24 May 2023
This was the main day for the St Kilda excursion but sadly it was too windy – seeing the state of the sea on this walk, I can appreciate that it would neither have been safe nor comfortable. Unfortunately the excursion wasn’t run on the reserve day, it was fully booked by others the next day, didn’t run due to wind the day after that and there weren’t enough people to make it viable to run an additional Sunday excursion. That was the end of my window of opportunity. In 2022, I had only managed to book on a “reserve” excursion and it had run, but I wasn’t on it as I had just fractured my ankle. I’ll have to try again another time! However this walk that we did manage to complete on Map 18 certainly ranks highly as an adventure.
We parked the car at Taob Tuath and made our way across tracks over the machair.
The slopes of Ceapabhal loomed ahead looking like a very steep climb. However there were traces of path or perhaps just sheep tracks virtually all the way to the trig point at 365m. The actual summit is further on at 368m and marked by a cairn.
At the summit we enjoyed superb although rather hazy views over South Harris and to small islands. On a clear day, St. Kilda would be visible but not today.
Our route continued along an obvious ridge to a low point before ascending to the next cairn at 339m. Between the two cairns, we met a walker with his dog, but this was to be the only person we met once we had left the initial tracks across the machair.
It was certainly windy, but we were kept warm by our exertions. We agreed a line to take heading towards the cliffs near Toe Head on what looked to be the least steep route.
We had reached the cliff tops by lunchtime. We stopped on a grassy area near a stream to eat our food. This site would have made a wonderful overnight wild camp.
We resumed our walk to reach a further awesome geo and a natural arch although it wasn’t very obvious from the land. The waves were huge and I was relieved not to be out on a boat.
We spotted many birds – plover, curlews, oystercatchers, sandlings and even a pair of golden eagles circling high above us. This also seemed to be a prime area to see otters but, as usual, they were elusive.
The cliffs became lower and we looked across a rocky landscape out to sea.
Eventually we reached an area where we looked over extensive sands. Apart from one family group strolling along the beach, with the children dodging the waves, the sands were deserted.
We returned to our initial outward track after following the shoreline with fine views across the bay.
This was a fine walk, but I am still hoping that one day I will get to St Kilda.
Where's Kathryn? 