installations. 6,500 people climbed the hill in the dark with head torches to see them. None of it ran on oil or a generator.
The subject of a million and one Instagram posts, the ‘Old Man’ is a spearing pinnacle of rock on the rugged Trotternish ridgeline. The walk up to reach it is one of the most popular on the island, but the views from the top are unbeatable.
Read more
New places, news and stories, as we find them.
What is on on SkyeSeven miles north of Portree on the A855, the road round the Trotternish peninsula. The path starts from the car park at the Storr Centre.
Bearreraig BayThe bay below the Storr, where the hydro station's turbine house sits on the shore.Under a mile1 min by road
The Storr SanctuaryThe ground of pinnacles under the Storr's cliffs, where the Old Man stands.Under a mile2 min by road
Loch FadaThe 'long loch', a popular fishing spot beside Loch Leathan.3 miles4 min by road
Lealt FallsThe River Lealt drops step by step through a gorge to the sea, seen from a platform by the road.5 miles6 min by road
Brothers' PointA green headland running out into the sea, also known as Rubha nam Brathairean.6 miles8 min by road
PortreeSkye's main town, round a harbour of fishing boats and painted houses.7 miles12 min by road
Kilt RockA 90-metre row of basalt columns over a limestone skirt, with Mealt Falls beside it.8 miles12 min by road
The QuiraingThe other great landslip on the Trotternish ridge, at its northern end.14 miles19 min by roadPlaces to stay near the Old Man, and when each is next free.
Cuillin Hills Hotel
Half of One
Marmalade Hotel
The BosvilleEvery photograph commissioned, every word written by somebody who went. Printed twice a year, made in Scotland.
For further reading, before you go.
