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Monday 13 October 2008
Claigan along the coast to
the coral sands and back - 4 km
Isle of Skye, Scotland . . .
Ordnance Survey route map on
the Landranger series map base
Map: Ordnance Survey Explorer 407 Skye - Dunvegan
| My wife and I are having a week in a holiday cottage in
Portree on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The big Skye mountains are way
beyond my abilities now, but we are finding some short walks with magnificent
scenery for very little effort, so I'm adding some notes of our little
strolls to my walking diary. The weather for the whole week was very mixed
with intense dark squally showers and periods of sunshine and bright blue
sky. This mix gave us some wonderful lighting effects with rainbows, bright
sunshine on the autumn vegetation with a black cloud backdrop and sunlight
streaming through the clouds to light up patches of the sea. It was a
very enjoyable week. |
|
Dunevan Castle barely visible against the autumn trees
There is a car park there at map ref. NG232537 where we left the car
to do a very pretty little walk along the coast.
|
Today we drove from Portree to Dunvegan and out past Dunvegan castle
to the tiny hamlet of Claigan.
The track from the car park at Claigan down to the coast
|
Looking back along the track to the hills above Claigan |
|
The track from Claigan along the coast
They would drop onto the shore to pick up a morsel of some kind before
facing into the wind for an easy take off.
|
There is a good track from the car park down to the coast. There were
hooded crows there riding on the wind.
A hooded crow on the shore
|
Heading along the coast from Claigan |
Our first sight of the "coral sands" in the distance |
|
The "coral Sands" near Claigan
This bay has a fine white sandy beach made of tiny fragments of crushed
shells and coral, a very beautiful place.
|
The path follows the coast for about 1.5 km to a little bay opposite
a small island at map ref. 223551.
The "coral Sands" near Claigan
|
Looking north from Cnoc Mor a' Ghrobain - the little flat topped hill
at the northern end of the coral sands |
Looking east from Cnoc Mor a' Ghrobain |
The Coral Beach from Cnoc Mor a' Ghrobain |
|
Heading back from the coral sands to the car park at Claigan
We stayed there for some time just to take in the amazing scenery
before retracing our steps back along the coast to the car park. The
whole walk was not quite 4 km but this memorable little stroll took
us around two hours of walking and stops non the less.
|
Just to the northern end of the bay is a small flat topped hill called "Cnoc Mor a' Ghrobain" which
I climbed for a lovely panoramic view all round, a gorgeous mixture
of sea and islands and distant hills with patches of bright sunlight,
clear blue sky and light clouds moving across the sky.
Heading back from the coral sands to the car park at Claigan
|
