The Quiraing

The Quiraing is the northern end of the Trotternish landslip, the same geological feature responsible for the Old Man of Storr further south, and its road, a single-track pass linking Staffin and Uig over the spine of the peninsula, is one of the most dramatic drives on Skye in its own right. Landslides on the eastern face of Meall na Suiramach have created a strange, enclosed jumble of towers and hidden flat ground, with named features including the Table, a raised plateau used historically to hide cattle from raiders, the Needle, a rock pinnacle, and the Prison, a keep-shaped mass of rock.

A car park sits at the highest point of the road, and the closest viewpoint is only a few minutes’ walk away on a gravel path, enough to take in the scale of the landslip without any serious effort. Parking costs a few pounds, more for a longer stay. Walkers wanting more can continue along a rougher path beneath the cliffs, with some scrambling sections, to complete a longer circuit of several miles; that version is a proper hill walk, not a viewpoint stop, and needs suitable footwear and more time.

The Highland Council runs the car park on behalf of the Scottish Government’s Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate, which funded it, and the path itself was rebuilt by Staffin Community Trust under its Skye Ecomuseum project. The road is narrow, with passing places, and the car park is small relative to demand: it fills early on clear days in summer, and traffic on the single-track approach can back up as a result. Visiting outside the middle of the day, or outside peak season, makes for a far less congested experience of one of Skye’s strangest stretches of ground. It suits anyone who can start early or arrive late, and anyone who wants the Trotternish landslip without committing to the full circuit. A mid-morning arrival in July is a wasted journey, and the single-track approach is not for a driver uneasy about passing places. The Old Man of Storr is 20 minutes south on the A855, with a bigger car park and a surfaced lower path.