Skye Trail Planning - Easter 2015

This page is now significantly out of date wrt route plans, dates, and people involved. It is envisaged that a separate wiki page will be created to decide specifics closer to the time for those now confirmed as being involved. [AW]

This wiki page is to coordinate plans for a trip to NW Scotland to walk the Skye Trail during the Easter Vacation 2015.

The Route

• ~130 km distance and ~4000 m ascent
• Plan is to walk from south to north
• Further details of the route are here
• A few walk reports and free (reg required) 1:25K maps viewable on WalkHighlands
• Mixture of campsites, wild campsites and bothies
• N.B. This is a fairly tough route, with some substantial climbing, exposed ground and walking through wild, pathless terrain; there is a need to be self-sufficient for days at a time

Dates

• End of March or beginning of April are the options — although midge-free, this does mean there is a chance of very poor weather, potentially involving substantial quantities of snow, but this does not necessarily rule out backpacking.
• Later dates don't necessarily mean less snow within this period, but there will be more daylight (but probably not a significant problem for earlier dates)
• People should list here their available dates within this period:
  • Term dates: Full Lent Term ends Friday 13th March, Full Easter Term begins Tuesday 21st April. Cwm Dyli Vacation Trip: Friday 10th April – Tuesday 14th April
  • AW: free for entire period, and would miss Cwm Dyli Trip (but would prefer not to)
  • MT: happy to miss Cwm Dyli Trip for this

Contingency Plans

• If the forecast looks really bad before we go, then we should probably find something less intense to do in an area with a better outlook
  • AW: individual day walks on the mainland are an option
  • TAL: Would prefer to do the route in bad weather rather than do day walks, or alternatively a multi-day backpack on the mainland in the area between the Kintail Forest/A87 and Achnasheen/A890 where there is plenty of scope for low-level, but still very impressive, walking in bad conditions including heavy snowfall, and plenty of bothies that could be staying in as a restbite from the weather. Basically would still like to get out and do some wild backpacking rather than day walks from a car. Worth noting that if there is snowfall on Skye and we didn't want to do the Trail because of it, there are limited options for day walks on the island anyway.
  • DH: Could spend the 7 days in the Sligachan Hotel with its 300+ single malts...
  • MT: I agree that if the weather is bad then we should find something less intense. Realistically we'd need a car to do day walks; that either involves hiring (if we get the sleeper or bus) or a couple of cars driving up in the first place. Would hiring significantly add to the cost of the trip?
  • AW: happy to drive a hire car, and guessing around ~£120–150 for the period required (see options below)

Transport

1. Caledonian Sleeper

• DH: In terms of travel, I'd suggest we all travel on the Caledonian Sleeper train to Fort William or Inverness, and then get the bus across to Broadford, where the route starts. Travelling overnight would mean we'd be walking by about midday, which is obviously quite attractive.
• MT: The sleeper train booking opens 12 weeks prior to departure. This means that booking would open mid-January so arrangements should be sorted during the vacation were we to go for the sleeper.

2. Megabus

• AW: Megabus is an alternative possibility, which I believe was rated quite highly by (some of) those partaking in the September 2014 Scotland Trip.
• BB: I took the Megabus sleeper back in September. Very highly recommended. Only gets as far as Glasgow though.
• MT: CityLink buses run from Glasgow to Skye.
• TAL: Be aware that the Megabus to Glasgow cannot reliably connect into the Citylink bus to Skye/Western Highlands, as some of us have established in September! The Megabus Gold unfortunately don't arrive into Glasgow/Inverness early enough to get to the Western Highlands before lunchtime.

3. Driving

• Although less cost-efficient than transport booked well in advance, it leaves further options open in the case of foul weather.
• AW: happy (keen) to drive hire car, which would be from Cambridge using CCVR (taking three passengers)
• JA: can drive (and take two passengers)
• Other drivers who actually have their own cars and would be happy to drive? AC?

People

If you are interested in joining this (commitment unnecessary at this stage), list your name here:

• David H
• Tom L
• Alex R
• Marcus T
• Andrew W
• Anthony C
• Fingal L
• Philip W
• Constanze H
• Andy H
• Josh A
• Laurent
• Ben B
• Zekang C
• Jamie C

We should arrange to meet early in Lent Term (prior to a normal pub meet, perhaps?) to confirm those who will take part and to discuss final transport plans, since bookings need to be made for things like the sleeper train by around mid-January.