Originally Posted by
Travs
I've wanted to do the Trotternish Ridge ever since I first got the fantastic Great British Ridge Walks book by Bill Birkett probably 15 years ago. Today was the day.
Started from the car pull-in near Flodigarry and up through the mystical Quirang. It was between here and the main Quirang car park that I met the only people of the day, a runner coming in the opposite direction, and a small handful of walkers (in fact these are the only people I've seen all week in any of my runs out).
Blazed my way onto the ridge proper, reaching Beinn Edra in 2:15, Hartaval in 4:05 and The Storr a short time later.
From The Storr I'd declined Neilly's advice to drop down and follow the sea-cliffs back to Portree. I wanted to keep it as a pure ridge run, and in any case on the summit of the Storr in zero visibility, surrounded on three sides by what appeared to be vertical cliffs, I wasn't sure of the way down anyway, other than along the ridge.
Not quite downhill all the way from here, I had the conundrum of Ben Dearg to solve. I saw a grassy rake which looked to be heading directly towards the summit, but surrounded by vertical cliffs, and couldn't see the top through the clouds, so I elected to swing out to the right and double back. This was the hardest climb of the day.
Portree finally came into view on 6 hours, but it took almost an hour to get down to the harbour, due to the deterioration of the ridge, no path, and no local knowledge.
A fantastic day out. Some of the views were unbelievable, and at times the weather closed right in and it was a case of head down and work hard. In hindsight next time I'd probably try and drop off at the Storr and follow the cliffs back. The ridge did deteriorate from here in terms of scenery and quality of running, but I'm glad I saw the entire ridge through today.
I clocked 23 miles and around 7000ft. Didn't break any speed records, but I was generally following the crest of the ridge religiously, and taking in all the high points, even on the way down from The Storr and Ben Dearg. Not to mention carry a 25 litre bag almost full with extra clothing, food, water... and the obligatory photo and food stops.
Main issues were lack of water (I refilled very early on in the Quirang, then things were looking bleak until I managed to find a source on Hartaval. Also navigation... you'd think a ridge with a whopping great cliff on one side would provide no route problems. But in the cloud there are some twists and turns, and dropping down to some of the cols is quite confusing, particularly either side of Hartaval and coming off the Storr.
A day to remember. The race along the ridge, assuming it takes the full ridge, would give Ennerdale a close run for its money in terms of scale and difficulty.