Right up until I was on bus to the Quiraing I was going to visit the Old Man of Storr, a dramatic column of rock just north of Portree, to do a walk that I should have done in 2007. Instead I decided to stay on the bus and visit the Quiraing, equally stunning rock formations further north along the Trotternish range. I eventually got off the bus just before the village of Flodigarry and immediately started to climb towards the vast ancient landslides that make up the Quiraing. Gradually, I climbed past Loch Langaig and Loch Hasco until I reached the first major landslip, that of Leac nan Fionn. Slipping around the back I climbed up the steep embankment to the precipitous top and, after gazing at the views across the bizarre landscape of tall, narrow ridges under a dark, overcast sky, I headed across to the neighbouring ridges, exploring each of them.
On reaching the foot of the main escarpment I re-joined the footpath, walking below the steep cliff face, past further shattered landslips and round a corner to the Prison, a ridge of pyramidal rock. However my eyes were directed towards the Needle on the other side of the path where a sharp pinnacle is set amongst further landslips below the escarpment. Resolutely I tried to climb the ridiculously steep, slippery, loose gravelly slope up to the foot of the Needle where I slipped around the back for a stunning sight looking past the Needle towards the countryside beyond. Behind the Needle is the Table, which is a flat, grassy area, but as I tried to get up to the Table it started to rain which made the already slippery terrain treacherous. Eventually I gave up and slowly made my way back down to the footpath.
With the rain pouring down I continued past the Prison and along the wonderfully contoured footpath that clings to a narrow ledge below the towering escarpment. Eventually the rain stopped and I reached the vast grassland that lies behind the Quiraing. On reaching a road I turned around and climbed up to the top of Meall na Suiramach, the hill that the Quiraing has fallen away from. After gazing in awe at the land that had slipped away from the edge of the hill I crossed over to the summit trig point. At this point I looked at the time and realised that I had only forty-five minutes to get down to the road in order to catch a bus. So in a mad rush I dashed down the grassland to the northern edge of the Quiraing where I was able to drop down onto the footpath that runs below the escarpment. Further hurried walking brought me to the top of the outward path which I ran down all the way back to the road with enough time to spare to eat the sandwiches of my lunch before the bus arrived. 
This was a rather lightweight walk, but I think the main problem with the walk was the necessity to get back down to the road for the bus at 2.15, which is ridiculously early, but necessary due to the lack of a bus from Portree after 5.15. Despite this I really enjoyed exploring the various tops, which I was doing partly because I knew I wasn’t doing a particularly challenging walk. I was trying to make up for the lack of a proper walk by going up every top I saw, at least at first, but eventually rain and the time got the better of me. During the bus journey back I passed lots of high mountains and I wished I’d gone up one of them instead of the lower hills north of Portree. As fascinating as the Quiraing, or the Old Man of Storr, are they don’t really compete with mountains like the Cuillin, which is where my heart lies. After the rain of earlier in the day the afternoon proved to be gloriously sunny and made my yearning even greater to be walking atop the mountains that I could see while sitting on a bus going past them.
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