The Storr

The Old Man of Storr

The Storr is the highest point on the Trotternish Ridge and being at the southern end it is clearly seen from the Portree coastal road as you drive north. The Old Man is a 50 m pinnacle that stands forward of the cliffs and is therefore seen clearly from both the north and south aspects. There are in fact many more pinnacles collected around The Sanctuary and an exploration of the mountain is well rewarded with some exceptional geology.

Whilst camped at Kintail we toured onto Skye and drove north to Portree. It was a very hot day and the Cuillin ridge was nothing more than a faint outline - far too hot to do anything highly energetic. Andrew was keen to visit the Old Man and so we parked the car by the road next to the forestry plantation for a quick lunch. The path up through the trees is usually a quagmire, but after all the hot dry weather was little more than just damp in places. Alternative paths climbing either side of the trees may be used instead. It was really hard going up the slopes in the heat.

We clambered up to the base of The Old Man but abandoned any thought of climbing higher because of the heat. Returning to the car Susan was ahead on her own and missed the descent path - for 20 minutes she followed the forest rides before realising her mistake and retraced her steps to find us again. By the time we were back at the roadside it was 5:00 pm and we toured south over the ferry and back to the mainland.