The Travel Blog
The Storr (An Stòr) is a 719m tall mountain in the Isle of Skye on the Trotternish Peninsula, it has nice grassy slopes that are easy to navigate on the western side, and a very rocky plunge on the eastern side if you look too far over the edge. Sitting below the eastern rock face is The Old Man of Storr, a 55m tall pinnacle famous for cave paintings pointing towards the location of the Engineers in Prometheus. The Storr and its ‘Old Man’ were created 2.8 billion years ago due to volcanic activity and remain today so we can climb, view and appreciate it’s beauty whilst getting attacked by thousands of them horrible things called humans!… I mean midges (depending on the time of year… unlike humans).
Rule number 1: Get there early…
Rule number 2: Get There Early! Honestly, you’ll regret it if you don’t. There is a car park provided, a cafe waiting for your return, and getting there early provides your space. Getting there late means having to be a fool and parking on the road, and we enjoyed watching a car get towed out of a ditch because someone decided to park on a muddy verge (don’t be this person). Also, arriving early means you can avoid most humans, which is always a bonus.
Rule number 3: Take water! The weather can change in an instant. One minute it’s foggy and cold, the next it’s the hottest day of the year without a cloud in sight, and trust me, this area is exposed.
Rule number 4: Prepare for all weather conditions (see above).
The circular route up The Storr is an 8.1km journey that’s out of this world (no wonder why Ridley Scott chose this place for Prometheus). However, that 8.1km route in reality is more like 15km (that, or we got lost,.who knows?).
From the car park to The Old Man of Storr is easy to navigate (you can literally see where you’re aiming for), the path has plenty of steps, plenty of turns, plenty of puddles but is also a good test of fitness, as if you struggle to get up this bit the rest of the journey will be hell. However, 99.9% of people get to the ‘Old Man’, pose for a picture, and then back to the café calling it a ‘good hike’. But, if you’re like us and love a good hike then you’re in for a treat, but more on that in a minute.
Arriving at the ‘Old Man’ you get to gander at the big rock, stand on a viewing type area to gander more at a big rock, and take some photos of the big rock. You also may meet a very friendly chap from Belgium that will offer to take some photos of you standing with the big rock for the same kindness back. But this area can get crowded as we saw from a distance, however we followed the first two rules… Get there early!
once past the view point the fun begins as most humans dare to venture that far (we saw only four in total after this point). It’s time to accent across the eastern edge whilst taking in the views around. The path was well trodden and the conditions were good, you loop north east across the grassy slops for some way cross the Rigg Burn river, make sure you look back once in a while to have a look at the waterfall. This section has nothing much to offer but views which is not a bad thing at all, just follow the path and conserve some energy as you’ll need it.
On the northern edge it’s time to pretty much turn 180 degrees and climb the desolate slope until the summit. By this time the weather had improved, the heat was rising and there was nothing but sun. After a good push up hill you’ll reach the summit, as before this section offers nothing except exhaustion, views and the need for snacks.
The summit offers you the opportunity to bag a trigg, eat snacks, and some natural seats provide a good rest place, while you’re here you can scout the path down, it looks like you’ll be walking down a knife edge but in reality it’s not too bad (for a while). Take a look over the edge of you dare to see the car park and how high you’ve climbed and let it be a subtle reminder you’ve got a long way to go until you can get an ice-cream.
The decent is the same as before with grassy slope, however instead of going up… It’s down time for a while. This section got a little tricky to navigate at times but cliff edges and certain death will stop you wandering off the path too far. From the summit it’s a southward walk downhill until you meet a cliff, and then turn west until you meet the waterfall of doom.
The waterfall, a 600m straight down plunge of doom and death (I’m exaggerating slightly). This was the most fun section to descend, and it descends fast as you navigate boulders, streams and get ploughed by the heat of the sun. Enjoy this while it lasts though as this is the last of the fun to be had, and if you were like me at this point I was nearly dead.
Once the waterfall has been tackled it’s onwards to though dead marshes, at this point you’ll be adding rule number 5: bring wellies, but it’s not necessary, making way through the fields and marshland can be tricky and you’ll get bitten by someone (hopefully not someone) you’ll eventually end up back at the A855 and unfortunately there’s no escaping it, it’s a walk up the road back to the carpark. But that’s it, it’s an amazing walk that offers breathtaking views, and fun climb and a deadly decent but overall I would absolutely do it again, if not just to sit in the carpark to watch cars get stuck on verges.
Have you done this walk before? Leave you thoughts in the comments.
