The Cuillin from the north

The Cuillin are a range of rocky mountains located on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. the cuillin hills from the north File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... the cuillin hills from the north File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The Old Man of Storr, Skye The Isle of Skye, usually known simply as Skye (An t-Eilean Sgiathanach in Scottish Gaelic) is the largest and most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. ... Scotland (Alba in Scottish Gaelic) is a country in northwest Europe and a constituent nation of the United Kingdom. ...

These are divided, visually and geologically into two distinct groups, the Red and Black Cuillin.

The Black Cuillin are mainly composed of basalt and gabbro, the latter being a very rough rock which makes for superb grip for mountaineers. It is from the dark colour of the gabbro that the Black Cuillin receive their name. The summits of the Black Cuillin are bare rock, jagged in outline and with many steep cliffs and deep cut corries and gullies. All twelve Munros on Skye are Black Cuillin peaks, though one of them, Blaven, is part of a group of outliers separated from the main ridge by Glen Sligachan. Basalt Basalt is an extrusive igneous rock, sometimes porphyritic, and is often both fine-grained and dense. ... Gabbro Gabbro is a dark, coarse-grained, intrusive igneous rock chemically equivalent to basalt. ... If you were looking for the car, please see Mercury Mountaineer. ... Aonach Eagach, a popular ridge between two munros in Glen Coe, Meall Dearg and Sgorr nam Fiannaidh A Munro is a Scottish hill with a height over 3000 feet (914. ... Blaven, from the Scottish Gaelic Bla Bheinn (Blue Hill), is mountain on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. ...

The Red Cuillin are mainly composed of granitic rock which is paler than the gabbro (with a reddish tinge from some angles in some lights) and has weathered into more rounded hills with vegetation cover to summit level and many long screes slopes on their flanks. They are lower and, being less rocky, have fewer scrambles or climbs. Generally they receive less attention than their higher neighbours, and consequently the word Cuillin without a colour prefixed is usually taken to mean the Black Cuillin.

The highest point of the Cuillin, and indeed the Isle of Skye, is Sgurr Alasdair.The highest point of the Red Cuillin is Glamaig, one of only two Corbetts on Skye (the other being Garbh-bheinn, part of the small group of gabbro outliers surrounding Blaven). Sgurr Alasdair is the highest peak of the Black Cuillin, and therefore the highest peak on the Isle of Skye. ... Glamaig is the northernmost of the Red Cuillin on the Scottish Isle of Skye. ... A Corbett is a hill in Scotland between 2500 and 3000 feet (762–914. ...

The Black Cuillin are the most challenging hills in the British Isles, although the careful scrambler can access most of the individual peaks by their easiest routes. Only the Inaccessible Pinnacle is a graded rock climb by its simplest line but several of the other summits require rock climbing skills in order to ascend in safety. The British Isles consist of Great Britain, Ireland and a number of much smaller surrounding islands. ... Scrambling is a category of climbing that does not entail the use of any ropes on the ascent or descent. ... The Inaccessible Pinnacle is the 986 m summit of Sgurr Dearg (Gaelic for Red Mountain) in the Cuillin on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. ... Climbers on Valkyrie at the Roaches. ...

In addition to climbing individual peaks and routes on the range, there is the challenge of a full traverse of the ridge. Although only 7 miles in length, the average traverse is likely to take 15-20 hours from sea level at Glenbrittle to the bar of the Sligachan Hotel owing to the difficulty of the terrain and route finding problems. The current record for the full traverse, held by fell-runner Andy Hyslop, stands at around 3 1/2 hours.

A further complication is the lack of any source of water on the ridge itself, meaning all water has to be carried in order to avoid any extra descent (and the consequent re-ascent).

In many ways, the ultimate mountaineering experience of the UK is the full traverse under winter conditions. Sadly the isle’s position in the warm Gulf Stream makes genuine winter conditions rare. For the album by Ocean Colour Scene, see North Atlantic Drift (album) The Gulf Stream is orange and yellow in this representation of water temperatures of the Atlantic. ...

Blaven, a Cuillin outlier

Sgurr nan Gillean with its tiny summit

Marsco, in the Red Cuillin