I've always viewed Skye as the Highlands on steroids! Everything has to be bigger and better. No such thing as a straightforward Munro, oh no not here - knotty ridges that don't want to end, vertiginous drops, plenty of hand to rock and generous hand fulls of exposure. A bay can't be a simple arc of sand it has to be an ampitheatre of mountain architecture. And the list goes on.

To illustrate the geography of Skye, I think of it as a hand - that is the middle as Portree and Broadford, where people live and work, the Cuillin hills are also in the 'hand'. But then there are five peninsulars, like fingers - respectively: Sleat, Strathair, Duirnish, Waternish and Trotternish. Each of these 'fingers' have a different personality, almost like a different island, with the 'hand of Skye' unifying the whole.

So please allow me to take you on a photographic tour around the hand ... of the Isle of Skye.

     near the Point of Sleat

     an old causeway

     isolated cottages, Aird Point, Sleat

     scattered crofting community of Aird

     Cuillins from Kirkibost, Strathaird

     unnamed lochan near Kilmarie, Strathaird

     Camasunary Bay

     Glenbrittle from Sgurr Dearg

      Sgurr MhicChoinnich - 'InPin' in the distance

                                                Allt na dusaiche - the path of poets

     Cuillin Ridge from Summit of Blabheinn

     Sligachan in the distance

     Sgurr nan Gillean

     Glen Eynort - island life

     Talisker Glen

     Dunvegan's main grocery store!

     Macleods Table towering over Duirnish peninsula

     Sheer flatness of a Macleods table plateau

     The pretty village of Dunvegan

     Neist Point

     Unish ruin on the Waternish peninsula

   The Lookout bothy, Hunish

     ruin near Totscore, Trotternish

    near Kilbride point, Totscore

     looking down on Uig Bay

                                                Caves of Gold, Kilmuir

     Trotternish ridge from Lealt river

     Trotternish ridge from Glenuachdrach

     Loch Mor, near Uig

      scattered crofts on Trotternish

     near Sgurr Laing slipway, Kilmuir

    Glamaig, Red Cuillin

      from Glamaig towards Raasay - ferry just coming in!

    looking towards Strathaird

    Glamaig summit best 360° view candidate

     on the summit ridge of Garbh Bheinn - only two Corbetts on Skye

    looking south from Garbh Bheinn summit

    a fine mountain sanctuary

                                        Bass rock waterfall

     Trotternish ridge

     the end of the road - Glenuachdarach

     River Sligachan

     Smoke on the water - muir burning near Pennachorain

     near Luib - where sheep may safely graze

    reflections in Loch Ainort

    rainbow across Loch na Caraidh

      Raasay, the capital  - Inverarish, High Street

      South Fearns

     Deserted settlement of Hallaig  - east Raasay

     interesting sign post

      and back on Skye - An Caisteil in the Fairy Glen

    and a few iconic pubs - The Old Inn at Carbost

     The Steinn Inn - oldest pub on Skye, 1749!

      The Sligachan Hotel - from the inside

   ...   and finally a personal favourite, Waternish from Loch Bay.

The Skye factor

There's jagged sprawling mountains but beaches it lacks

but you don't come to the Isle of Skye to relax

it's like the Highlands on steroids somebody once said

where wilderness and tourism meet head to head

a host of different weathers all in the same view

on a distant headland a lighthouse winks at you

to drive anywhere it's like eternity beckoned

though the landscape changes colour by the second

peninsulas radiate from a central hub

its presence tempts you back to this desirable club

where fickle weather will always scupper your plans

then stuck on single track roads behind camper vans

sometimes hard to book anywhere, you may wonder why

no matter what you do it's always harder on Skye

you lost your island status with the building of the bridge

but still blessedly unpeopled as the lonely Cuilin ridge.

tioraidh an drasta - Marky.