Route: Fairy Glen
Area: Scotland, Northern Skye
Date of walk: 5th March 2018
Walkers: Andrew and Gilly
Distance: 2.0 miles
Ascent: 300 feet
Weather: Constant drizzle
We’d booked a short stay on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. Stage 1 of our journey involved a lengthy drive from the Lake District to the Glencoe area, where we stayed overnight at Craiglinnhe, an excellent B&B on the shore of Loch Linnhe. We wished we’d had more time to explore the area as the scenery was spectacular, but hope to return for a longer visit
Stage 2 was today’s car journey to Uig on Skye in order to catch next morning’s ferry to Harris. We arrived in Uig with only time for a short afternoon walk, and decided to visit Fairy Glen, an unusual valley just a few minutes away from our base – The Ferry Inn, which we can also highly recommend
Fairy Glen (sometimes spelt Faerie Glen) is a weird miniature landscape of grassy, cone-shaped hills. One of the hills still has its basalt topping intact which, from a distance, looks like a ruin and is called Castle Ewan
Numerous small paths wind around the peculiar little hills and there is no set route to follow, which is half the fun of this short walk. There are an infinite number of possibilities. We simply walked along one side of the glen and back along the other. There’s no fear of getting lost as the small access road runs through the middle of the glen.
Constant drizzle, blown into the lens by a cold wind, caused a few problems with the photographs but I hope that the ones which follow will convey the mysterious and other-worldly nature of this lovely place
Click on the icon below for the route map (subscribers to OS Maps can view detailed maps of the route, visualise it in aerial 3D, and download the GPX file. Non-subscribers will see a base map)
Scroll down – or click on any photo to enlarge it and you can then view as a slideshow
As we travelled to Fort William we passed through Glencoe in high winds and driving snow - a lone walker at the bottom of the photo gives a sense of scale
All the waterfalls were frozen - the weather was severe but fortunately the roads were passable
An awesome and forbidding place...
Just beyond Fort William and Glencoe, we broke our journey at Loch Linnhe - this is a view across the loch from our B&B next morning
We continued our journey north...
...red deer along the way
We passed by 13th century Eilean Donan Castle, a magical place
We then crossed over Skye Bridge, here framed by the Cuillin, with the Kyle of Lochalsh in the foreground
Having checked into the Ferry Inn at Uig on Skye, there was time for a short afternoon walk - the ferry from Uig to our destination in Harris would leave tomorrow morning
Fairy Glen was nearby, an ideal choice, despite grey skies and rain
There's no fixed route and we simply wandered around these fascinating cone shaped rounds, following our imagination...
Looking across the glen...
Looking back to one of the waterfalls at the head of the valley
The highest point of Fairy Glen is Castle Ewan, an ancient rock formation, which can be climbed via this path
A stone circle, added by visitors. The locals have to remove these stones periodically in order to preserve the natural appearance of the glen
We meander back along the other side of the glen
Looking back to Castle Ewan...
We descend to a bench by the road overlooking a small lochan and from here it's a short stroll back to the start of a fascinating short walk
Before returning to the Ferry Inn, we went for a road trip around the north cape of Skye
The purpose of our visit was to see the Quiraing, one of the most spectacular landscapes in Scotland....
There is a classic circular walk from here - the path can be seen running below the cliffs. No time for that today, but hopefully one day...
At the end of our drive around the north of Skye we descend to Uig, where we will stay overnight at the well named Ferry Inn. The ferry will take us to Harris tomorrow, and we can't wait to see what's in store....
