Towers of shattered rock rise around us, wreathed in mist. We’ve been trudging for hours to gain this ridge, only to be buffeted by cold drafts and dampened by the swirling smirr of rain. This is the Black Cuillin of Skye, a ring of mountains forming the crater of an ancient volcano. It’s also the route of the legendary Skye Ridge Traverse, a 12km walk that takes in 11 Munros, the hills in Scotland above 3,000 feet, as originally measured by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891.
The hardest here is the Inaccessible Pinnacle. A sharp fin of rock rising 50 metres above Sgùrr Dearg, it looked impossible to Munro, who contented himself with the rounded hump below. No such luck for today’s “Munro baggers” who must climb the In Pinn to claim completion.
