Old Man of Storr / Portee
At our round trip yesterday we passed an impressive basalt cliff with a single free standing rock in front of it. We were fascinated by the silhouette of the "Old Man of Storr" and so we chose the Storr as destination for today's walk. The area is developed very well for walkers and so we parked our car on a place near the main street. Then we ascended the mountain at a well marked path in a young forest. After a short time we reached the forest border and at that moment we reached the foot of a steep hill topped by the "Old Man". We saw some paths going upwards, seeing some people at the top of the hill and so we started immediately to climb the hill. The first part of the way up was a relative easy one over a heap of rubble but after that it had gone very steep and partially there was not a lot of space between the rocky wall and the deep chasm. Creeping on all of our fours we reached the top of the hill and the view from the base of the "Old Man" was worth to see. However, the time came to decide how to get back. The same way downwards? Impossible - if we would slip one time then maybe it would come to the end. Fortunately there was an other way downwards at the backside of the hill. This way was also steep and slippery but there was some grass and roots as a handhold for us. And so we went down slowly and carefully to a saddle behind the "Old Man" and then we made a picnic with a lunch out of the backpack. It was too early to go back to the car and so we followed a rising path at a terrace in front of the cliff ( facing the cliff to the right hand over a gate). This way describes a wide arc around the Storr to its north slope. Every time we had a view over the sea and after a short steep incline we had a fantastic view into a giant U-shaped valley behind the Storr mountain and the whole northern part of the Isle of Skye. From this point we walked up to the top of the Storr mountain along the cliff edge (but in a safe distance to it). The top of the Storr is marked by an artificial rocky pyramid. Apart from the satisfaction to succeed the way up, the panorama over the Isle of Skye in the direction of the rugged skyline of the Cullin Hills was overwhelming. The way back was unfortunately as sunny as the way up and on its last steep part it was very hard to go. As we reached the car we were tired and hungry and so we decided to
eat
our dinner in Portree. Although the main town of the Isle has nearly
nothing worth to see we strolled after the dinner over the marked place
and along the harbor before we returned to our tent. This evening I felt
a little bit sick because I could not stand the sun while walking. |
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