The Isle of Skye - A Walker's Guidebook

85 walks visiting all corners of the island, including the renowned Cuillin. Walks range from simple outings not far from civilisation to rugged, hard and demanding days, as tough as anything in Britain, often in isolated situations. The walks in this book will suit all tastes, and embrace high mountains, lonely lochans, coastal cliffs and forests.

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Walk 1.7: Coastal path: from Loch na Dal to Kylerhea

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Start/Finish: Start: Roadside parking on A851, shortly after turning to Drumfearn. GR. 693165 Finish: Kylerhea
Distance: 11½km (7 miles)
Ascent: 200m (655 feet)

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The fine, but remote, coastal path linking Loch na Dal and Kylerhea is a magnificent escape for seekers of solitude, and though not an unduly long walk, is quite demanding, needs transport at either end and the ability to cope with any emergencies that might arise; in the middle stretches of the walk you are remarkably isolated from outside help. Backpackers touring the island on foot will find this a splendid, if roundabout, way of leaving the island.

The walk begins through Kinloch Forest, where there is indeed a fine circular forest walk that visits the site of Leitir Fura (Letterfura), a scattering of lonely homesteads finally vacated in 1782, of which very little now remains, or, for that matter, is recorded. During the eighteenth century, the natural woodland at Leitir Fura was by far the largest on the Island, though barely more than 5km (3 miles) in length. Today, Leitir Fura is the most westerly ashwood in the UK, and has some nationally important bryophytes and lichens. In recent times, many non-native species have been removed and ground opened up for natural regeneration to occur. Throughout the walk you have the Sound of Sleat for company, the mainland hills that backdrop Glenelg, and the Sandaig Islands, made famous as Camusfearna by Gavin Maxwell in A Ring of Bright Water. Forestry Enterprise has plans to develop walks in the Kinloch Forest, and these may vary the route description given here, notably at the Kinloch end.

From the roadside parking go along a forest road that soon crosses the Abhainn Ceann-lochan, and continue to a junction where the road forks, one road leading, right, to the Kinloch Lodge Hotel. Ignore this branch, and go ahead on a broad track

into woodland that has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Press on for 1km (½ mile), until just before a gate you can divert on to the Kylerhea Path, an old drove road that leads to the site of Leitir Fura. (Some of the most enlightening reading on the drove roads on Skye may be found in Haldane’s The Drove Roads of Scotland, and a more recent publication, The Famous Highland Drove Walk by Irvine Butterfield.)

The onward path, once you have explored Leitir Fura, is generally straightforward, but invariably wet in many places, and climbs quite high on to the south-eastern flanks of Beinn na Seamraig. The views are extensive throughout the walk, and present many mainland favourites from an unusual angle.

As you approach Kylerhea, the path crosses Kylerhea River by a bridge, and runs on alongside a fence and then right, beside the river, to an unsurfaced track linking Kylerhea village with the glen road.