Walking the unfamiliar territory of the Original Skye Trail
OVER 25 YEARS AGO, my wife and I hired a cottage at Kyleakin on the Isle of Skye. We’d not long been married, and it was a wonderful adventure a long way from home in Newcastle. During that trip I found a photobook by David Paterson called A Long Walk on the Isle of Skye. Alongside the panoramic landscapes, snowy mountains and sunsets, I was smitten with his concept of walking continuously from the ferry landing at Armadale to the northernmost tip of the island at Rubha Hunish where, in the author’s words, ‘the feeling of being at an end of the Earth is irresistible’.
Little did I know that a quarter century later, I’d wake up at 2am and extricate my much older body from a tent to be greeted by the pale green and purple Northern Lights ghosting over those isles at the end of the Earth.
HATCHING PLANS
I’ve enjoyed hiking all my life, but it wasn’t until 2019 that I was catapulted into backpacking: a spur-of-the-moment decision triggered by the pressure of caring for a terminally ill friend. I borrowed
